Joel Klein, in naming the 45 Principals that were leaving the system ("Klein Says He Has Ousted 45 Principals", David Herzenhorn, NY TIMES, June 29, 2004) for one reason or another - he did not, it seems, fire them all - perhaps made a bad mistake in not realizing that Jill Levy, President of the Council for Supervisors and Administrators, would object. But then again, maybe he knew that Levy would object and his purpose was ... there is, most probably, a hidden agenda here somewhere.

NY POST OP-ED (July 5, 2004) has it about right:

Klein's Principal Problem

The Department of Education (news - web sites) certainly thought it had pulled a fast one when it announced last Monday that it was "removing" 45 principals for poor performance.

The claim made it look as if the city finally is showing failed principals the door. Alas, that's not so.

It was only last year that Schools Chancellor Joel Klein had to admit defeat in his quest to find 50 principals to fire - settling for less than 10 - in a system with more than 300 officially failing schools.

Nothing much has changed.

A closer look at the list of 45 "removed" principals turns up one principal who stepped down in October 2003 and at least three others who quit months ago.

Even less impressive, 29 of the 45 principals weren't even tenured. They were probationary principals - in effect, try-outs.

Only two tenured principals are actually being fired in Klein's sweep - the same number fired last year - and they're fighting their dismissals tooth and nail.

Let's be clear: In a city with 1,200 schools, a certain number of cub principals don't work out, a few of the old bears are eased out the door (retiring voluntarily to avoid the embarrassment of an "unsatisfactory" rating) and a handful fight to the death to stick around where they're not wanted.

Klein's just decided to apply some new math to the same old numbers.

In fact, the principals union says that if Klein had counted last year the way he's counting this year, he could have claimed to have let 40 principals go last year. And declared success.

Asked about the number, the Department of Education said it actually doesn't keep such records.

Imagine that.

It seems that although Klein has the rhetoric of accountability down pat, the Department of Education still hasn't found a way to impose any.

And that's a big problem.

And then there is Jill Levy's anger at the exposure of her members:

Union Chief Assails Klein for Releasing Principals' Names
By ELISSA GOOTMAN, NY TIMES, July 2, 2004

The head of the New York City principals' union demanded an apology yesterday from Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein for releasing the names of 45 principals who the chancellor said were removed for poor performance. In many cases, the union leader said, the chancellor had violated confidentiality agreements.

In a letter, Jill S. Levy, president of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, wrote that some of the principals had been planning to resign or retire for reasons unrelated to the chancellor's desire to remove them. Many, she said, had agreed to waive their right to fight removal in exchange for promises that their records would be kept clean and that they could quietly retire or receive other school jobs - promises, Ms. Levy said, that the chancellor has now broken.

"At the heart of those agreements was the principals' desire to avoid the public humiliation of a discontinuance," Ms. Levy wrote. "Your announcement is a breach of those agreements and reeks of bad faith. The damage to them for that breach is obvious. Rather than quietly move to a new position without the stigma of having been anointed, perhaps falsely, as a 'failed principal,' they now must live with the accompanying stigma."

One of the 45 principals, Ms. Levy said, was a cancer victim who had planned to retire for health reasons. Another had earned a bonus for improved performance two years in a row. In a third case, Ms. Levy wrote, a principal was frustrated with a lack of support and offered to resign, but the regional superintendent "personally asked the principal to 'stick it out.' "

Mr. Klein's list has created a stir since his office released it Monday evening. Teachers and parents scoured it for names of unpopular principals they hoped to see included. Some newly retired principals woke up Tuesday morning to read in newspapers, to their horror, that their own names were on it.

Earlier this week, the chancellor said the removal of the principals reflected increased accountability within the city school system under his and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's leadership. He maintained that all the principals on the list had performed poorly this year even though many had ultimately retired or accepted demotions. Two of the principals are fighting their dismissals.

In a statement released yesterday, the Department of Education maintained that it was required to disclose the names of the principals after reporters asked for them under the Freedom of Information law.

The statement included no apology from the chancellor. Instead, it pointed out that agreements were reached with many of the departing principals precisely because "these were far from voluntary resignations or retirements."

"The chancellor's primary obligation is to make sure that qualified principals are leading our schools, which is the case in the overwhelming majority of schools," the statement read. "When, as in these cases, principals are not meeting appropriate standards, they must be replaced for the good of our students and staff."

A probationary principal of a large high school with a deeply troubled history said it was not fair for her to be on the list.

"The conversation was that my leadership style did not match the needs of that particular educational environment," said the principal, who has already accepted a lesser position in the school system and declined to be identified for fear of retribution. "I was not an unsatisfactory principal. That was the whole thing. So how am I being lumped with people who are being ousted?"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 1, 2004

CSA DEMANDS APOLOGY FROM CHANCELLOR KLEIN

Council of School Supervisors and Administrators (CSA) President Jill Levy sent the attached letter to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein today. The letter demands an apology for wrongly naming principals to a list of principals removed for poor performance.

The letter has been altered for release to the media to protect the identity of the principals, many of whom still work in the school system and fear they will suffer retribution if their cases receive more attention.

July 1, 2004

Joel Klein, Chancellor
New York City Department of Education
52 Chambers Street
New York NY 10007

Dear Chancellor Klein:

Your decision on Monday to announce the names of 45 principals who, for a variety of reasons, have left their principal positions, claiming "credit" for removing them was highly offensive, inappropriate and grossly inaccurate. On behalf of the 45 who have been maligned, my entire membership and the countless numbers of public officials and citizens who have contacted me, I am asking that you, upon reflection, make a public apology.

Almost none of the 45 named were actually removed, as your release suggests. Many of the 45 voluntarily left their positions as the result of stipulations negotiated by your lawyers. In those stipulated agreements, the principals waived their procedural right to contest removal in return for maintaining a clean record and a reassignment to another position or retirement. At the heart of those agreements was the principals' desire to avoid the public humiliation of a discontinuance. Your announcement is a breach of those agreements and reeks of bad faith. The damage to them for that breach is obvious. Rather than quietly move to a new position without the stigma of having been anointed, perhaps falsely, as a "failed principal", they now must live with the accompanying stigma.

Several of those named were already planning retirement or resignation for reasons unrelated to your desire to remove them. The inaccuracies contained in your release are substantial and even more damaging to the victims of your misrepresentations.

Below are the stories behind some of the principals involved (each bullet represents a different principal):

• improved reading test scores two years running. Promised confidentiality by regional superintendent for agreeing to leave the school.

• did not revert to a former position as suggested by your release. Voluntarily transferred to another principal position after you withdrew charges midway through a hearing. Those dropped charges involved announcing the names of failing students publicly over the school's public address system. Ironic!

• an interim acting principal - not a probationer, serving until selection process was complete. Another applicant was selected.

• only one eighth grade general education student scored at level one. There were 11% more level four scores. Level two students rose from 41% to 50% of the class. Also, now, because of the attention, neighborhood parents from feeder schools are calling their principals to see whether or not to send their children there next year. You have caused unnecessary panic among parents and students alike.

• a cancer victim who had planned retirement for health reasons.

• accepted an administrative position created for them by the superintendent.

• frustrated with a lack of support, offered to resign. The Regional Superintendent personally asked the principal to "stick it out."

• earned the performance differential two years in a row.

• called back for the final step in the hiring process for a new principal position, but was now informed that because of the release of their name, will not get the appointment.

I hope, in consideration of all of the above, that you realize that releasing the names was unnecessary and unproductive. The persons named have been publicly humiliated, their reputations unnecessarily harmed and their future opportunities reduced.

You take pride in holding principals to a higher standard. Why not take appropriate pride in noting that 1155 have met that standard rather than highlighting, and humiliating, the 45 who in your view didn't? (A 97% success rate is pretty good.)

While Monday's announcement cannot be undone, a public apology from you and an acknowledgment that this won't happen again will go a long way to restoring morale in the system.

Sincerely,
Jill S. Levy
President

Contact:

Richard Relkin
(718) 852-3000 x211
(646) 261-9543 cell
(718) 403-0278 fax
Richard@csa-nyc.org Brian Gibbons
(718) 852-3000 x273
(914) 484-0224 cell
(718) 403-0278 fax
Brian@csa-nyc.org

Ax principals, yes, but only the bad ones
Column by Karen Hunter, Daily News, July 2, 2004

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein got tough this week and let go 45
school principals for what he called unsatisfactory work. A lot of
people pumped their fists, because it seemed the firings sent a
message that mediocrity and failure at any level will not be
tolerated.

But the good news was undermined. According to the principals' union,
the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, roughly half
the 45 had either retired, gone to other systems or stepped down from
their posts voluntarily.

"To publish names of people who retired in good standing and lump
them in with those who have been rated unsatisfactory is
irresponsible," said Ernest Logan, the union's executive vice
president.

Carol Davidson, who retired at the end of the school year because "I
put in my time," was horrified when her name turned up on the list.

For the past three years, her school, Junior High 190 in Forest
Hills, Queens, ranked among the city's best. Her eighth-grade class
had only one student score at Level 1 - the failing level. This year,
she sent 90 students to Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech
high schools - three of the best in the nation.

"I had a failing school?" asks Davidson. "Parents chose my school
rather than send their child to private school. Now they're
questioning whether they should pull their child out because of a
report that named me as principal of a failing school. Not only did
it ruin my life, but it had a negative impact on the community, the
children and the school's reputation."

In the late 1990s, mine was one of the loudest voices calling for the
end of principal tenure. I felt school CEOs should be promoted or
fired based on the performance of their schools. I applauded the
union for giving up the notion of a job for life in return for more
pay. But with the end of tenure comes a higher level of
accountability for those supervising the principals.

There is no question that heads must roll in a system where fewer
than 50% of school kids are reading at grade level. And the cutting
must start at the top. But those who are put on the chopping block
must deserve it. The process is undermined by every Carol Davidson
who is listed as a failure and isn't.

I have no sympathy for a principal who is fired for doing a poor job.
But if you're going to squeeze the lemons, make sure that all you
have are lemons.

LACKING PRINCIPAL
By SUSAN EDELMAN

July 4, 2004 -- More than one-third of the 45 principals that Schools Chancellor Joel Klein says he booted were recruited and appointed under his watch during the past two years, The Post has learned.
The shake-up has left many problem-plagued schools rudderless or in turmoil, including Franklin K. Lane HS on the Brooklyn-Queens border, which now has churned through its fourth principal in three years.

Two months before the new school year begins, the city Department of Education on Friday admitted it was still seeking replacements for some of the 45 sacked principals.

Parents said the administrative musical chairs is leaving kids in the lurch.

"There is a lot of turmoil, and it is worrisome," said Maria Dilworth, whose daughter, Theresa, 16, is transferring to City as School, an alternative school, after struggling at Lane HS for two years. "They're going to need some stability to make the school better."

Lane senior Hector Santos, 18, said, "There's no steady leadership. Every new principal wants to do something different."

Since 2000, students at Lane have been led by Paul Pedota, Norman Cohn, Frank Barone and now Evan Ahern, the interim principal.

Critics say Klein has only himself to blame for 16 of the axed principals.

The chancellor's staff last year aggressively wooed Barone, principal of a 500-student middle school in Albany, to lead the 3,400-student Lane - one of the city's failing and most dangerous schools.

"They wined and dined me," he told The Post, recalling the "really nice" Manhattan restaurant where he was pursued for the $107,700-a-year job.

But now - after being named on the list of 45 sacked principals last week - Barone says the staff didn't prepare him for the magnitude of his big-city assignment.

"I went in cold. I didn't have a clue," he said.

Barone, 52, said he left the job at Lane in April after he began suffering chest pains, shortness of breath and sweating. "I thought I was having a heart attack," he said. "It was just job stress, but it wasn't coming from the kids. The organization puts a lot of pressure on its principals."

The Education Department listed Barone among 45 principals that Klein said were "removed for poor performance."

But Barone said he had nothing negative in his personnel file, saying it is a "lie" that he was ousted for incompetence.

The principals union on Friday blasted Klein for "bully tactics," saying several principals were already planning retirement or quitting for other reasons, while others had not gotten the support they needed. "It is absolutely clear that he has mismanaged the entire school reorganization," said union president Jill Levy.

The union told The Post that 16 of the 45 principals were appointed since August 2002, a month after Klein took over.

Klein's office did not dispute the figure, but declined to confirm it.

"All principals are held to the same standards, regardless of when they are hired," spokeswoman Michele McManus said.

Queens Chronicle, July 8, 2004:
Singled Out As Bad Principals, Some Fight Chancellor Klein
by Bryan Joiner, South Queens Editor

The head of the principals' union blasted Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein last week for alleging he removed 45 city principals for "poor performance" when only a fraction of them were removed because of their performance records.
Jill Levy, the president of the Council of Supervisors and Administrators, sent a public letter to Klein calling his decision "highly offensive, inappropriate and grossly inaccurate." Klein announced last Monday that of the 45 principals who would not be returning to city schools, only 20 would be removed from the school system. The remaining 25 were assigned to other positions within the DOE, 10 of them as stipulations of their contract.

Of the 20 principals who are no longer at their schools, 15 of them retired due to stipulations in their contract. Three resigned outright, and two face disciplinary charges due to subpar performance.
"Almost none of the 45 named were actually removed, as your release suggests. Many of the 45 voluntarily left their positions as the result of stipulations negotiated by your lawyers. In those stipulated agreements, the principals waived their procedural right to contest removal in return for maintaining a clean record and a reassignment to another position or retirement," Levy wrote.
She assailed Klein for making it seem like all the principals were forced out for substandard performance. "At the heart of those agreements was the principals' desire to avoid the public humiliation of a discontinuance. Your announcement is a breach of those agreements and reeks of bad faith."
One of the offended principals was Frank Barone of Franklin K. Lane High School on the Brooklyn/Queens border in Woodhaven. Barone resigned in April for personal reasons but has said it had nothing to do with job performance.
Barone came to Lane last year and helped usher in the Impact Schools initiative, which began in January, a program that brought more NYPD officers into the city's most dangerous schools. During his tenure, crime dropped 83 percent at the school.
The news was not all good. There was a gang shooting outside the school in September, and the New York Daily News published a front-page story in January calling it the "worst school in the city."
Another principal to challenge Klein's move was Carol Davidson of JHS 190 in Forest Hills. The school is ranked 24th in the city academically and recently graduated 38 percent of its senior class into specialized city high schools.
Davidson said she turned in her retirement papers long before Klein's announcement. She had been at the school for 36 years. One of her colleagues, assistant principal Ron Levine, told the Queens Chronicle last week that the school staff "did not expect something like this to be made in the form of an announcement, especially when all the indicators of performance were positive."
In her letter, Levy wrote that at least 9 of the former principals had preexisting arrangements with the DOE to remain anonymous to protect their career or had retired due to health reasons. One retiring principal was quitting to battle cancer.
She demanded an apology from Klein and said the announcement could have bad repercussions in the coming school year. "An acknowledgment that this won't happen again will go a long way to restoring morale in the school system."
The DOE issued a statement defending its decision to release the names of the 45 principals. "Under the Freedom of Information Law, we are required to disclose these names... We have no desire to cause distress for any individual but we must of course follow clear legal requirements."
The statement reasserted that the principals were sanctioned for poor performance. "When, as in these cases, principals are not meeting appropriate standards, they must be replaced for the good of our students and staff. Also, it is important to note that the CSA was involved in negotiating the stipulations and indeed signed them, reflecting their knowledge that these were far from voluntary resignations or retirements."

Correction
In last week's story, "45 City Principals Get The Boot," it was erroneously reported that the principal of PS 65 in Ozone Park was fired. Doris Rosado of PS 65 in Brooklyn resigned under pressure from the Department of Education. Iris Nelson, the principal of PS 65 in Ozone Park, remains in her post. The Chronicle regrets the error.