Feinstein High School administrator advises with school management meeting By Gloria S. Redlich

K.C. Perry, principal of the Alan Shawn Feinstein High School in Providence, joined members of the School Committee and faculty July 24 in their ongoing dialogue about the nature and degree of administrative restructuring necessary at the Block Island School. It was the second work session on the subject this summer.

Feinstein High is a magnet school that opened in 1994 and the first public school in the nation to offer community and public service as part of its curriculum.

Referring to their most recent school committee meeting between the work sessions, Chair Bill Padien said that committee members were unanimous in their wish "to have teachers teach and not have to be bogged down with all the administrative responsibilities that have developed over the last eight or nine years."

Rich Tretheway came forward with a chart laying out an administrative blueprint which he hoped would be a "starting place." It included a slot for what had been termed an improvement committee/ site council at the last meeting. Its members would be drawn from all relevant constituencies: students, teachers, parents, administrators and community members, and would function as a SiteManagement Team.

The responsibilities of this proposed new committee would develop beyond the enrichment issues the current site council deals with. It will to act in an advisory capacity, potentially becoming part of the decision-making process, coordinating with the Superintendent and a Dean.

Perry described the way such a team improvement committee worked at his school. Stressing that he worked with his faculty to support them in teaching and learning, Perry said, "My goal is to get them to utilize school strengths. I don't dictate programs. I might guide them through examining some issues - test scores, for example. Math scores were bad at one point and the teachers came up with ideas on how to improve them. Academics are all teacher-driven."

Regarding other issues that might come up, he felt the "teachers should say, 'I've got a hole in the wall,' but not have to fix it."

Noting that his school followed the guidelines of a theory of accelerated learning developed in 1986 at Stanford University, Perry said that the team approach evolved in his school out of a recognition of shared academic goals. Parents, teachers, students, administrators and community members agreed on a common set of goals, which laid the groundwork for such issues as the development of curriculum, academic programming and school organization.

"For us, this is where site-based management really happens," Perry said. "We have one large meeting a month, with 40 people, but then big issues go out to committees, which meet weekly. The teachers facilitate the meetings."

Responding to questions about how decisions are made, Perry said that they did not vote. "We work toward building consensus around decision-making. If we vote, then we have winners and losers, and losers can be destructive." He described the process as time-consuming but gratifying in many ways.

Perry said that this approach opened up the school to the community, developing a stronger commitment to the community at large. "The staff have to look at and think about what members of the community think and other ways of doing things. Everyone should be involved."

He suggested that the island school look at the Stanford guidelines for accelerated learning, a program through which the educational community is expanded and involved in making educational decisions and taking responsibility for them.

Dean, principal or superintendent?

Much of the ensuing discussion evolved around the feasibility of finding a full-time administrator - whether a superintendent or a principal - and a fulltime dean and what certification is mandated for each.

Faculty spokesperson Nancy Greenaway asked why the school could not have a full-time administrator who was also a superintendent. Padien responded that the issue was budgetary, with a dean's salary coming in as much less costly than a principal or superintendent.

Acknowledging that his own salary was in the $100,000 range, Perry said, "If you're talking about full-time superintendents and principals, you're in the range of $110,000 and up. Assistant principals in Providence earn approximately $86,000."

Greenaway suggested the possibility of "offering incentives for current school staff to get administrative certification," raising the question of what the state would consider necessary criteria for a facilitator.

Perry said that any number of combinations - part-time superintendent/part-time principal; full-time superintendent/principal - create possibilities that would not preclude a site-based management component.

Spanish teacher Ben Bentrup reminded the group that not too long ago a survey indicated tentative approval by the staff for continuing the site-based approach to management.

Regarding comparable costs, Padien noted that currently CORE team coordinators earned $2,000 and the Building Facilitator $8,500 above their teaching salaries. If a full-time administrator were to be drawn from the faculty, as Tretheway observed, "This person would have to give up the security of a union position."

Perry thought that the most fundamental questions have to be: "Do you want a nonunion full-time administrative position, and what are your major objectives?"

About the idea of a non-union full-time person, Building Facilitator Marlee LaCoste said, "I see him or her as having more background and able to do more with curriculum development." She noted that the building project had been "overwhelming, and interfered enormously" in academic planning.

Padien believed that with new state regulations "coming down for the high school, there needs to be a stronger focus on the secondary students."

McGarry interjected, "As a parent of a kindergartner and third grader, I don't want them to be hanging around high school students - either in the corridors or listening to their language."

Tretheway said he felt "completely opposite. We have young children who are not intimidated by older ones. I think the older students have been restrained in what they say because of the younger ones."

Kindergarten teacher Debbie Hart praised the secondary interns who come into her classroom, noting how well they work with her pupils and how much those youngsters look up to their "high school friends."

Suggesting that the discussion was "getting off the topic," Padien mentioned he still liked the idea of having assistant deans who were members of the faculty.

Tretheway indicated he was leaning toward a full-time superintendent/principal, as long as "we still have a site-based management structure through the school improvement team or committee."

Greenaway emphasized that no matter what an administrator was called, "there still needs to be clarity and constant communication between all parties. We should have weekly meetings with the principal/ superintendent."

In the end there seemed to be a consensus on developing a school improvement team and defining what the duties of a kindergarten-through-seventh and eighth-through-12th grade coordinators should be.

Padien said that all the material the faculty had gathered to date, as well as the ideas exchanged at the joint meetings, would be gathered together for Superintendent Jack Lyle. The latter agreed he would filter through it and come back with suggestions and recommendations.

Tretheway urged the group to begin designing the site-based committee and reach out for persons from all areas of the school and general community.

"The idea," said Perry, "is to empower as many people as possible."