Birks talks priorities, healing
Acting superintendent addresses critiques, says she wants to work with community
Acting Superintendent Carol Birks started this week as the administrative
head of Allentown School District, following the early exit of former Superintendent John Stanford.
Birks joins the district as it continues to see fallout from Stanford’s abrupt and controversial
departure less than a year into a five-year contract. Community members
have expressed distrust in the school board, although they pledged to support Birks in her new role.
Birks hit the ground running Monday, and in her first week, she visited a
handful of district schools and began holding meetings with her administration team.
Birks will serve in ASD three days a week until Dec. 16 as she transitions into the acting role full time. She is leaving her position as regional superintendent and chief schools officer with Booker T. Washington Academy, in New Haven and Hamden, Connecticut.
She will be paid $850 per day as acting superintendent.
School board President Nancy Wilt said the directors won’t begin to discuss what a permanent superintendent search will look like until board leadership reorganizes in December.
Birks said she would like to assume the superintendent position permanently. For now though, she’s focused on providing stability and building relationships with the ASD community.
“My key focus is to really work collaboratively with the school board of directors and everyone to ensure that we continue to build relationships, focus on learning, or the instructional core, which is the relationship between students, teachers and content,” Birks said. “I see that as my primary work right now.”
Birks sat down with The Morning Call this week to talk about why she came to Allentown and her priorities for the district moving forward. She also addressed critiques of her record and reflected on how she would have handled past roles differently.
Below is part of the conversation. Excerpts have been edited and in some cases paraphrased for length and clarity.
Why were you interested in this job and coming to Allentown?
“I am Allentown,” Birks said. “I looked at the demographics of this particular community. I grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut, a city that’s very similar in size [and] population. And just like many of the students who grew up here, I grew up in very challenging conditions as it relates to being in poverty.”
Birks went on to say neither of her parents completed high school, but they told her she could be successful by working hard.
“Research will suggest someone like me would not be sitting here today, working with such amazing people, as well as having such an executive role,” she said. “I’ve spent my life and the majority of my career fighting for equity, fighting for opportunities, as well as empowering people to do their best work in order to support students who live in urban centers, students who are of color, and students who live in poverty.”
Birks also thinks Allentown is a beautiful place with people who are “passionate about their commitment to the city.” She said she looks forward to working with the school board to make people feel safe, empowered, valued and loved.
What are your priorities and plans for the acting superintendent role?
Birks said her priority as acting superintendent is making sure students and staff feel supported, safe and part of decision-making processes.
When it comes to safety, Birks said both emotional and physical safety are top priorities. She said her administration will be looking at how people access buildings.
“I think we’re doing a great job,” she said. “But it’s about how people feel, and so there is always room for improvement.”
“Now, emotional safety, as we know, as a country, and as the world, we’ve been through a lot. So what do people need so that they feel emotionally safe, and that we’re taking care of the inner man, the inner being? I want to know from them.”
Birks also said her administration will be looking closely at “organizational systems and structures” to increase efficiency.
“I’ve begun talking to people within the organization, such as the central office team and our schoollevel team to learn how to have [ASD] organized in a way that they can do their best work in service to our children.”
What has your relationship and communication with the school board been like so far?
“It’s been great,” Birks said, adding that she has had one-on-one meetings with about half of the nine-member board. “The agenda was getting to know them, asking them, what do they love about this community and why are they committed to the work of this community?”
“They could be doing a lot of other things and it takes a lot of work to be a board member. [It was] just hearing their stories and sharing my story with them in more detail, and talking about ways that we can continue to work strongly and build a cohesive unit in service to our children.”
Would you say you feel supported by the board members you’ve spoken with?
“I do feel supported by the board. I believe that the board is committed to this community, and they want to see the best for the children as well as the families and the adults within this organization.”
“Of the board members I’ve met thus far, the theme that I’ve heard is that, ‘We love this community. I’m happy I live here. There are great people who live here. We love Allentown.’ “
Birks added that she will work with the board collaboratively to present a “united front.”
Have school board members identified any of their priorities for you?
“I’ve looked at some of the priorities the board has identified with previous administrations,” Birks said, noting math and reading scores, attendance, and district culture and climate as examples.
Community leaders have said they are skeptical of you as an outsider, but want to support you. How do you plan to build trust with community leaders? And how do you see yourself working with them?
“I don’t know everything, and I’m new to this community, and so I believe in building on the strengths of everyone.
“To be concrete, I’ll conduct some community forums, some town hall meetings. I will meet one on one with various individuals within the community to ask them some specific questions and hear what they have to say: ‘What’s going well within this community? What do you think are the areas of growth?’ And I think most importantly, ‘What gifts and talents do you bring that you think will help move this organization forward?’ “
Birks said she wants to hear from city and district community leaders to strategize on how they can “harness the collective geniuses of everyone within this community.” This includes sharing resources and services, and creating task forces to do outreach with district families.
How do you go about healing while there’s still some confusion and resentment over Stanford’s departure?
“It’s going to really focus on me doing some relationship building, being present for people, having my door open and being willing to listen. You have to do some serious listening and learning about this organization and what people need. And also give them an opportunity to share their stories, and what they feel should happen, and then honoring the past.
“We’re going to honor the past and get people to see themselves in the transition, and what they have to offer. My vision for the district is that we become one of the highest performing districts in Pennsylvania, and I believe that.”
You said at your first board meeting you weren’t fired from your superintendent position in Chester Upland. Community members are concerned you were fired from your superintendent position in New Haven Public Schools. Can you respond to this claim and explain your departure?
“When I was in New Haven, we had some great accomplishments, and I’m really proud of the work. Just like any organization, while I was in New Haven, the board and I decided we should go in another direction. There was change. The mayor sits on the board, [and] she had five seats on the board. And there’s two people who run for the board. And so there was a change in administration, so we decided to go in another direction.”
Birks said she and New Haven Public Schools mutually parted ways.
You were criticized during your time in New Haven for your support of charter schools. Can you explain your opinion?
“I think that parents should be afforded an opportunity to have a portfolio of schools to choose from for their children. All children have unique gifts and talents. And I think that families should have the opportunity to select what school they would like, especially a public school.”
Birks said she sat on the board for the Achievement First charter network in Hartford, Connecticut, and she saw how charter and community public schools were able to share resources and programs, such as actuarial tutors and career and college readiness programming.
“Charter schools are public schools, and they were designed to serve as laboratories for the traditional public schools, so that we can learn and share resources with each other,” she said. “To summarize, I believe in choice, that parents and families should have a choice of a portfolio of schools that are great.”
While you were superintendent in New Haven, you also received criticism for relying too heavily on educational consultants. Can you respond to this? Can you explain how you’ve worked with educational consultants in the past and whether you plan to use them in ASD?
“We utilized consultants when we thought it was appropriate to build capacity to help provide support to our staff when needed,” Birks said, adding she was a leadership consultant coaching principals at Booker T. Washington Academy before becoming its regional superintendent and chief schools officer.
“This is my second day here in Allentown, so I’m not sure what consultants, if any, that we need at this point. I want to do a real assessment and get to hear from staff and the board as to whether we need consultants at this point. But in my previous work, we’ve found having consultants beneficial, and the staff did, as well. We had people coach individuals. Sometimes you needed an accountability partner, who’s not right there on the dance floor with you, who can help you get on the balcony and do your best work.”
Birks added consultants can provide staff coaching, as well as organizational feedback in areas, such as technology, finances and human resources. She said consultants can also step in when their are staffing shortages. This can be helpful in large districts like Allentown, Birks said, but she added she will respect district unions before bringing in outside consultants for staffing.
The New Haven Independent reported that you hid payments to consultants in purchase orders. Can you respond to this?
“Any consultant that we utilized the board was aware of and approved. Any purchase order that we had the board was aware of.”
While you were in New Haven you also received criticism for cutting teacher positions in order to balance the budget. Can you respond to that criticism?
“We didn’t cut people. We reduced force. People did not lose their jobs. For example, if we found that there was a case load in a classroom and we could have used one teacher instead of three, we went to the one teacher so that we can free up funding.”
Birks said if there were more teachers than needed in a specific placement, they were reassigned to where they were needed.
“As the CEO of the organization ... I had to balance the budget, but I never compromised children and learning. I kept that as my primary focus, ensuring that kids had what they need to learn. It was portrayed that, ‘She cut all these teachers,’ that was not true. Actually, we partnered with the teachers union. We engaged them in the decision-making, and they came up with many ideas themselves. It wasn’t that people lost their jobs. We had other opportunities for them to secure other options. And then when it appeared that people were losing their jobs, we called them back.”
Would you have done anything differently in terms of reassigning teachers in New Haven?
“I thought everyone was with me. There’s this old adage, ‘Go slow to go fast.’ I would have taken more time to ensure that people really understood what we were trying to do and I would have spent more time getting broader consensus in support with this particular activity.”
You also received criticism for attempting to layoff part-time district employees in New Haven to balance the budget. Can you explain how you handled this situation?
“When I first went to New Haven, we didn’t have a position management system. We didn’t know who was hired, who worked here, who worked there. And what I learned in my past experience is that we had to really tighten it up. Think about it as a taxpayer or community member, you want your resources and your taxes going directly to the classroom, to children. When I first entered the district, the board told me that was one of the first priorities to get a handle on this part-time staff thing, because there were so many of them. And so as a result, the board asked me to do that and to reduce those positions. And then that changed.”
“What we did was in response to that we had a career fair. We worked with a local group on workforce development. All the parttime people whose positions were eliminated, they were able to come back and apply within the district. So in hindsight, when I knew that we had to mitigate this budget, I would have arranged for other opportunities for people first, as opposed to afterward, so that’s a lesson learned for me.”
How do you see yourself working with the teachers union here in Allentown?
“I’m going to set up standard meetings with the teachers union. I want to meet with the president as well as her leadership team ... because I want to hear their voices. I’m used to, when we’re making key decisions for the district as it relates to curriculum or such, that they’re at the table, hearing the presentations, as well. I want to work very closely with them. There’s research that suggests that the teacher is the primary driver in improving student achievement. We have to make sure that teachers have the right resources, feel supported, cared for. I like to use the ‘L’ word and a lot of people don’t — loved — so that they can do their best work. So I want to work with them very closely as key partners in this work.”
Birks added that she had close relationships with the teachers unions in all her past districts.
Before he left, Stanford said he had plans for more family and parent engagement in the district. Is that something you see as a priority? Do you have thoughts already on what that could look like?
“I believe in family empowerment. We can involve them, that’s what we want. When we engage and empower them, we find out what they want and what they need,” Birks said.
Birks said she has begun talking with her administrative team to see what opportunities ASD already has available to parents. She also said she wants to establish a parent advisory council, consisting of two parents from each school who serve as her advisers. Parents will give Birks feedback and suggest initiatives they want to see in ASD.
Are there any other initiatives or priorities I didn’t ask you about that you wanted to highlight?
“I think it’s going to be important to really get some input from our administrative team to tell me what they need as it relates to their leadership growth and development. Because oftentimes, they don’t get to take care of themselves, and it’s important that they can learn and grow.”
Birks also said she wants ASD to use data and implement school quality reviews. She wants to analyze how the district uses resources, whether that’s people or funding. Climate and culture are also priorities for her within her administrative team.
“Those are some some areas that I’m thinking about, but I want to hear from them and see what they need,” she said.