To run long-struggling South High School, the Columbus school district has won a federal turnaround grant that will pay for an outside group. The outside manager would take over the school this fall. It has issued a request for proposals seeking an education-management organization. The experts say ” this is the first time in Ohio that a traditional public school district has opted to outsource the daily operations of a school.” and “The South grant is part of $5.3 million that the district will receive from the School Improvement Grant program. The rest will be used to overhaul Fairwood, Heyl and Lincoln Park elementariness.” The fewer than half its students earn a diploma – the average over five years was 47.5 percent, the south was eligible for the grant. However the district thinks it has improved since previous overhauls that brought in new staffs and programs. South’s state grade climbed a rung, to a B, last year. Superintendent Gene Harris says “the principal and roughly 65 other employees will stay in place in this overhaul. The outside group will be in charge of staff training and working with parents and community members to improve the school.” “The reaction of the staff has been fine,” Harris said. “We’re hopeful that they’ll look at it as additional support.” He also said that the “School-board member Mike Wiles said he has high hopes that an outside group can tackle the low graduation rate. But there are non-academic issues such as poverty that make the task more difficult,” “I hope the (outside operator) is going to help with that,” said Wiles, who lives on the South Side and attended South. The Columbus has won in the second round of the School Improvement Grants. The US department of education requires the grant winners to apply the one of four methods, this are the hire a new principal and train teachers; replace most of the staff; convert the school to a charter or let an outside management group take over; or, close the school. The Columbus teachers union has been critical of the district’s previous overhaul methods because many schools were revamped by replacing staff members. The Union leaders don’t think that alone will improve schools. South’s overhaul method, called a “restart,” is considered aggressive. andi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, which represents educators in Cincinnati and Cleveland. said that ” The takeover method isn’t proven”. Weingarten was in Columbus today to speak to superintendents, including Harris, about district-union collaboration. “It’s tough to turn around schools,” Weingarten said. “At the end of the day, we need innovation, but we need a track record of success.” This is that the outsourcing is the thing that can help the companies problem wherein it finds solution to every problem of the company. Most of the people want an outsourcing because they know that they will be rising immediately. They will be successful and be the best after all. Outsourcing is the good choice. So that people choose this technique or strategy.
Reference:
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/07/15/south_high.html
