Interview with William Douglas, Assistant Superintendent, Supplemental and Auxiliary Services, Indianapolis Public Schools
Five years ago, the Indianapolis Public Schools began talking with the teachers' association about implementing school-based decision-making (SBDM) in the district. This effort was one of several to create a district in which all groups have opportunities for meaningful participation and in which the central office is viewed as a team of service-oriented leaders rather than "command headquarters."
Since the discussion began, the principles of SBDM have found their way into may educational programs and initiatives. For example, during the past few years, the district sponsored workshops and training sessions for teams of teachers, administrators, and school board members. These professional development sessions on school-based decision-making, total quality management, and the "effective schools" literature began to pave the way for the creation of a new paradigm, which would eventually be defined and supported by policies and rules.
Districtwide program directors now encourage more broad-based input into the use of resources than in the past. Chapter 1 reorganization, for example, allows more flexibility to schools. "Teachers and principals see this flexibility as a real assistance to those schools that have it. They are not as hamstrung as they were in the past." Chapter 2 funds and Eisenhower grants are used to enhance programs designed by teachers and principals at the building level and give building-level staff a greater voice in decisions concerning resources.
Outside of the district, the Indiana State Teachers Association trained teachers in leadership skills and school-based decision-making. Within the district, the school board approved a plan to "right-size" the central administration, which put human resources closer to students rather than in the central office. This year, the central administration eliminated almost 30 positions in an effort to move services closer to the building level. Subject-area supervisors and instructional program facilitators, whose job was to provide assistance to teachers, were reassigned to other positions. Principals and their faculties now provide assistance to each other. During the 1993-94 school year, the superintendent plans to eliminate another 30 central office positions.
In addition, the central administration is in the midst of a massive strategic planning process that involves both the business community and the community at large. Many of their efforts are focused on decentralization and total quality management - outcomes consistent with the direction the superintendent and board are taking. In fact, members of the planning teams equate their definition of decentralization with school-based decision-making.
The board's most recent contract with teachers and administrators set out a plan for implementing SBDM in the district by 1994-95. The plan stipulates that eight schools will participate in the first year. Schools wishing to take part must first vote to participate in the effort, then they will be chosen by criteria set up by a 16-member SBDM committee. (The committee includes eight teachers and eight administrators.) The same process will be used to add eight more schools in 1995-96 and another eight in 1996-97. At the end of this three-year period, a careful analysis will be made by objective educators and a deter-mination will be made to either continue the experiment or to stop. If it is decided that the process should continue, the remaining 61 schools will be added. The contract also acknowledged the need for waivers at the state or board policy level or at the union contract level. The SBDM committee will make all decision regarding waivers by consensus.
"Indianapolis didn't just begin the move toward decentralization and site-based management. We have been working toward broader-based participation and collaboration at every grade level (beginning with the effective schools process) for over five years. We had begun to train people in making decisions at the building level. Now, people have more decision-making authority at the building level."
The SBDM initiative has a ground swell of support from the business community, and the mayor has become actively involved in the school system. "The foundation has been laid and the time is good for the implementation of SBDM." Through the district's Select School (Controlled Choice) Plan and implementation of the middle school concept, parents and students as well as school staff will have far greater input and responsibility for decisions that lead to the best possible outcomes for the 48,000 urban students who are Indianapolis' "greatest asset."
Collective bargaining "The collective bargaining process has created an adversarial relationship among teachers, administrators, and the board, which, in turn, has slowed reform efforts. For example, during the strategic planning process, the Action Team' assigned to make recommendations regarding SBDM could not meet because no contract agreement had been reached. Now that the contract negotiations have ended, the district's SBDM committee will proceed, as spelled out in the new contract, to describe the parameters and define SBDM for the district."
Professional development "We certainly need to do a lot more for administrators and teachers. Their roles are all changing drastically and rapidly. When a district is involved in a major change effort, it creates anxiety and fear for everybody involved. People need to make paradigm shifts, but they are reluctant to make that shift or give up a perceived power; that is why training and staff development are so crucial."
Posted on April 26, 1995
URL: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/go/93-1ind.htm