Wednesday, June 1, 2011

PELA's

On another post Anonymous wrote:

P"ELAs are gone after this year. And good riddens.

Clarification...no, we will not have VPs and Directors now. The board is getting rid of VPs and replacing them with PELAs because they have to give those PELAs jobs. Because they can't just kick out VPs and replace them, they decided to pretend to cut the positions and give them to the PELAs but call it something different. A terrible loophole.

June 1, 2011 10:10 PM"

15 comments:

Questioner said...

So no more "Principals Emerging Leadership Academy"? The implication always seemed to be that Mark Roosevelt created this concept, but then it turned out that other (Broad, Gates- influenced) district had started similar programs.

What different title are PELA's being given, if not Principal or Vice Principal?

Anonymous said...

There are a lot of new "Directors" being assigned to schools in addition to the Principal, ie. Faison, Milliones U-Prep, etc.

What is the role of "Director?"

At U-Prep, there is a Principal, a Principal on Special Assignment and a "Director."

Miller now has a PELA replacing the principal.

Is a description, or role and responsibilities guidelines for these positions? Were they posted? What is the process?

Anonymous said...

At Allderdice, two VPs are being put back into the classroom I heard.

Mark Rauterkus said...

Jake House, Brodie, (ex?), went from PPS Sports Reform to a new role with 'design' at Faison (I think). There, the new faculty (major turnover) is going to cook their own solutions for the school. And his role is to work among teachers' plans, administration, community, etc.

All in all, it would be GREAT to insist upon an update to the organizational chart for PPS.

In the past, a request for an updated organizational chart was made of PPS did make a fine response and delivered one.

Questioner said...

So Sports Reform, or at least a clear plan for Sports Reform, is all in place?

Mark Rauterkus said...

Jake took his sports reform to the Education Committee of the PPS School Board. That was good.

If this was a football game, he took the kickoff to start the next half and ran as best he could and got tackled. Then comes the next huddle and few are there on the field to run the next play.

It seems as if there are few, if anyone, who want to carry the ball forward.

Delay of game....

Frustration.

Much of the plan had big money implications.

I think there are 100s of things that can be done that cost little or nothing. Plus, there are a few things that can be done that MAKE MONEY.

Those are the things to do URGENTLY, IMNSHO.

Questioner said...

So is there anything likely to come out of the Sports Reform process by the start of the next school year?

Mark Rauterkus said...

This year there was a big upgrade with athletic trainers in the schools. That was a benefit of the sports reform efforts.

I'm looking for that silver lining....

We have a massive set of documented ideas. A field study/inventory was done. I have something to talk about on the PCTV21 TV show. Humm....

The sports team coaches / applicants for the fall at Pgh Obama are getting interviews now, in May. They were not hired yet and it isn't August 1st.

And, we won't be doing a few BAD things this fall. Some would say joining the WPIAL without an overhaul would have been WORSE. Some say that doing system wide team mergers with athletes of different schools needing to travel to practice and play with kids from other schools was floated. That isn't going to happen either, more than Sci-Tech, U-Prep and Pgh Obama for 2011-12 and Pgh Obama gets out of that deal in 2012-13.

Finally, there is some appetite for the board to do something that comes from the crashing bits of the system wide reform efforts. Perhaps they'll pick up a few programs and get out of the way. For instance, board members talked and asked about 'water polo.' So, they're watching and much more outspoken, and that's a huge change.

Questioner said...

So does each high school now have an athletic trainer to assist coaches in all of the various soprts?

Anonymous said...

On the athletic front - according to the P-G

A Division one football stand-out from Peabody is transferring to Gateway in the fall. An Allderdice basketball player is transferring there also.

We are losing students from PPS and now student-athletes as well.

Anonymous said...

"Jake House, Brodie, (ex?), went from PPS Sports Reform to a new role with 'design' at Faison (I think). There, the new faculty (major turnover) is going to cook their own solutions for the school. And his role is to work among teachers' plans, administration, community, etc. "

This is why PPS will sink. Jacob House probably a nice guy. (nothing personal against him) But when a district is "strapped" they can afford to pay him 90K for WHAT? His bio on Broad states he worked for a hotel chain prior to this job.

When will central admin figure out we cannot afford chiefs and assistant superintendents who each have 6 directors who have 4 managers! It makes no sense. This is a school district with 26k kids. There is no excuse just
incompetence.

Anonymous said...

Anyone being assigned to Faison is a mistake. What little we parents knew about the bold move planned for Faison just lost some of its appeal. Why not let the teachers pick the leader to be followed under this new model. This is baloney. How about a team of teacher-leaders and not a traditional principal/dean/director?

Questioner said...

It sounds like the district would already be undermining the model planned for Faison. Is Mr. House really needed there? An area where further administrative effort is needed is CTE; that might work better.

Anonymous said...

With a Broad non-educator being assigned to Faison as a highly paid "Director", the question becomes why and who will he be "directing"? It would also appear that teachers will have much less opportunity to design if they are being "directed" by an outsider assigned by central office administration.

AND, what happens to the newly assigned Principal, who IS an educator, who knows his job, and who has been very successful in schools/districts outside of PPS?

Anonymous said...

What is the source for PELAs being gone in one year?

Does that mean the program is ending or that those trained will not have positions, or both?

Were there any PELAs that stayed (successfully) at a school as principal for more than a year or two?

Did achievement improve at their schools? More than a few points?

What is the rationale for the ending of the program?