July 3, 2009 - The Austin Chronicle

NEWSAISD Staff Shake-UpNew Austin Independent School District SuperintendentMeria Carstarphen only took the district’sreins on July 1, but she has already started to makeher mark, with the approval of a new district organizationalplan that changes the structure of the administration’supper levels. The plan, Assistant SuperintendentMichael Houser said, “is pretty reflectiveof the way she wants to work.”The district’s board of trustees approved the newstructure at its final meeting of the academic year onJune 22. (Carstar phen was absent, finishing her tenureas superintendent of Saint Paul Public Schools inMin ne sota.) This first round of restructuring (the districtwill be looking at more in upcoming months) directlytackled the senior cabinet. Under retired SuperintendentPat For gi one, there have been three “superofficers”:The chief academic officer handled education, the chieffinancial officer oversaw finance and operations, andone of the three assistant superintendents dealt withhuman resources. In reality, Houser said: “We’ve had alot of people involved in cabinet. Up to 20 or 22 peoplein there for meetings on a Monday morning.”The new Carstarphen plan expands the number ofsenior posts but cuts the number of people stuck inthose organizational meetings. The resulting organizationalchart owes much in both structure and titles tothe one at her old job in St. Paul. Eight senior staff –including her chief of staff and the general counsel –plus her special assistant will report directly to her. Theold structure reflected Forgione’s management style,but, Houser said, “I think that [Carstarphen] feels morecomfortable with a team of eight.”The three biggest offices see the biggest changes,as each gets its responsibilities split in two andrestructured. Board of trust ees President MarkWilliams said this will make officers closer to theirdepartments and more directly accountable to Carstarphen.The change is not driven just by her arrival but bytiming – the district has reached a critical mass thatrequires a broader senior cabinet. “Yes, there’s newleadership,” said Wil liams, “but it’s also the scale ofthe district, the demographics, the accountability systemwe face.”On the facilities-management side, a number ofresponsibilities will be transferred from the chief financialofficer to the new chief operations officer – a majorchange. Former CFO Larry Throm viewed unifying thetwo tasks as pivotal for oversight. Yet with finance handlingan $800 million budget, Houser said, Carstarphen“wanted full focus there,” and with the chief operationsofficer, she wanted “a more definitive line for facilitiesand technology.”Education provision gets a similar shake-up.Previously, the chief academic officer dealt with bothcurriculum and school management. Now, the CAOmaintains strategic control of districtwide issues suchas curriculum, while the new chief schools officer willwork directly with individual campuses. EducationAustin President Louis Malfaro argues that this marksa critical shift in the district’s educational thinking. “Foryears,” he said, “the district has been dominated by thecurriculum people, who think, ‘If we just come up withenough scripts and enough practice tests, then we’ll beOK.’” Having a cabinet member highlighting individualcampuses and programs, he said, will break that “onesize-fits-all”philosophy. But what has Mal faro mostenthused is the splitting of the human resources developmentand information systems role between two newoffices. The chief performance officer will work onaccountability and performance metrics, while the chiefhuman capital officer will concentrate on humanresources and educator quality issues. “Hallelujah,” hesaid. “We finally are acknowledging that teacher qualityis the main driver to student success.”These new positions will be filled over the summer,with salaries in the $155,000 to $185,000 range, andthere will be an additional associate superintendent ofcentral elementary schools ($135,000 to $145,000)and an executive director for educator quality($105,000 to $115,000). When filled, they will allowthe phasing out of 10 positions, trigger re-evaluation oftwo more, and cause others to be realigned. However,the board drew the line at getting rid of the assistantsuperintendent of diversity and intercultural relations.Board members argued that it was supposed to be asenior cabinet-level position, reporting directly to thesuperintendent and implementing the findings of thecity of Austin’s Hispanic and African AmericanQuality of Life initiatives. Instead, under the old structure,it was located two levels below the superintendentin educational support services; the draft plan eliminatedthe position and folded its role into professionaldevelopment. Neither proposal satisfied the board,which wanted the position to be given a higher profilerather than eliminated. “The fact that it’s embeddedsomewhere rather than highlighted somewhere … concernsme,” said District 2 trustee Sam Guzman.The next stage of restructuring will involve appraisingthe rest of the district’s 485 administrators tocontinue the structural streamlining. Williams concluded:“If the superintendent is the change agent, thenthe district can only move as fast as the superintendent.Her philosophy is that we as a district have tomove faster.”– Richard WhittakerInternal Audit Board of Trustees General CounselSTAFFING CHANGES: A GLIMPSENEW POSITIONSEducationHuman ResourcesOperationsHiring now: chief schools officer, chief performanceofficer, associate superintendent of elementary schools(central), executive director for educator qualityHiring late summer: chief operations officer, chiefhuman capital officerCURRENT POSITIONSEliminated: assistant superintendents (3), executiveprincipals (5), director of student support, director ofstrategic compensationRevised: executive principals for LeadershipDevelopment Center (2)Further discussion: assistant superintendent ofdiversity and intercultural relationsInternal AuditOffice of RedesignAccountabilityOffice of RedesignSuperintendentThe rebuilt AISD senior cabinet Dr. approved Pascal D. Forgione by the board of trustees increasesthe number of officers reporting directly to the superintendentPlanning &but mayCommunitystreamline Accountability the overall reporting Chief of and Staff decision-making Relationsprocesses.ChiefAcademicOfficerGeneral CounselChiefSchoolsOfficerEducationFinance &ChiefOperationsOfficerBoard of TrusteesSuperintendentDr. Meria CarstarphenChiefFinancialOfficerBoard of TrusteesSuperintendentDr. Pascal D. ForgioneChief of StaffFinance &OperationsInternal AuditChief of StaffChiefPerformanceOfficerGeneral CounselPlanning &CommunityRelationsHuman ResourcesChiefHuman CapitalOfficerTransit Union Resists Giving Up Pay RaiseTo the surprise of no one, Capital Metro’s main labor subcontractorand the transit workers union are fighting again.In letters dated June 17 and 23 to Joneth “Jay” Wyatt,president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091,StarTran Inc. General Manager Terry Garcia Crews suggestedthat its workers should forgo their contractually scheduledraise this year to help Cap Metro with its current budgetcrunch. Crews suggested that such a measure would encourageCap Metro to stop shifting routes away from the union, tocheaper contractors Veolia Transportation and First Transit.Crews noted that the Cap Metro board authorized theagency to freeze administrative and executive staff wages ifnecessary and possibly ask those employees to take one ortwo days off each quarter without pay. “These steps demonstratehow serious the budget situation is, and how thedeclining tax revenues are impacting CMTA and StarTran aswell,” wrote Crews. “We are all sacrificing to help during theseconstrained budget times.”That went over like a lead balloon. “It’s my belief thatunder the National Labor Relations Act, it’s not legal for anEmployer to threaten to contract out work if the leadership ofthe Union don’t agree with them,” Wyatt wrote in reply. “Wekeep hearing from Capital Metro/StarTran that it’s all about12% in tax they’re not going to receive this year, but theyknew that was going to be a problem way before they spent Chiefand mis-managed tax payers dollars on the train and other Academicunknown projects. They force the Union on Strike in 2005 Officerand 2008 and clearly stated each time they had plenty ofmoney, but they needed more give backs from us (The UnionMembers) to pay for rail.”Back in April, Cap Metro asked the union to provide a list ofitems it would like Board to see of Trustees included in Internal a possible Auditaudit by theState Aud itor. The union responded with 14 items, including alist of everything that caused a spend-down of the agency’s$185 General million Counsel in reserves Superintendent during this Chief decade, of Staff all documentsDr. Meria Carstarphenthat were shredded by the agency over the past 12 years, anddetails of Cap Metro CEO Fred Gilliam’s retirement package.In the recent communications with Crews, the union furtherrequested Chief that Chief StarTran provide Chief the info. Chief Crews replied Chief last weekthat Schools most Operations of the info they Financial wanted was Performance available online Human in CapitalMetro’s Officer Comprehensive Officer Officer Annual Financial Officer Report, and the Officer restwas not info that StarTran is authorized to provide. – Lee Nichols16 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E JULY 3, 2009 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m