The end of the regions signifies the end of Regional Superintendents, their offices and their staff, known as Local Instructional Superintendents. Their roles as overseers of the school districts and regions, however, have not been eradicated. If anything, they’ve been enhanced and made more crucial and visible.
The positions to which they’ve been appointed and will fill as of July 1 are those of Community and High School Superintendents, whose major responsibility is to evaluate principals and schools.
They will be working closely with the DOE’s Office of Accountability and performing statutory duties for schools in their districts, such as appointing principals. They’ll also serve as liaisons to Community Education Councils.
Their goal, according to the DOE, is to ensure that students are progressing academically.
DOE Chancellor Joel Klein appointed 32 Community Superintendents, 16 of whom are currently serving as such, and nine High School Superintendents. Each of the appointees has extensive experience in the area, having previously served as long-time principal, RS or LIS or, in one case as a network leader in the empowerment schools.
“Our new Community and High School Superintendents come to us with rich experience and knowledge of our public schools,” Klein said in a statement. “I am confident that they will help our schools and our students make substantial progress in the coming years.”
Not all have embraced the plan, though, citing concerns with an unstable system resulting from the DOE’s continuous restructurings – this is third in four years.
At a Community Board 7 meeting May 14, Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) expressed his own criticism with the DOE’s behavior, and said that “at worst, they’re insulating themselves from accountability” by reorganizing again.
Essentially, he said, this action is an evasion of the very accountability the DOE has demanded from its schools, as it makes it difficult to track progress or compare results when using different systems.
The DOE maintains that the restructuring is ensuring the progress of students by holding schools and principals culpable. Now the Community and High School Superintendents will further guarantee such improvement.
