Bay area schools
tout local controlSan Francisco officials claim
students perform better in schools
that run their own budgets
Allowing schools to decide how to spend most of their budgets has helped boost parental participation and student achievement, according to San Francisco school officials who briefed legislators yesterday.
"After three years we have seen test scores rise every year, and are now the highest-performing urban school district in California," said Arlene Ackerman, superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District.
San Francisco, with 116 schools and 60,000 students, is in its fourth year of using a "weighted student formula" for funding and giving more decision-making power to principals and their School Site Councils, made up of parents and school staff. The House and Senate Education committees are refining a similar plan for Hawaii.
Rather than have a central office determine staffing and supplies, San Francisco schools decide how to spend the bulk of their operating funds. The formula distributes money to campuses in a lump sum based on individual students' needs, with low-income students or immigrants, for example, meriting more.
"Weighted student formula is a strategy to get to improved achievement," Ackerman said, "but if we didn't have achievement targets, standards or training for councils, none of this would work."
Legislators are studying the experience of San Francisco and Edmonton, Canada, which pioneered the budgeting system nearly 30 years ago. Gov. Linda Lingle has held up Edmonton as a model, arguing that Hawaii, too, should shift control of 90 percent of operating funds, excluding debt service, to schools. Democratic legislators are considering a bill mandating 75 percent.
San Francisco has shifted about 65 percent to the school level, after consulting with principals and teachers, who wanted control of funds that are tied to academic achievement.
"As a principal, I'm really pleased that the district listened to us and did not put too much on our plate, and allowed us to focus on teaching and learning," Lance Tagomori, a graduate of Honolulu's Roosevelt High School who is principal at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in San Francisco.
"I know if I had to manage the utilities, the food service, the custodial service, it would take me out of the classroom, away from meeting with teachers, away from my focus on instructional leadership."
Principals are on three-year contracts, with half of their evaluation based on student achievement. Forty percent of San Francisco's principals have changed in the past four years because they retired, decided to leave or the district did not renew their contracts, Ackerman said. That could pose a problem in Hawaii, where administrators are in short supply.
"I think from the principals' ranks there is some concern that there's going to be a fallout," said Lei Desha, field service officer for the Hawaii Government Employees Association, the principals union. She said principals are interested in control of spending directly connected to academics but already have demanding jobs.
Richard Shrieve, who has two sons in San Francisco public schools and serves on a School Site Council, said more parents are now involved in the system because they have a real voice in their schools' academic and financial plans.
"As a parent, I like it because it has allowed us to get a much deeper understanding of what's going on at our schools," he said. "As a taxpayer, I like it because it makes school funding much more transparent. As a business manager, I like it because there is true accountability, principals are in charge."
