Fariña to require more experienced superintendents who play stronger role in schools

Current school superintendents will soon have to reapply for their jobs and undergo new training, while new applicants will need several extra years of school-based experience to be eligible for the role, schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña announced Tuesday.

The city is reshaping the role of the 43 superintendents covered by the new regulations, whose main tasks today are to evaluate schools and principals. Now, they will be expected to provide more support to principals dealing with everything from the city’s prekindergarten expansion to students with special needs, even as they continue to evaluate them, senior Department of Education officials said on a conference call with reporters.

While Fariña has already replaced most of the education department’s senior leadership, the latest changes mark the beginning of a shakeup among administrators who deal directly with individual schools. But it continues her push to elevate veteran educators to leadership roles: She appointed longtime educators as her top deputies, and has insisted that would-be principals spend seven years in schools before they apply to become school leaders.

The role of superintendents was greatly diminished under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who transferred many of their responsibilities to school-support networks that principals entered voluntarily. Fariña has vowed not to upend the network system for now, but by shifting more support duties back to superintendents and potentially hiring some new ones, her administration will now have a greater hand in what happens inside schools.

“These changes serve our greatest goal of directly improving classroom learning for students across the city,” Fariña said in a statement.

New superintendent candidates will now need to have worked in schools for at least 10 years, with at least three of those as a principal, according to the proposed regulation changes that must be approved by an oversight board in August. In the past, would-be superintendents needed three years experience as a principal or to have held a high-level role within the education department.

Superintendents could now be expected to interact more with families and to help school leaders manage the added training time and other elements of the new teachers contract, officials said. They must also now attend community events and show a commitment to arts education.

The current crop of 32 district superintendents and nine high school superintendents will have to reapply for their positions, but they will not be held to the same 10-year-experience requirement as future candidates. Still, all but six of the 43 current superintendents already meet the new experience requirements, according to the city. (The superintendents who oversee special districts for older students and those with severe disabilities are not covered by the rule changes.)

The superintendents must pass through a new application process that is now online and will require essays and references, the city said. The officials said they expect to rehire “the vast majority” of the sitting superintendents.

The city will train the superintendents using a two-year, $750,000 grant from the Wallace Foundation, which was also a major funder of the New York City Leadership Academy, Bloomberg’s training program for new principals. Department officials said this would be the first time superintendents took part in a group training, something they said would lead to more uniformity across the school system.

Current and new superintendents, as well as potential candidates for the job, will receive three weeks of summer training followed by monthly workshops and individual coaching during the school year, according to a Wallace Foundation spokeswoman. As part of the grant, the city will also “re-write” superintendents’ job description, said the spokeswoman, Jessica Schwartz.