School Board Irked At Request To Weed Out "Worst Principals"

School Board Irked At Request To Weed Out "Worst Principals"

One of the resolutions to be proposed next Tuesday during the next meeting of District 18’s Community School Board involves an objection to the request of New York City School’s Chancellor, Harold Levy, to "identify the five worst principals in each school district."

In its agenda for the meeting, the board is requesting that a letter be sent to the chancellor stating their objections, noting that the implication is "that there are at least five bad principals in the district" and that "such a request means the superintendent, Mrs. Paula LeCompte Speed, must classify those principals.

Regarding the proposal, the board also explained that there are three interim principals who have been acting in their office for less than one year.

"The inclusion of the interim principals in the pool of principals to be evaluated in such a manner is "grossly unfair" to the interim principals, according to the board’s agenda announcement, which also note that, if the interim principals are excluded from the evaluation, it leaves five of the remaining 14 principals being categorized as "bad."

A concluding statement in the agenda says, "We recognize that principals in our district have varying strengths and ability. However, the fact that a principal may not be in the top ten of the best performing principals does not mean that principal is bad, non-performing or low-performing . Therefore, it is grossly unfair, by default, to classify that principal as one of the worst administrators."