Why Is This Man Suddenly So Important?

I had the pleasure last week of meeting Ernest Logan, the new head of NYC's principals' union.  I must confess that I hadn't done any due diligence on him and probably expected the worst, but I was VERY pleasantly surprised to meet a great guy and, for a union leader, a real reformer.  For many years, NYC's principals had been operating without a contract, in large part because Bloomberg and Klein were (correctly) demanding both hardship pay and merit pay elements, which the prior head of the union had rejected -- but soon after Logan took over in February, the deal was done.  Now, principals that are willing to go into the toughest schools in need of turning around are paid an extra $25,000/year if they stay at least three years, PLUS, all principals are eligible for up to $25,000 in bonus pay based on the improvements in their schools.  In other words, a principal that meaningfully improves a failing school can earn an EXTRA $50,000/year -- that's real money!

Here's Joe Williams with a blog post on Logan:

Every day, as often as 6-7 times a day, he  has to remind the public/Tweed Court House/City Hall/etc. that principals are,  in fact, in charge of their schools. He has to call out the bureaucrats early  and often when they cross the line - and they will. Every time they try to  creep back toward their centralized, order-giving roles, Logan needs to throw  a yellow flag. I mean every time. If principals are going to be held  accountable for their schools, Logan needs to be the one pulling the  bureaucrats off their backs from sun-up to sun-down. He has to look Mayor  Bloomberg in the eye weekly and say, "I don't believe you are as committed to  empowering my principals as you claim in your speeches. Prove it to  me."

I'm not kidding. Decentralization can help unleash the power of  school communities, but somebody needs to be the bad guy and keep swatting at  the paws of the bureaucrats for it to work.

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Thursday, January 18, 2007
Joe Williams
http://www.nycsa.org/blog/2007/01/why-is-this-man-suddenly-so-important.html

Why Is This Man Suddenly So Important?

I'm siding with all those people who are taking the "wait and see" approach before they praise/slam the mayor's latest plans for the newest reorganization of the repeatedly redesigned 1.1 million student school system. If we've learned anything the last few years, it is that the devil is always in the details and that implementation is as important as the idea.