Once upon a time, educators had easy-to-understand jobs: teacher, principal, superintendent.
Not anymore.
Five years into the tenure of Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, a major administrative restructuring of the city schools has brought the wacky culture of corporate job titles to the Tweed Courthouse.
There, among the ranks of top school officials working for Klein is a chief accountability officer making $196,000, a chief knowledge officer making $177,000, a chief talent officer making $172,000 and a chief portfolio officer making $162,000.
There's also a chief equality officer, but he's working for free this year.
Then there are all the corporate titles, in spades. Several divisions each have a chief executive officer, there's a product manager for knowledge management, a demand research manager, a director of virtual enterprise and dozens of senior achievement facilitators.
There was someone called the director of restructuring and human capital, but he's now the senior director of sustainability, at $123,000.
Parents say it's enough to make them dizzy.
"It's a whole mess," said Anastatia Davis-John, the parent association president at Brooklyn's Public School 135.
"It's totally confusing. They switched from districts to regions and now they've switched back, and half the titles you don't know what they mean. ... It's especially difficult for parents who can't speak English. They don't know who is representing what and who is doing what."
Teachers are still called teachers, of course. And principals are still principals - though under a new system that gives principals more autonomy and Klein often calls them "school CEOs."
During the previous restructuring, superintendents were redubbed regional instructional specialists. Now they're back to more familiar titles - superintendents - though they have less authority.
"They keep changing jobs and changing titles, and to me it doesn't make sense. Why don't they stick with what works?" asked Thea Schatzle, a Queens parent leader with kids in three schools.
Schools spokeswoman Debra Wexler said the titles "reflect the job responsibilities of the individual holding a particular position."
Chief Accountability Officer Jim Liebman, for example, heads Klein's accountability initiative to measure the success of schools. He spearheaded the new A-F school grading system.
Asked to guess what he does, though, most parent leaders interviewed by the Daily News were stumped.
"Does he make sure all the chancellor's [regulations] are in order?" asked Carlton Richardson, an elected parent leader.
"Is that the person that everybody else reports to?" Davis-John asked.
Chief Portfolio Officer Garth Harries once led the department's Office of New Schools, but his title changed when his office expanded its scope to include a portfolio of "school choice" options.
Asked what he does, most parents said they couldn't even guess.
"I have no idea," Schatzle said. "If people knew what they were doing, then they could be held accountable [to parents]."
