Principals in Baltimore schools are about to see their jobs radically altered as the city's troubled educational system prepares to undergo its biggest restructuring in years.
The principals will have far more authority over how they spend their schools' money. If the system's search for private funding is successful, some of them will be eligible for up to $20,000 in bonuses next year. And if they cannot improve student achievement, their jobs will be at risk.
Since arriving from New York City in July, Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso has instituted a variety of controversial measures, among them allowing schools to install metal detectors and offering to pay struggling students for improvement.
He will make an even bigger mark Tuesday as he presents his first spending blueprint to the school board, with principals at the heart of his reform plans.
The major theme of the 2008-2009 budget will be dismantling the central office administration and empowering principals to make spending decisions based on their schools' needs.
Baltimore's school system has tried decentralized management before and found it unwieldy to implement. Principals didn't know where to go when they needed help, culminating in the mass suspension of 1,200 students at one high school.
The strategy is proving successful in New York, where Alonso was involved in its design. Prince George's County is also starting to decentralize, but principals there will earn autonomy based on their schools' improvement, while struggling schools continue receiving direction from the central office.
In New York and now in Baltimore, the theory is that principals must have autonomy as a prerequisite of success. Alonso accepted his job here on the condition that the school board give him autonomy to run the system. Similarly, he says, principals need flexibility to run their schools.
"Look," he told the city's principals at their monthly meeting in February, "this is what I ask of the school board: Give me the authority, give me the goals, get out of my way. You know, clearly, they've got to pay attention to what I'm doing because you don't want to let me go too crazy. But at the same time ... the proof will be in the outcomes. If that's what I want for myself, that's certainly what I want for you."
The Baltimore school system spends the equivalent of about $13,000 annually for each of its 81,000 students. Currently, a principal controls a tiny fraction of that, about $90 per student, and the central office dictates all other spending decisions.
