Grover Cleveland Is Center Of School Budget Investigation
by Kim Brown, Central and Mid Queens Editor, Queens Chronicle, August 05, 2004

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Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood is being investigated by the City Council for failing to involve parents and teachers in budget-making decisions, as is required by law.
Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz began the investigation last month after hearing complaints that the School Leadership Team, which is comprised of teachers, parents and students, does not have input into how the high school's multi-million-dollar budget is spent.

" It has been brought to my attention that the School Leadership Team at Grover Cleveland HS may have been excluded from the school budgeting process," Manhattan Councilwoman Moskowitz wrote in a letter to Region 4 Superintendent Reyes Irizarry. "If the report is true, it may constitute a violation of the 1996 School Governance Law."
Over the past several weeks, responses from the Department of Education have been vague and delayed, according to Moskowitz' office. "We've just been going back and forth in this situation," a spokeswoman said.

The case at Grover Cleveland is a microcosm of what is happening throughout the city, according to James Calantjis, chairman of the School Leadership Team. "The role of the team in budget-making decisions has not been emphasized," he said. "Teachers and parents don't know that they are supposed to have input. Those who do know are afraid to go against their principal."
A Department of Education spokeswoman said that the Grover Cleveland school leadership team had all the necessary budgetary documents.

"The school has assured us that they will continue to provide the necessary budget information to the school leadership team," said the spokeswoman, Margie Feinberg.

But Calantjis says the team has not been provided with the necessary documents to make decisions. He charges that his team, and others throughout the city, are being coerced into rubber stamping budgets that are decided on by principals. The chancellor's office has begun an investigation into possible improprieties throughout the city.

Recent changes under Schools Chancellor Joel Klein stipulate that funds go directly to each school rather than being disbursed through district offices, as was the case in the past. As a result, principals have more of a direct say about their school's budget. But some teachers and parents on school leadership teams say administrators are making all the decisions on their own.

"It's really the administrators doing the work and passing it onto us," said Michelle Arellano who has been on PS 138's school leadership team for more than three years. "The principal and her cronies made the budget and we really didn't have any say."

According to city and state regulations, school leadership teams have wide responsibilities. They are in charge of creating their school's comprehensive educational plan and an itemized budget. They also work on issues ranging from technology to fundraising and after-school programming.

But just how much of that work is getting done varies in schools throughout the city. Critics say part of the problem is the city's chancellor's regulation, B-801, that explains the team's budgetary responsibilities are difficult to obtain. Updated versions are not available on the Department of Education's web site. In addition, no one at the DOE is directly responsible for monitoring the teams' work.

A computer system at each school should be available for each team to work on allocating funds. According to Department of Education regulations, teachers and parents are supposed to be provided with training in using the system and in other matters related to the school's budget. But teachers and parents say they are not receiving the necessary training to do real work.

"The administration is saying once we learn the system we'll pass the information on to you," Arellano said. "But that's not happening. Many teachers and parents are quitting the team and giving up."

School leadership teams were incorporated into the school system in 1996 as a compromise after community school boards were stripped of most of their power and authority was redirected toward the chancellor's office. Just as parents and teachers once had great hopes of gaining a voice in the system through boards, hopes were redirected toward school leadership teams.

Calantjis says the teams are not living up to that promise. "The law says we have to have information so we can make decisions," he said, "But we actually have no input into the process at all."