New School Offices Open for Business in Each Borough

It seems that geography is back in style. New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña took another step toward re-centralizing the city school system by opening new support centers in each borough last week, and making her first official visit to one in Brooklyn on Tuesday.

The move is a deliberate reversal of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's efforts to decentralize the city schools back in 2003. Bloomberg's chancellor, Joel Klein, often criticized the old bureaucracy and didn't want schools linked together based solely on geography. Instead, he created networks that schools from every borough could join, supported by teams of experts.

But Fariña found that system educationally inconsistent and has now replaced those 55 networks with of seven Borough Field Support Centers. Brooklyn and Queens will each get two centers because of their size while the other boroughs each get one. Fariña said she was confident these new offices will serve as critical partners to school principals.  

“The caliber of leadership within each BFSC [Borough Field Support Center] will help lift up the quality of each school, and help cultivate new partnerships between schools," she said in a statement on Tuesday.

Yuet Chu, a former network leader who is now running the Manhattan office, said her team "will provide timely, wrap-around support from operations to instruction to services for unique learners."

Staff members at the centers will total about 700, including deputies responsible for teaching and learning, finance and human resources, operations, student services, special education and English Language Learners. The administration said making these offices geographically-based would help schools get hands-on support more easily. Superintendents can make requests for principals, or principals can contact the offices directly for help with things like budgeting.

The centers are not conceived as a main point of entry for families. Parents would continue to access their District Family Advocates as well as other members of their superintendent's team. The Department of Education said those who can't get what they need, however, can turn to the borough centers.

A spokesman said the agency would post contact information online for staff specialists serving schools and families. 

Maggie Moroff, a special education policy coordinator with the group Advocates for Children, said she was still waiting for more clarity around this whole process.

"Obviously, parents had a horrible time getting the help they needed under the old system," she said. "So, if this new system actually allows parents to connect easily with people who can solve their problems, that will be a huge improvement."

Under the old system, some especially savvy parents learned who to call at their school's network for help. Amber Decker of Brooklyn, who has a son with special needs entering fifth grade, said she hoped the new borough centers would be an improvement.

"One good thing now is once parents find out where the school support centers are, who they are, how they work, it will be real easy for them to go because they're at least in the borough" she said. However, she also worried but shrinking 55 networks into 7 new borough offices might create an even bigger bureaucracy.