NCREL's Policy Briefs

Decentralization:
Why, How, and Toward What Ends?

St. Paul, MN

Interview with Thomas K. Gale, SBSDM coordinator/teacher on special assignment, St. Paul Public Schools

St. Paul began its discussion about site-based management in 1979, when district task forces were established to research the issue. In the mid-1980s, the St. Paul Federation of Teachers advocated for site-based management and the current superintendent, Curman Gaines, strongly promoted the concept. In 1989, a Professional Issues Committee (PIC) developed St. Paul's "School-Based Shared Decision-Making" (SBSDM) pilot. The committee included the superintendent; five district administrators (including the district's manager of negotiations/labor relations); and a six-person team of teachers, educationassistants, and business agents, headed by the teachers' union president.

SBSDM began with eight schools and, after three years, 13 of its 66 schools are active in the program. Today, several new sites are developing proposals to participate in the program. The SBSDM program is based on two key concepts:

• School-based management defines the individual school as the critical unit for educational change.

• Shared decision-making assumes that stakeholder participation improves school actions.

To receive district approval to participate in the SBSDM program, a school's intent to write a proposal must be endorsed by the principal and 75 percent of the school staff present at the voting meeting. A second vote to approve the proposal must be taken before submitting the application to PIC. In the application, the school must describe its:

• Design for school-based shared decision-making

• Process of preparing the proposal

• Method of selecting its SBSDM council

• Timeline of key activities for SBSDM

• Proposed plan for reaching decisions

• Evaluation plan for determining the success of SBSDM

• Stakeholder support for SBSDM

• Proposed start-up budget

All schools interested in applying for SBSDM status receive an orientation and information on school-based shared decision-making from the district's Employee Training office. The initial eight schools in the pilot received $6,000 grants to support SBSDM (i.e., for training, team building, conflict resolution, site visits, etc.). Schools starting after the original pilot year receive $3,000 start-up grants.

Each school selects an SBSDM council that is empowered to make decisions regarding school goals and philosophy, key staffing, curriculum, budgeting, school climate, scheduling, plant planning, multicultural programming, special education, and gender equity. Two council seats are designated for the building principal and the steward of the teachers' union.

Support Programs

"The school board is very supportive of site-based management and meets yearly with the SBSDM councils. Moreover, the board has offered to provide variances to schools as needed to support SBSDM." As of yet, no school has requested a formal variance for approval from the board.

In addition, a number of procedural changes implemented at the district support school-based, shared decision-making:

• SBSDM schools can carry over funds from year to year for items such as equipment, supplies, and employee training. Other schools must turn over unspent dollars to the district by April 15.

• The district is developing new hiring timelines for SBSDM schools because it is difficult to gather teachers, parents, and community members to make personnel decisions in the summer.

• New forms for building maintenance and equitable distribution of goods and services have been developed. Alterations to food and beverage services and improvements toprioritizing building requests also have been made.

A "teacher on special assignment" position was created to coordinate the site-based management effort. "For the first three years, the position was 50 percent site-based management and 50 percent employee training. Now, the position is 80 percent site-based management and 20 percent training."

Obstacles

Bureaucracy and centralization "The history of bureaucracy and centralization has a built-in reluctance toward change. The learning process is wonderful for everyone involved - parents, principals, teachers, staff, district administrators, and community members, but it takes time to change."

Training Another obstacle is the lack of appropriate training on school-based shared decision-making both for individuals at the participating sites and district administrators. "It is difficult for many people to get used to team planning and the time and labor intensive nature of group decision-making."

Recommendations

Waivers "At the state and federal levels, it would support school-based decision-making to provide fewer restrictions on funding for a variety of programs (e.g., transportation, Chapter 1, special education, and so forth). States should provide a streamlined waiver process for schools requesting variances from mandated regulations."

Textbooks "Textbook suppliers should provide more options to schools in purchasing textbooks without escalating the cost. Current policies provide discounts for districtwide textbook adoption. But, with site-based management, schools may choose not to buy into districtwide purchase of textbooks. There should be more flexible and creative purchasing options for districts and schools."

Parents and the community "In the initial pilot for SBSDM schools, there was no requirement that parents and community members be involved in planning or in the voting process. This policy is being revised by the district. The superintendent supports having parents and community members involved from the beginning."

Posted on April 26, 1995

URL: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/go/93-1stpa.htm