(ELISHA ANDERSON/DFP)
"I didn't come here to do everyone's job for them," says Detroit Public Schools Superintendent Connie Calloway.
Calloway blasts district practices
She says Detroit system lacks order
July 28, 2007
Detroit Public Schools Superintendent Connie Calloway said Friday in a candid conversation with the Free Press that she inherited a system in which there are no administrative procedures in place for seemingly basic functions and rules are not respected.
She also said she was "utterly appalled" this month by the behavior at her first regular board meeting. Student protestors spoke without regard to the standard rules of order for public meetings, and alumni of Miller Middle School focused on what the school's closing meant to them instead of what keeping it open would mean for the children who would go there.
Also, Calloway said she has been shocked by the degree to which school officials do not follow proper procedures.
For example, Calloway said, she was surprised that officials started spending school funds on a $500,000 student-recruitment campaign without school board approval.
District officials have made stabilizing enrollment a priority this year, noting that if the number of full-time students drops below 100,000, state law opens the door for more charter schools to open. Those schools would compete with DPS for the same students and state money. The district has lost more than 60,000 students over the past decade, including 14,000 last year.
The door-to-door part of the project stalled and the campaign's future became uncertain once Calloway asked officials to provide her the costs and data showing why they think the effort will work.
"It never went through the proper channels," she said.
Ads have run on television, radio, in print and on three city buses, but the door-to-door component has not hit full stride and officials could not say when or whether it would.
Officials say that over two weeks, 17 attendance agents reenrolled 151 students headed to other schools in the fall and added 13 not in DPS last year, said district spokesman Lekan Oguntoyinbo.
District officials also met this week with the leaders of the dozen alternative schools that operated under contracts with DPS last year to discuss another procedural breakdown, Calloway said. She said some of the schools -- which the Free Press found to be operating with little or no oversight -- might operate again.
But part of the fault for the problems the contract schools faced lies with the district, she said. The contractors -- community and church groups -- were not properly trained in the state Department of Education's regulations, she said.
"I'm amazed that that wasn't clear," she said.
Calloway said she expects Detroiters to take part in fixing the district's problems.
"I didn't come here to do everyone's job for them," she said, adding that she doesn't want to be bogged down in political minutia. "I focus on the doughnut, not the hole," she said. "Children, children, children."
Board President Jimmy Womack said that while the enrollment drive is important, Calloway was right to demand accountability. "I think she's asking all of the appropriate questions, but here's the rub -- people want you to have that answer yesterday," he said.
Contact CHASTITY PRATT at 313-223-4537 or cpratt@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
Job 1: Create dynamics for change
July 28, 2007
On the job for less than a month, Dr. Connie Calloway met Friday with the Free Press editorial board to discuss her impressions of what she has encountered so far and her vision for the district's future. Excerpts from that interview follow:
At the board meeting, I sat there utterly appalled. I saw 11 board members. They certainly had different agendas. I saw attorneys representing the district and attorneys representing the board. What does that suggest?
I also saw in the audience groups of adults who were desperately loyal to a school that is slated to be decommissioned, and their conversation was about the alumni, not about the displaced students. Not about the appropriateness of whether that building should remain commissioned or decommissioned.
I saw a group of adults who had bused in or brought by car a group of students who stood there and were disrespectful to adults -- board members -- and were talking about issues and civil rights. They stood for close to an hour belittling adults and board members with what were clearly prepared scripts for them.
There was another group that was there. They were there to support one board member.
So, I sat there and looked and said everyone has demands and wants something for the schools, but how many times that evening did I hear a conversation focused on what's best for the children?
In my more than 30 years working in schools, I have attended and participated in and organized more school board meetings than the law allows. I know the rules of conduct, and the structure and the laws governing them, and I am at a loss for words here. That's the best way to put it.
I first had to always acknowledge that this is the board, or eight of them at least, or six or whatever it was, that selected me. Which means they came and interviewed me. They met me. I spent three days here. They know who I am. They wanted someone who is honest, ethical, experienced and knowledgeable. They have checked into every crevice of my life. And they knew what they were getting. So, with that, I have to believe that they, too, want to change their governance structure.
We need governance that works in the best interest of children, all decisions. Governance that is fiscally responsible. We need governance that operates by some standard operating procedures so that there is consistency; governance where the roles are clear, because it is the responsibility of the school board to make policy.
It is the responsibility of the superintendent to operate the district. Governance that operates and conducts its affairs as does the governing board of any high-profile public entity, elected entity, with oversight for $1.4 billion of public money. Governance that operates by rules and procedure and that sets a model for what is expected for the organization.
I create successful dynamics that change the situation. If Detroit just demands that I push paper, that I try to carve out authority of the superintendent from the media, from governance, then it's squandered time in my opinion.
What I don't want to happen is everything is waiting on Dr. Calloway. At one of our committee meetings last night, I was asked what was I going to do about something that happened years ago. And this is what I said to them: "I'm not a magician. I'm not Jesus. I'm not a celebrity. I do not have the ability to put my hand into the past and fix it. I have today and tomorrow. If I did have the ability to put my hand into the past and fix it, I'd fix slavery. I'd go for a big one. So leave me today and tomorrow."
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
Fix hard truths about DPS
July 28, 2007
Connie Calloway has just one word to describe the bedlam, shouting and disrespect she encountered at her first Detroit Public Schools board meeting: appalling.
The new superintendent has a few more choice words to describe the sloppy, inefficient and unaccountable way that she has found the state's largest school district to be conducting most of its $1.4-billion-a-year business. The system, she says, seems "unaccustomed to process" of any kind.
It's the kind of thunderous, searing truth Detroiters need to hear about their public schools, all the better that it comes from a leader selected to move the district forward. Calloway, in a wide-ranging interview with the Free Press Friday, made clear that the city's public school system is broken and wretched, and that this community is responsible for letting it persist in that state.
Fundamental change -- in governance, expectations, accountability and just basic management -- is the only way forward, she says.
Anyone familiar with DPS knows she's right. The question now is how strongly the area's key leaders, institutions and community members support Calloway, to ensure that change really happens.
Detroit has failed leaders who speak truth before.
Think of Deborah McGriff, hired in the early 1990s to shepherd the school system through the early days of reform. She was blunt, too, about how awful she found things to be here, and she refused to back away from tough assessments or unpopular prescriptions.
She lasted less than two years, though, because those who don't want to hear the truth were allowed to cast her as the enemy. Nearly 20 years later, no one can credibly argue that things are better than they were when she left.
Detroit can't afford to fail Calloway in a similar fashion.
Just three weeks into the job, she is demonstrating a no-nonsense approach that's focused on bringing order, process and accountability to every aspect of the district.
A few examples: Calloway notes that Detroiters have argued for years over the way the school system doles out contracts. Rather than focus on the accusations, she has asked the district's procurement office to outline its standard operating procedures, so she can check to see that the proper safeguards are in place. She said she'll do the same with every department.
Calloway also halted the district's "Retain and Gain" program, aimed at stemming DPS's prolific population loss, because no one could tell her how successful the program had been. "Ask where the process was for Retain and Gain," she said Friday, noting that she couldn't even get a straight answer about how much the program was costing. "Even inconsistent process would be a step in the right direction."
Calloway has a steep learning curve, coming from a very small district with nowhere near the public spotlight she'll endure in DPS. She'll certainly make mistakes. She'll offer some ideas that won't work.
But she's saying the right things already, and that marks a great start. Everyone who believes this city can have world-class public schools ought to help her transform those words into action.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
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