NYC Schools Official Picked to Head Recovery School District in New Orleans (LA)

April 7, 2011

The state superintendent of education has made his pick for the next official to oversee most New Orleans public schools, settling on a relatively young deputy chancellor from New York City who has cut his teeth on many of the same issues awaiting him here: tight budgets, overstretched school facilities and widespread frustration surrounding school reform efforts.

In stepping in to head the sta te’s Recovery School District, John White, New York’s deputy chancellor for talent, labor and innovation, would go from one reform battle to another.

He would succeed Paul Vallas, who during  his four-year tenure has wielded a state mandate to transform the way schools in New Orleans are run, turning over most of them to charter organizations that have their own say on budgets and curriculum.

State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek will be asking the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for authority to appoint the next RSD superintendent at a special meeting Friday.

Clear signs of progress

School reform has produced some clear signs of progress. Scores on standardized tests, which were at dismal lows in many city schools, are on the upswing. But White will have to find a way to preserve those gains and turn around the 20 or so New Orleans schools that the state still runs directly — a group that continues to lag.

At 35, White has never run his own district. But he is a veteran of the contentious school reform push led by Joel Klein, the man New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg put in charge of turning around New York City schools almost a decade ago. As a member of Klein’s office, White helped oversee the process of shutting down failing schools and finding space for new ones, often in the face of staunch community resistance. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer once declared that White had the “worst job ever.”

In a statement Wednesday, Pastorek said White’s “ability to build partnerships with diverse groups and under contentious situations” will be “crucial.”

Pastorek has been scrutinizing candidates for months to find a replacement for Vallas, who is moving on to help rebuild school systems in earthquake-ravaged areas of Haiti and Chile.

Frustrating searc h, fierce competition

In a recent interview, Pastorek described a frustrating search and fierce competition for talent. He came close to choosing Kaya Henderson, who served as deputy chancellor of Washington, D.C., public schools under Michelle Rhee, only to see Washington promote her to acting head of schools there.

In choosing White, he is getting someone who has operated in a school system that parallels New Orleans in many ways.

Bloomberg effectively took over New York City schools in 2002, wresting control from a system of 32 local school districts that had left many schools underperforming. Klein, his pick as school chancellor, de-emphasized central organization by giving unprecedented control of school budgets and other matters to principals.

Likewise, the state of Louisiana took over most New Orleans public schools in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and placed them in the Recovery School District. It has turned over more than two-thirds of them to charter groups that operate independently and has plans to charter even more.

In the case of both New York and New Orleans, the final word is yet to be written on the success or failure of such sweeping moves.

Public opinion in New York is running against the mayor’s reforms. An NY1-Marist poll last week found almost two thirds of those surveyed disapprove of Bloomberg’s managing of the city’s schools.

For his part, White has picked up both admirers and critics.

Stringer, Manhattan’s borough president, gives White glowing marks for the way he’s managed to navigate what he calls a “schism” in New York over the mayor’s agenda. Stringer said that he has organized “war rooms” to