Downsizing North Ave: The First Step in the Right Direction

On March 11^th, many administrators and central office workers found confirmation of the rumors swirling through the North Ave halls – job cuts were coming and they would be large. Baltimore City Public Schools Chief Executive Officer, Andres Alonso announced that $110 million dollars would be cut from the central office budget, along with approximately 300 jobs. This funding reform would then allow Dr. Alonso to redistribute more money directly to the schools, allowing principals to have increased autonomy and decision making power to distribute per pupil funds.

While the redistribution of the budget and deflation of the bloated North Ave bureaucracy represents steps in the right direction to reform our troubled schools – they are only the first of many necessary steps. To ensure meaningful reform is supported by the central office, North Ave must create a cohesive environment and staff that is able to effectively respond to the needs of the community, schools, teachers, and administrators.

To ensure change in our schools, staff members must be able to communicate and collaborate with each other. Currently, communication within the school system is blocked by a phone system where more than half of the listed phone numbers for employees are wrong. The organization of the building must also be completely overhauled so that employees can find each other through the maze of hallways. North Ave employees literally have created sets of directions to guide staff and visitors to their offices through unmarked doors and dead-end hallways. If an employee gets lost finding their way to that office, forget a helpful secretary pointing you in the right direction – they have no idea themselves or are downright offended to be interrupted from playing solitaire! Same goes for happening to dial one of the many wrong extensions – expect to be hung up on.

Organizing a building and phone system so that employees can actually work together may seem like simple and “duh” suggestions, but they lay the foundation for more meaningful reform to occur. The next necessary step would be basic training on customer service and how to appropriately handle community and parent inquires, but that issue will have to wait for another day.