Parent Group Seeks Control of High School Repair Budget

Dion Haynes:

"We're trying to see if a local school can do things that the present school system is too dysfunctional to handle," said Chuck Samuels, chairman of Wilson's local school restructuring team, the group of parents and teachers that advises the principal. "From this seed of a pilot project could grow more autonomy for Wilson and for other schools to do the same."

Last year, Wilson parents and teachers explored the idea of becoming a charter school after becoming frustrated by the central office's slow response to their maintenance problems and by its move to cut $400,000 from the school's budget to cover a systemwide shortfall.

To avert the exodus of the highest-performing comprehensive high school from the system, Janey signed an agreement with the Wilson parents and teachers allowing them to devise a proposal for becoming independent of the central office by taking charge of areas such as the budget and teacher hiring.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at December 24, 2006 3:21 PM
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