Empowerment costs School District 26 $2.5M

The &#8220Empowerment Schools” created by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and School Chancellor Joel Klein to give city schools more autonomy has resulted in a huge loss for School District 26 in Queens.
Established two years ago with just 48 schools, the autonomy zone pilot program has now expanded to 331 and was created to streamline the bureaucracy of the central and regional Department of Education (DOE).
It is intended to empower principals by giving them &#8220greater discretion over budgets, educational programming, teacher development, school scheduling and hiring.”
It is District 26 - comprised of 15 schools, none which will participate in the program - that will feel the effects of the &#8220streamlining.”
Rob Caloras, president of Community District Education Council #26 in Region 3 estimates that they will lose approximately $2.5 million dollars, to the empowerment zone program, costing the District one of their superintendents and many of their office support staff.
Considering the program a success, the city reports that schools in the autonomy zone outperformed citywide averages as well as their own past performance prior to entering the program, with 80 percent meeting their target goals. In Queens 38 schools have been invited to participate in the expanded &#8220empowerment” program.
The program Caloras says, &#8220is a tad bit paradoxical. The Chancellor created the zone to free principals from a bureaucracy that he created four years ago,” and with the empowerment zone he has in effect created a &#8220new bureaucracy.”