By ELISSA GOOTMAN and JENNIFER MEDINA
Published: February 1, 2008
Principals across
G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times
One principal, Steven M. Satin of
“Might they also consider reducing what they pay in no-bid contracts for testing, ARIS, and any number of consultants living large on the backs of our students,” a
The e-mail messages were provided to The New York Times by a principal who wanted to show the depths of anger among principals but who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution by the Education Department or colleagues. In another sign of discontent, the principals’ and teachers’ unions, joined by elected officials, took to the steps of City Hall on Thursday to denounce the cuts. And in interviews, principals said they were carefully weighing what was expendable.
Asked what he would cut, Barry M. Fein, the principal of the
Because of the worsening economy, Mayor Bloomberg proposed citywide budget cuts last week that include, for the Education Department, $180 million in the current fiscal year and $324 million next year. On Wednesday evening, Kathleen Grimm, the deputy chancellor for finance and administration, sent an e-mail message to principals saying that schools would lose 1.75 percent of their budgets, effective immediately. On Thursday morning, principals learned the exact amount of the cuts, posted on their schools’ computerized budget systems.
“My team has looked closely at each school’s budget and has, I think, figured out how we can cut in a way that affects schools as little as possible,” Ms. Grimm wrote.
Principals said they were particularly upset because the cuts come in the middle of the year, when they have already hired teachers, planned their schools’ schedules, and promised their students and parents certain perks, like after-school programs. The reduction in money also comes as the Bloomberg administration is holding principals increasingly accountable for their students’ academic performance and reviewing them more rigorously, while giving them more freedom from supervision.
“The mayor and the chancellor love to call my members the C.E.O.’s of their schools,” Ernest A. Logan, president of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, said on Thursday at City Hall, where he was joined by other elected and union officials. “I think that what we could have used is some consultation with principals at schools, with the school community, to say what’s the best way to absorb these cuts.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, called the cuts “draconian” and blamed them on Mr. Bloomberg’s control of the schools. “This is where we miss having an independent chancellor, not somebody who is appointed by the mayor,” she said. “We need people who are the management of the school system to say you can’t reflexively cut schools.”
Mr. Bloomberg, speaking on Thursday at Google’s offices in
“One of the great disciplines of managing anything is to walk in and question everything you’re doing and say, ‘Let’s see if you can do it with a smaller budget,’ ” the mayor said. “That focuses your attention on which things work and which things don’t.”
But principals disagreed.
Reached by telephone, Mr. Satin, of
“That’s six teachers’ salaries for the rest of the term,” he said.
Mr. Satin, a 36-year veteran of the school system, said he embraced many of the schools chancellor’s policies, including the increased power that principals have in exchange for greater accountability.
“I love the word ‘accountability,’ I love ‘be creative,’ ” Mr. Satin said. “We’ve been challenged to do it and we’re doing the best job we can. But it’s like pulling the rug out from under you overnight. It’s like saying, ‘Keep doing everything you’re doing, but do it with $208,000 less.’ ”
Mr. Fein, of the Seth Low school (and the self-declared throat cutter), said that after receiving Ms. Grimm’s e-mail message, he stayed up much of the night pondering potential cuts.
“I’m exhausted, emotionally wiped,” he said. “This is midyear, and a lot of these programs are in place and money has already been spent.”
The principals in their e-mail chain of complaints wondered whether their evaluations would take into account constraints because of budget cuts, and also spoke disparagingly of the city’s contracts with I.B.M., which developed the $80 million computer system, and as one principal put it, “a whole host of other private, for-profit corporations that have entered into our world.”
Acrimony over the budget cuts all but overshadowed another development in the city’s effort to give principals greater rewards in exchange for greater accountability. The department announced on Thursday that Karen Watts, principal of
Ray Rivera contributed reporting.
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