Audit: Curtail Wake principals' power

An outside audit finds disparities in school resources that won't be easy to fix

RALEIGH -- Wake County principals have too much power and should be reined in to improve education in the school district, according to a sweeping report released Tuesday.

A team of outside auditors found that Wake has a "very liberal" policy on what principals can do, which has led to schools with unequal academic programs. The audit painted a portrait of a system where some schools have and others do not.

Fundraising by parent and booster groups differ from school to school by hundreds of thousands of dollars, the report found. That allows principals at some schools to create programs or buy equipment that other schools lack, the auditors found. And the school board has no policy to evaluate those programs and purchases.

The auditors recommended limiting principals' powers and holding them accountable for mistakes.

"You don't want 150 school districts instead of one system of schools," said Rosanne Stripling, the lead auditor, to the school board. "We're not saying bring everything to the central level, but we want you to say what's not negotiable."

The overhaul of education policies was recommended by auditors from Phi Delta Kappa International, a nonprofit group based in Indiana that reviews school districts across the world. The $215,000 audit has been Wake Superintendent Del Burns' top goal since he called for it in January.

The 400-plus-page audit also urges the district to develop policies to close the racial achievement gap on test scores and to create a system to measure the effectiveness of programs.

Burns said administrators will review the report and present a response Sept. 18.

Among the report's dozens of recommendations, the call to spell out which decisions can be made at the school level and which must be made by the central office will likely be the most contentious. Burns scheduled a meeting today so principals can hear the report's findings directly from the auditors.

Principals say the ability to make decisions at their schools is important, if not crucial.

"Having that flexibility allows me to tailor-make the program for the clientele," said Bob Smith, Durant Road Middle School principal. "We're all different, and if we're all trying to do the same thing, it may not serve the clientele."

Pamela Kinsey-Barker, principal at Brassfield Elementary School, agreed. "We all have different issues in our schools," she said. "But because we are such a large school system, the decisions that we make can affect other schools. It's a delicate balance, and that's why communication is key."

Teachers would support changing how decisions are made at the school level, according to Jennifer Lanane, president of the Wake County chapter of the N.C. Association of Educators, which represents 5,000 school district employees. She said principals do not involve teachers enough.

Stripling said she is all for continuing to give principals flexibility to use their schools' resources, provided they lose that option if the programs fail.

"If it's [principals' authority] not defined, principals think they have full control of everything," Stripling said. "What results is fragmentation. The quality of the decision-making relies on the quality of the principal."

Haves and have-nots

The audit noted that resources at schools vary by how much money parent-teacher associations and booster clubs raise. According to the audit, fundraising varies from less than $7,000 to more than $200,000. Schools that are able to raise a lot of money provide additional computers, field trips, library books and programs for the gifted.

One elementary school, which the report did not name, receives interest every year from donated land that was later sold, according to the audit.

The gap isn't surprising to parents.

"You can see the disparity when you hear other parents talk, and you're like, 'Whoa, we don't have that,' " said Diane Ellison, Carroll Middle School's PTA president. "But we work very hard with what we have."

Ellison said county commissioners and the school board should do more to bridge the fundraising gaps among schools.

School board member Carol Parker said she wished wealthier PTAs would partner up with less affluent ones to help balance the gaps.

The report recommends providing money to equalize the contributions as much as possible.

Burns, the superintendent, was noncommittal about whether the recommendations to limit the power of principals will be carried out. Burns, a longtime Wake school official who just completed his first year as superintendent, got a 5 percent raise from the school board last week.

School board members and Burns were more positive about the report's overall recommendations, which could take several years to implement.

"We have a great opportunity in front of us," Burns said. "We need to act."