Schools

Superintendent Plans to Reshape Montclair Schools

Eight new positions will be created to focus on teacher effectiveness and come with a price tag of more than $800,000 in 2013-14, but the overall school budget is down 3.3 percent from this year's.

Out with the old ways of teaching, in with the new. 

As Superintendent Penny MacCormack continues her first year leading the district, she unveiled Monday how she will reshape Montclair schools. Looking to next year, the superintendent wants to restructure central office and even rename it “Central Support.” 

The district will focus more on teacher effectiveness in the classroom, which MacCormack said will increase student achievement. To increase teacher effectiveness, the district will create a new academic support structure. 

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“Teacher effectiveness is in,” said MacCormack. “The more effective the teacher, the more learning happens in the classroom.” 

The assistant superintendent position and academic support staff at Central Support will be rearranged, suggested MacCormack. Current positions will be altered in favor of content administrators focusing specifically on math, science and social studies. There will also be a new position created — costing $118,000 — to supervise kindergarten through third grade reading. 

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These content supervisors will be led by a assistant superintendent who will be charged with focusing on academic achievement.  

Because teacher effectiveness is tied to principal leadership, said MacCormack, she plans on creating four new dean of students positions to reduce the burden of paperwork for principals, which will allow principals to spend more time in the classroom and offer more feedback to teachers.

The dean positions are necessary, said MacCormack, in order for the district to ask those principals be better “instructional leaders.”

Deans will be hired at Watchung, Northeast, Bullock and Bradford elementary schools, where student populations are the highest. The deans will also spend time in the classroom to provide additional teacher feedback. The cost is estimated to be $400,000 for the four positions. 

For Montclair schools to develop and retain talented teachers, MacCormack wants to create two chief talent officer positions. The soul focus for these positions, said MacCormack, will be to recruit, develop and retain talent in Montclair Schools and provide feedback to teachers. 

“We do want to recruit the best and the brightest out there,” said MacCormack, “as well as [retain them]. ... To have these things actually happen, you have to have a staff dedicated to these ideas.” 

The two talent officers will take over the responsibility for the eliminated position of special assistant to the superintendent. The new positions will come with a price tag of $236,000. 

MacCormack also wants to add a fifth Effective School Solutions councilor, which offer in-district guidance and therapy for Montclair’s struggling general and special education students. The cost will be $120,000.  

These councilors, said MacCormack, “are helping some of our neediest students right here at home” and have proven to be effective at increasing student achievement.  

The dean and chief talent officer positions, said MacCormack, will also to create a “bridge” between Central Support and the schools.  

“Because when you don’t have enough folks spending enough time in the schools, there is a disconnect,” said MacCormack. 

MacCormack also proposed to spend more of her own time in a leadership role. Next year, she expects to spend a quarter of her time doing principal instruction and offering feedback.

MacCormack justified the new positions by noting the increased time of administrators in the schools, and the additional work for the new teacher and principal evaluations.

“If we really want to have our teacher ... principal evaluation system implemented with high quality, we want to improve teacher effectiveness through those measures, then we have to have staff that own those jobs.” 

The positions will also not increase the school budget. The $111.5 million preliminary budget for the 2013-14 school year marks a decease of 3.3 percent from the previous year’s.


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