Empowerment schools forced to take a turn

Monday, April 30, 2007 | 7:35 a.m.

A central tenet to Clark County's fledgling empowerment school program may be cast aside.

The pilot program, introduced last year, was built on the premise that to convert conventional schools to more autonomous "empowerment" campuses, the entire staff - the principal, teachers, maintenance staff, office workers, everyone - must reapply for their jobs.

The requirement amounted to a litmus test of sorts: Those who were willing to embrace change would want to stay, the others would leave. Principals would build their teams from the ground up.

The empowerment philosophy also called for principals to take more control over scheduling, instruction methods and budget decisions, in exchange for being held more accountable. In theory, the schools end up better, the students better educated.

This year four more schools may be anointed as empowerment campuses - but with the staffs they already have in place.

With funding uncertainties, looming deadlines for teacher transfers and the Legislature debating its own version of empowerment schools, Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes says changes in the program are unavoidable.

The most significant differences will be how the next four empowerment schools will be chosen, how they will be staffed, and how much extra money, if any, the new campuses will receive.

Last year central office administrators chose the four elementary empowerment schools, based on past performance and demographics that were consistent with districtwide averages. The principals were chosen from a six-candidate field, and staff was then allowed to apply.

This time, Rulffes is thinking of asking schools - with their existing staffs - to apply as empowerment campuses. He met with region superintendents and central office administrators Friday to discuss his plans.

"In the long term I really do want to have the ability to reconstitute" the staffs, Rulffes said. "In the short term we may waive that."

This year's changes are being compelled partly because time is running short for the district to juggle staff.

Teachers who have been at a campus for at least two consecutive years may ask in April to be transferred. Starting Tuesday, the district has two weeks to move other staff around. After that, the job listings are again opened up to voluntary transfers.

So teachers and other staff members are making decisions about moving around the district, and seeking plum jobs, before they know whether empowerment schools should be part of their equation.

With the empowerment concept more familiar, Rulffes is expecting a hefty stack of applications from interested campuses, including middle and high schools. That would be a sharp departure from this time last year , when the district was scrambling for principals willing to be guinea pigs, scrap their staffs and start over - even despite the lure of additional campus funding.

Several elements of the district's empowerment program will remain, including that each school's game plan be devised by a team of staff, parents and community leaders. The schools will also receive support from a corporate partner.

It's uncertain how much more money the district would contribute to the new schools. Rulffes said the four existing empowerment campuses have been promised the extra $600 per student for at least two more years to compensate for the additional costs of empowerment, including longer work days.

The Legislature is still debating how much money to budget for K-12 education and hasn't touched the question about how much more to pay empowerment schools.

At a budget work session this month, Clark County School Board members voiced support for empowerment, but were reluctant to financially commit to its expansion.

Rulffes has applied for a Broad Foundation grant to help offset the cost of doubling the pilot program to eight campuses in August. But with no guarantees of outside help, the cost of the program is ultimately the district's responsibility.

Noting that the pilot program is still in its infancy, School Board member Sheila Moulton said , "there's a need for prudence. If it does show improvement (in student achievement) we won't double it, we can triple it."

Sen. Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, has argued that extra money isn't necessary for empowerment. It's enough to give principals greater control over the dollars schools already receive, Horsford said.

Rosanna Gallagher, principal of Warren Elementary School, agrees to a point.

Empowerment is possible without extra funding, Gallagher said, but the additional money certainly helps.

At Warren, students spend most of their day in mixed-grade classrooms. On Thursday, for instance, a classroom of students in grades 1-5 took part in a hands-on lesson about ocean life. And down the hall, a room of first, second and third graders practiced reading and writing.

The school's empowerment model allows students to choose areas of interest and decide how to fulfill assignments - by reading a book, writing a play or producing a video.

Teachers frequently work with students in small groups, a particularly useful approach at a campus where 83 percent of the children know limited English.

Teachers get extra help, too. Professors from UNLV's College of Education offer weekly workshops on such topics as classroom management and interactive learning.

Gallagher is a big fan of the empowerment model. She had been innovative in Arizona, where she taught for 30 years, and was frustrated by Clark County's rigid school framework when she arrived in 2002.

But as principal of an empowerment school, she was free to return to her flexible, innovative ways, such as mixed-grade classrooms.

While Gallagher was up to the challenge, most of the school's teachers, administrators and support employees were unwilling last year to dive into the deep end of the empowerment pool. Only one classroom teacher and the art specialist reapplied at Warren, leaving Gallagher to fill more than 70 positions.

"It's difficult to bring that number of new people together and build the kind of program you want in the time frame allotted," Gallagher said.

Building an empowerment school staff from scratch should be an option but may not be necessary, Gallagher said. What really matters, Gallagher said, is giving the school community, including the staff, students and parents, a choice in how children will learn.

"It takes a huge amount of work and a real paradigm shift," Gallagher said. "For us to have been able to do that, with the support of the district, has been a real gift."