For Immediate Release
State backs parents in appeal of city rule changes on school leadership teams
Jan 6, 2009 4:42 PM
The New York City Department of Education improperly changed the rules governing parent participation on school leadership teams to give principals final decision-making authority on comprehensive education plans, according to a recent ruling by State Education Department Commissioner Richard P. Mills.
Responding to an appeal filed by several parents and the UFT, Mills ordered the city Department of Education to revise the language of Chancellor’s Regulation A-655, which governs the participation of parents, educators and administrators in school leadership teams.
Mills also ordered the DOE to submit the plan to the UFT as well as the city principals’ union, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, and a committee representing parents of city school children for consultation and approval, as legally required.
“This is a great victory for parents and educators,” said UFT President Randi Weingarten after the union and the DOE received a Jan. 5 letter from the State Education Department informing them of Mills’ Dec. 31, 2008, ruling.
“The commissioner’s ruling shows that school leadership teams have a real role to play in school-based planning and shared decision-making,” Weingarten added. “It also affirms that comprehensive education plans are important in making sure that everyone in a school community has a say in how schools operate. It’s just sad that despite the clear intent of the legislation that created the regulation, it took going to the SED to get the DOE to comply.”
Chancellor Joel Klein issued a revised version of the regulation on Dec. 3, 2007. Marie Pollicino, a member of Community District Education Council 26 and a parent of a child enrolled in PS 98 in Queens, initiated an appeal challenging the revision on behalf of herself and all parents of city school children.
On January 17 of last year, Melvyn Meer, a parent of two children in PS 188 in Queens and then a member of its school leadership team, sought to join in the appeal as did the community district education council and the UFT that February.
The parents and the union alleged that the DOE’s revision of the regulation gives principals final decision-making authority over both the school comprehensive education plan (CEP) and the school-based budget violated state education law. The commissioner sided with parents and the union on the planning issue, but he sided with the DOE on the budget issue, agreeing that principals should have final authority in that area.
The parents and the union also challenged the DOE’s unilateral revision of the regulation, charging that it violated state education law, and Mills agreed, ruling that parents, educators and everyone in the school community must be consulted before such revisions are made.
