Editorial: A leadership void in Minneapolis schools

"Turnaround schools" is a popular term in education reform.

While the debate continues over the best ways to change America's lowest-performing schools, one point is clear: Strong administrative leadership is critical.

In Minneapolis, a district with a large number of highly challenged schools, there is a new focus on turning around central-office administration. A recent consultant's review found that district leadership leaves a lot to be desired.

Within the last seven months, the district has had several embarrassing mishaps. First, it announced the wrong dollar amount for the teacher contract agreement that took 18 months to settle.

School officials initially said the new contract would cost $10.9 million; later, they said the actual amount was $14.7 million.

Then officials had to cancel an agreement with a website development firm and could lose $70,000 on the deal. And a new principal at Broadway High School discovered that several unlicensed teachers were on the staff -- a situation that is illegal and means graduation will be delayed for at least a dozen students this spring.

Each of those problems damages the district's credibility and highlights its management problems. And each of them might have been avoided if the district had a better leadership structure, as the consultant concluded.

In a study commissioned by Johnson and her board, consultant Robert Schiller said that administrative employee morale is low and the central office is perceived to be out of touch with the community and the schools.

He wrote that the district leadership structure is dysfunctional and that district departments don't communicate or work well together to achieve common goals.

Johnson was praised for outlining a strong vision and blueprint for the schools. But there is widespread inconsistency with carrying out those plans.

The study pointed specifically to the human resources and finance departments as "chief problem areas" and recommended efficiency audits. And the study suggested that frequent superintendent turnover since 2003 has led to a lax, "this too shall pass," change-resistant culture.

Schiller said Johnson spreads herself too thin and should hire a deputy and another associate superintendent to carry out daily operations. He questioned the need for a full-time lobbyist in addition to both in-house and outside legal help.

A former education superintendent for the state of Illinois, Schiller has completed about 30 school leadership evaluations -- including one last year in St. Paul.

For the Minneapolis study, he conducted around 60 interviews in January with principals, administrators and parents.

He compared the Minneapolis structure and operations with best practices from the most efficient school administrations, and the city school leadership fell woefully short.

Minneapolis teachers were not questioned, because Schiller was asked to focus on the structure and effectiveness of top leadership. He was paid $13,000 to conduct the interviews and write an 86-page evaluation.

Johnson is already moving on some of the recommendations. She's recruiting for deputy and associate superintendents and is working on independent audits for several departments. She asked for a tough, independent evaluation, and she's taking it seriously.

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