Six principals apply for local-control program

By Emily Richmond

Wednesday, April 19, 2006 | 7:21 a.m.

Only six Clark County school principals have asked to join the district's pilot program giving individual schools more control over staffing, budgets and instruction.

The small number of applications suggests some district administrators are reluctant to sign on to the most ambitious initiative that Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes has proposed since taking the helm in January.

Rulffes had put his "Empowerment Schools" initiative on a fast track, announcing last month that four elementary schools would serve as pilot campuses beginning at the start of the 2006-07 academic year. Principals across the district were given until the end of last week to apply.

The response was less than overwhelming. At least three of the applications come from principals seeking to keep their current jobs at campuses selected for the pilot program.

Six applicants is a shallow pool, said John Jasonek, executive director of the Clark County Education Association. The teachers union won't sign off on the pilot program unless its leadership is satisfied that the best possible principals have been chosen, Jasonek said.

"We're only going to do this if all the pieces are in place," Jasonek said. "We're not going to do it just for the sake of saying we did it. We will not sign on to something that is due to fail."

Principals Rebecca Johnson of Kirk Adams Elementary School, Linda Reese of Lee Antonello Elementary School and Craig VanTine of Paul Culley Elementary School all confirmed to the Sun that they had applied. Principal Alfreda Chapman of Rose Warren Elementary School, the fourth campus in the pilot program, did not return repeated calls for comment.

"The bigger issue is the quality of the people applying," Jasonek said. "It takes a pretty special person with a lot of chutzpah to sign on the dotted line for something like this. If the quality isn't there, I would hope there would be some recruiting going on."

Lauren Kohut-Rost, acting chief academic officer for the district, said the four schools represent a range of student demographics and achievement. The campuses largely represent the district's "middle," schools that are neither top performers nor lowest achievers.

The socio-economic makeup of the student bodies vary widely. The percentage of students qualifying for free and reduced-price meals spans from a low of 8.2 percent at Antonello in North Las Vegas to a high of about 90 percent at Culley in Las Vegas. Minority student enrollment also varies, from 75 percent at Warren in Las Vegas to 50 percent at Antonello.

The three principals who have confirmed reapplying for their jobs are all district veterans. Johnson has been with the district for 16 years, eight of which were spent in the classroom. VanTine spent 12 years as a district teacher before moving to administration seven years ago. And Reese has been with the district 27 years, including 17 years teaching.

"Empowerment means giving the teachers the opportunity to be free of some of the constraints they presently have to deal with," said Reese, who is also serving on the pilot program's organizing committee.

"There's talk about hiring people into these buildings, but there's some really wonderful people in these buildings already," Reese said. "You would hope the people assigned to you would want to improve."

Johnson said everyone at Adams in Las Vegas is eager to find out whether she will remain as principal. If chosen, Johnson said, her first step would be to "create a leadership team, top teachers who know what's going on educationally, and have them help make the decisions."

The applicants are expected to be interviewed this week.

Community debate over whether schools would benefit from more local authority reached a peak during the search for a new superintendent. Rulffes and Eric Nadelstern, who oversees New York City Public Schools' "Autonomy Zone," were chosen as finalists. Rulffes was hired in January after Nadelstern withdrew his application.

But by then, the search process had given added momentum to proponents of decentralizing the Clark County district. The Council for a Better Nevada, a coalition of business executives, had recruited Nadelstern to apply for superintendent and lobbied heavily for an autonomy zone in the district.

All employees at the four schools administrators, teachers and support staff must reapply for their jobs to the new principal if they wish to stay. Teachers will work an extra 29 minutes daily, and principals will receive a 5 percent pay increase. The four campuses will continue to meet district, state and federal standards.

Steve Augspurger, executive director of the Clark County Association of School Administrators, said the district might be better off with more applicants.

"I don't think anybody believes six is enough," Augspurger said.

One reason people may be reluctant to apply is that Rulffes has yet to identify the administrator who will oversee his "Superintendent's Schools," which is to include the empowerment schools and existing magnet programs, career and technical high schools and struggling campuses that receive extra funds to raise student achievement.

"If I were a principal, I would want to know who I am going to be working for," Augspurger said. "People are a little cautious about moving into something that doesn't have a leader attached."

Augspurger said he doesn't fault Rulffes for pushing to put the program in place quickly.

"You either do it now in this manner or postpone it for another full year," Augspurger said. "It's late in the year. It's awkward timing, but it's something that needs to be done before you lose the interest."