New Talent In The AIO Corps

Since the AIO position was created four(?) years ago, there's been grumbling about AIOs being mostly former principals who were not necessarily the best leaders for the job, just the most available.  At the same time, there's been grumbling from AIOs that the position was ill-defined and essentially a dead-end job.

Well, chalk another one up to my corps of excellent (and anonymous) commenters, who often seem to know what's going on before anyone else.  They started mentioning the name Jose Torres at least a couple of weeks ago, and it turns out that Torres is what I think may be the first out of town AIO in CPS.  His job announcement seems to have showed up on the Broad Foundation website before anyone at CPS got around to mentioning it.   Funny that they call him a regional superintendent. Will the AIO position change with the reorg?  Maybe so. 

Comments

A New Business Plan for CPS by A.T. Kearney

"Operations. Executives know how to use strategic tools to improve efficiency and cut costs. In a multinational firm, for example, "combining and standardizing back-office administrative functons such as five accounting departments into one "shared services" center is a typical strategy to improve service and cutting costs." Transfer this approach to public schools, ad the results can be just as meaningful. "Currently, each of the 24 (AIO) different academic areas in Chicago must work with the CPS central office to obtain services in areas such as HR administration, procurement and maintenance. By consolidating these groups into six shared service centers the district can provide better services at a lower cost." This could be why he was provided a different title.

wow -- sounds like they're heading back to regions after all. thanks for sending this.

is the kearney thing being implemented?

Is he--maybe--just taking over for Domingo Trujillo?

Alexander, Shame on you. You seem to imply that being an experienced principal makes one a bad AIO. I know the current administration feels that educators are useless, but it sounds like you agree. It is unfortunate that educators are so totally disrespected. As long as leadership feels that way, they will continue having problems implementing their plans. It is, after all, the principals who have to implement the grand plans of the central office.

The Kearney plan is being implemented.

Educators are certainly not useless, but I have to tell you, from up close-- being a good principal is not a good enough prep for being an AIO. The skills overlap, but add a dozen other higher management skills to AIO-ing.

YES, knowing instruction is key, but AIOs need to be principal coaches (developing each principal individually-- much different than coaching teachers); they need to manage large am'ts of data and OWN the results, even as they struggle with how to serve each school well (due to time, $, conflicting system priorities); they need to walk (and talk) well in the Clark Street world, the schoolhouse world, and the poorly-defined world of the Area; they need to manage a staff that Clark Street also pretends to manage.

There are lots of principals who can do some, or even most, of these things for their ONE building, but doing it for 25 schools is different. So the question is, WHERE do you get the skills to do this AIO work, if not the principalship?

All good points, but in order to gain the respect of the principals and the teachers in their schools, a good AIO needs the skills you mentioned plus the successful field experience of being a principal.
People at the school level have little respect for anyone at the central office these days. They feel that there is no support system and that young MBAs are coming into their schools and telling them what to do when they come with no implementation experience or skills. AIO qualifications should start with a successful tenure as a principal and then build from there. Without that base, they will struggle to implement system goals and objectives and they will find it nearly impossible to gain the respect of those of us at the school level.

[ed jones]

Is this the same Jose Torres that was fired from the San Ysidro public schools after complints from the Principal's that he acted like a general and was demoted from his job in the Anne Arundel county public schools?

Ed

More on Jose Torres
By Chris Moran
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

July 3, 2002

SAN YSIDRO – San Ysidro School District trustees have asked former superintendent Grace Kojima to run the district until a permanent replacement is hired after the November elections.

Trustees voted unanimously Monday night, with trustee Ernestine Jones absent, to offer Kojima a six-month contract that would start Monday.

Kojima said yesterday she will accept the offer but wants to find out more about who her top assistants would be before she does.

"I really think it (the district) needs to be stabilized, and I can't do it all. I need some help," Kojima said.

She said she had no preconditions for returning, but she preferred that assistant superintendent for personnel Alice de la Torre and interim Superintendent Christine Aranda stay on to help her. They both plan to retire within weeks.

Kojima, 65, a resident of Coronado, was the San Ysidro superintendent from July 1998 until October, when she retired after a 42-year career as an educator. Since her retirement, she has continued to be active in San Ysidro through the Women's Club and the chamber of commerce.

Last month, the board fired her successor, Jose Torres. The district hired Torres in October after a national search. He started the job in November and within a month trustees were on the verge of firing him. Last month, the board removed him. Trustees said he wasn't a good fit for the district and his authoritarian style didn't mesh with his subordinates. Torres said
the board disagreed with the reforms he proposed to turn around a district that has some of the county's lowest test scores.

Trustee Jean Romero proposed bringing back Kojima.

"I'm happy about it because we can continue with the operation of the district in kind of an organized manner. It was our only option at the time that was feasible," she said.

Romero said that it made sense to bring in an experienced hand to oversee preparation for the new school year, including principal and teacher hiring and teacher training.

The board is offering Kojima the same pay as Torres, whose contract called for a $125,000 annual salary.

Board members Yolanda Hernandez, Romero and Juan Trujillo are up for re-election this year. Romero said the board decided it would be best not to hire a permanent superintendent until after the elections, so the new board can choose the next leader of the district, which has 5,000 kindergarten through eighth-grade pupils at seven schools.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Moran: (619) 498-6637; chris.moran@uniontrib.com

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This is completely sad. Don't they check before they hire?