Board Moves to Increase Schools’ Autonomy

The Los Angeles Board of Education on Monday took the next big step in its promise to reorganize schools in ways that give principals, teachers and parents more authority.

Despite complaints by some parents that they are overlooked, the board voted unanimously to adopt guidelines for schools that want to increase their autonomy. The guidelines will be explained in a 1:30 p.m. “teleconference” Thursday broadcast over Channel 58 and to all 837 campuses.

The Los Angeles Unified School District adopted the school-based management concept as part of its settlement of a teachers’ strike last June. The new contract called for each school to establish a decision-making council that allows teachers, parents and community leaders to share responsibility for making decisions that were once the purview of school principals and high-ranking district administrators.

The ultimate goal of school restructuring is to raise student achievement by giving individual schools greater flexibility to plan academic programs that address specific student needs.

Since the elected school leadership councils began forming last summer, they have been limited to making decisions in five areas--staff development, student discipline, event scheduling, use of school equipment and allotment of lottery money and other special school funds.

The move to the second phase of the restructuring process will allow schools to broaden the areas in which they can make decisions. All those proposals must be approved by a central Decision-Making Council.

Up to 70 school councils will be selected in the first year to implement this second step--called School-Based Management--and make fundamental changes in their schools’ operation in areas such as curriculum and teacher hiring.

Some of those changes may run counter to district policy or even violate teachers’ contracts, but waivers could be granted by the central council if the change will improve student achievement.

Several school districts around the nation, including Chicago, Dade County, Fla., and Rochester, N.Y., have restructured schools to place more authority and responsibility for improving education with administrators, teachers and parents at the local level.