Superintendent bets on education initiative

By Emily Richmond

Monday, April 3, 2006 | 8:27 a.m.

With 16 months left to prove himself to his bosses, Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes has put educational reform on the fast track.

"If the Superintendent's Schools do not prove to be successful, my neck is on the block," Rulffes wrote in a memorandum to the School Board outlining his plans for an educational initiative that would give personnel at four campuses more control over daily operations beginning in August.

"I wish we had more time, but in the interest of having things in place for the fall semester, I don't want to delay," Rulffes told the Sun. "The idea is alive right now and it's time to take advantage of it."

Maureen Peckman, director of the Council for a Better Nevada, a coalition of business leaders that has advocated more autonomy for individual schools, said she was "heartened and encouraged by the district's decision to look at change for better results."

"But, like any change, there's very specific guidelines that need to be followed," Peckman said.

The speed of Rulffes' timeline raises some concerns, she said.

"I have to trust that they are being very deliberate and thoughtful in how they implement those changes," Peckman said.

Rulffes is expected to announce today the names of four elementary schools participating in the district's "empowerment schools" pilot program that will launch in August with the start of the 2006-07 academic year.

Educators at each school will be allowed greater authority in staff, scheduling, curriculum and instructional techniques, all with minimal involvement by central administration.

The Clark County School Board hired Rulffes in February with a contract to run through August 2007. Last week he unveiled plans for a new program, Superintendent's Schools, which places the district's most struggling campuses, magnet programs and the new pilot program under one umbrella.

In a memo sent to district employees last week, rulffes invited "entrepreneurial, competent and cutting-edge principals to apply to lead these innovative schools."

Under an accelerated timetable, school principals will have until Friday at 5 p.m. to apply for the posts, according to the memo obtained by the Sun. Interviews and the final selection of principals will follow within two weeks, the memo states.

Teachers who are chosen for the schools will work 29 minutes more per day than their peers at regular campuses, and their school year will be five days longer. The process for teachers to apply for the positions will be announced after the principals are chosen, Rulffes wrote in the memo.

School Board Vice president Sheila Moulton said, "My greatest appreciation goes out to the unions. They've come to the table so open and willing to make things happen."

Moulton agreed that Rulffes' initiative was proceeding quickly, but she said she was confi- dent that the selection process for the schools, principals and teachers would be appropriately thorough.

"Everybody's in alignment, and in that respect the timing is absolutely right on," Moulton said.

By putting the empowerment schools into action by August, the district is expected to have preliminary findings to share with the 2007 Legislature, Moulton said.

"We want to show them what can happen when we have some leeway. For me, that's a very strong argument for moving quickly," she said.

During the School Board's search for a new superintendent, a central topic was whether students would benefit if teachers and administrators at individual schools had more authority than they do now under the district's central administration.

One of the finalists for superintendent, New york City educator Eric Nadelstern, oversees that city's "Autonomy Zone," a pilot program in which principals principals and teachers are given more control over daily operations in exchange for meeting stricter accountability standards.

Rulffes, who became superintendent after Nadelstern withdrew from consideration, said the New York program is not the same as his new one.

"Autonomy implies that anybody can do whatever they want," rulffes said. "Empowerment means we're giving them more latitude to be innovative but not completely free to act on their own. There are still district requirements, state standards and federal laws to be met."

UCLA management professor Bill Ouchi, a proponent of decentralizing schools and a consultant to the Council for a Better Nevada, said rulffes' plans could work despite the accelerated schedule.

"There's such a thing as overplanning and over-studying," Ouchi said. "There are certain things one can work out as you are doing it, there are other things that really need to be thought through in advance."

Items that should be worked out in advance include explicit plans for evaluating principals and holding them accountable for student performance, Ouchi said.

Eight school districts in North America have versions of empowerment schools, including New York and Chicago, Ouchi said. The more successful initiatives are those where the principal - rather than union representatives of parent groups - is "the ultimate decision maker," he said.

Emily Richmond can be reached at 259-8829 or at [email protected].