Fulton Schools superintendent Robert Avossa is streamlining the central office in a reorganization that will result in fewer top level administrators and positions directly supporting kids.
The restructuring will affect about 60 positions, out of a workforce of 14,000. It is not expected to include a net reduction in jobs. Some of the changes will include reassignment of people from the central office to regional offices where they will work on instructional and curriculum programs to assist or coach teachers on specific needs. Other job will be redefined and people in those jobs will have to reapply to them or other open jobs.
Some campuses could get additional instructional coaches to help struggling kids. Others could get more guidance on launching new programs.
The change will take effect in July.
“Fulton County Schools is such a large system that you have to find a balance between the administration building and individual schools,” said Julia Bernath, a Fulton school board member. "Our system is trying to put the right people in the position to do their best work. Some people may have to rethink their jobs and what their capabilities are.”
The change begins in the executive ranks. Two area superintendents who are retiring at the end of the school year will not be replaced. That will bring the number of area superintendents down to four.
New jobs are being created and will be posted this month. They include positions for a program specialist for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and an athletics director. Other jobs have been realigned to support local principals and students in one of four new geographic groupings of elementary, middle and high schools. The clusters are being called "learning communities" and have been established in the northeast, northwest, central and south.
The central office reorganization follows similar shuffling of staff in other metro Atlanta school systems headed by superintendents in their first year on the job.
In February, Atlanta Public Schools superintendent Erroll Davis announced that 64 positions in finance, human resources, and communications were being either eliminated or reclassified to save the district money and better support schools.
That same month, the DeKalb school board approved Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson's plan to reclassify jobs and alter salaries to drive more resources to schools. School officials say the change could save the district $5.6 million this year.
Fulton's reorganization is designed to cut down on the lag in response time to principals who need immediate help from the central office.
"My top priority as a new superintendent was to come in and spend my first year really understanding what’s working well and what we need to improve upon,” Avossa said. “What I heard loud and clear from our employees, particularly teachers and principals, is that the central office was not responsive enough and was not nimble enough to deal with ever changing situations. This idea that one central office can be something for everybody, it’s just not plausible. Our district needs are so vastly different that we need to differentiate our support to solve local issues.”
Still, some parents are concerned that the plan wasn't widely discussed with them.
"It's being held very, very closely at the school board and administration level," said parent Ed Svitil, who has a child in the gifted program at Hopewell Middle School.
The new structure, which will launch in July, will create teams that can direct their full attention to a learning community's needs and take ownership for gains and losses in student performance. Each group will have an area superintendent and about five other employees, Avossa said.
In the South Fulton Learning Community, Avossa said the alignment will allow Title I federal dollars for the education of the poor to be used strategically across campuses to increase staff to help more struggling students. Several South Fulton schools were among 10 Fulton campuses recently named on Georgia's "focus schools" list for weak standardized test or graduation performance.
"We can use federal dollars to provide additional math and English/language arts coaches to help students in those schools," Avossa said. "I think that is a key difference in the things we will be able to do."
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