The $78 million
local option provides $13.6 million for 2000-01.
Suddenly, everybody wants answers from Portland Public Schools
Superintendent Ben Canada.
The teachers union president and school board vice-chairman
want to know where all the arts and music teachers are.
The board chairwoman wants to know who's paying for the
district's new administrators. Lincoln High parents want
an explanation for their new principal.
Canada's summer began on a high note, when voters narrowly
agreed to raise their taxes through the so-called local-option
ballot measure. The measure promised new textbooks, 170
new teachers and the restoration of previously cut programs,
specifically music and art.
But in recent days, school board vice-chairman Marc Abrams
has peppered Canada's staff with emailed questions about
how the new infusion of cash is being spent. "Throughout
the local-option campaign, we informed voters that a top
priority of the district would be the reinvigoration of
arts and music," Abrams writes. "I believe it was clear
that we viewed this as a serious commitment
and promise."
In fact, figures from the district show that only about
20 percent of the new teachers hired specialize in art
or music. Abrams and others think those two subjects,
so often cited by Canada as victims of budget cutting,
were slighted in the allocation of ballot money. They
say district officials either overstated the cuts in the
first place or neglected arts and music in the hiring
process. "I'm troubled by the message we're sending,"
says Richard Garrett, Portland Association of Teachers
president. "I don't know if people specifically voted
for more arts and music teachers, but the truth is they
didn't get a lot of them."
District spokeswoman Patty Farrell argues, however, that
counting new teachers by specialty is misleading; many
schools hired part-time arts and music teachers who, she
says, provide greater coverage than the raw numbers would
indicate.
School Board Chairwoman Debbie Menashe disagrees with
the notion that voters were misled and supports Canada's
decision to let individual schools dictate how local-option
dollars are spent.
***
A new emphasis on giving individual schools more autonomy
underlies Canada's long-awaited staff reorganization.
Under the new plan, announced June 30, Canada increased
the number of Directors of Student Achievement from five
to nine. The DOSAs supervise principals; previously there
was one DOSA for high schools, one for middle schools
and three for elementaries. Canada's new plan switches
DOSAs back to the old cluster system, in which each is
responsible for a high school and all its feeder schools
and has an office in the cluster rather than the central
administration building. (The city has 10 public high
schools, but Benson, a magnet school, has no feeders.)
While Menashe backs Canada on the level of new arts and
music teachers, she wants to know where he found money
to pay for the new administrative jobs--which pay $100,000.
"We had a budget without wiggle room," the board chairwoman
says, referring to the spending plan approved in the spring.
In any case, it's unclear how many new positions have
actually been created. That's because three of the DOSAs
were already on staff, working in senior positions in
multicultural education, English as a second language
and special education.
District officials say no local-option money will be
used to pay DOSA salaries. And the tentative plan is not
to replace the three people being promoted--an interesting
choice given that the special education budget exceeds
$40 million and that the ESL department has been out of
compliance with the federal Office of Civil Rights for
four years.
Menashe certainly finds the moves puzzling. "Now you
have people with DOSA as well as specialist duties," she
says. "How we can we oversee an aggressive Office of Civil
Rights plan when the assistant director is also a DOSA?"
Canada, who is on vacation, was unavailable to respond
to Menashe's questions, but Steve Goldschmidt, the new
director of human resources, admits it will be a challenge
for the three administrators to oversee 10 to 15 principals
as well as handle their previous duties. "We're still
working that part out," he says.
***
One of the DOSA positions was slated to be filled by
Peter Hamilton, but in the reorganization, Canada unexpectedly
named Hamilton the new Lincoln High principal. Coming
after the school year ended, the move shocked Lincoln
parents, including longtime site council member Kathy
Humes. "Contrary to every published statement by this
Superintendent, the principal of Lincoln High School was
replaced with absolutely no participation, involvement
or discussion with stakeholders," Humes wrote in an email
to Canada and the board.
Canada attempted damage control, slapping the term "interim"
in front of Hamilton's title and sending a team of top
administrators to meet with Lincoln parents on July 7.
Most parents have nothing against Hamilton, who served
as principal at West Sylvan Middle School before moving
to the central office, but are furious about the process.
Marianne Fitzgerald, a veteran education advocate, left
the meeting unsatisfied. "I have very little faith in
their promises because this isn't the first time this
has happened," she wrote in an email to school board members,
"and I doubt it will be the last."
