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Friday, July 12, 2002

By Carmen J. Lee, Post-Gazette Education Writer

Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent John Thompson yesterday blamed a decision by three local foundations to suspend funding to the district on the school board majority's micromanagement.

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Thompson said he wanted to apologize to district students, staff and residents "if I've caused any embarrassment to them."

But he did not believe he was the reason officials with the Grable Foundation, The Heinz Endowments and the Pittsburgh Foundation complained that discord and division among school officials led them to withdraw more than $3.5 million from the city schools.

"This board has a national reputation for micromanagement," Thompson said in a telephone interview from Pittsburgh International Airport. "There has to be a new mindset. The board is supposed to set policy and the superintendent is to run the day-to-day operations of the district. I'm totally committed to running the district's day-to-day operations."

Thompson is out-of-town this week attending different superintendent conferences, the costs of which, he pointed out, were covered by grant funding.

While en route to a session in Canada yesterday, Thompson said he considered cutting short his trip after learning about the foundations' announcement Tuesday. But he and members of his staff determined there was nothing more he could do or say beyond what had been done by other school officials.

He said when he returns to work on Monday, he wants to organize a meeting with officials from the three foundations and some board members to discuss the situation.

Because foundation officials had expressed concerns about the relationships among board members and administrators, Thompson said he wasn't surprised that the district's three largest foundation contributors decided to take action.

"Any time we tried to get new funding, the key thing they kept bringing up was the governance," he said.

But Thompson maintained that the severity of the move was unexpected.

He said when other superintendents at a conference he attended in Lake Tahoe, Nev., this week learned about the foundations' suspending their funding, they couldn't believe it.

"Everyone was trying to figure out what was going on," he said.

But he added that he was more concerned about damaging the relationships with the foundations he's tried to cultivate over the past two years than losing their money.

Because foundations have strong networks, this decision by The Heinz Endowments and the Grable and Pittsburgh foundations could make it difficult for the district to receive support from other foundations locally and nationally in the future, Thompson said.

Still, when the groups' letter about the decision criticized school officials' bickering and described a "sharp decline of governance, leadership and fiscal discipline," Thompson joined members of the board's minority in placing the blame on the majority members.

Officials from the foundations repeatedly declined to attribute their decision to the actions of a particular individual or group. But school board members Alex Matthews and Randall Taylor have, nonetheless, called for board President Jean Fink to resign from the board.

Fink has rejected the suggestion and complained that the foundations were using their financial support to blackmail the board at the expense of students.

She also has countered that Thompson has contributed to the divisiveness among school officials, such as when Matthews and Taylor were members of the previous board majority and Thompson said publicly he could muster the five votes he needed to get his ideas approved.

Thompson rejected any suggestion that he created divisiveness.

He complained that members of the majority have called meetings and hired financial consultants without including him or members of his staff.

He also acknowledged having disputes with members of the board majority. But he insisted those occurred when he believed their actions were financially or educationally irresponsible.

He cited as an example the board majority's decision to reopen Bon Air and Spring Garden elementary schools, which currently have projected enrollments of less than 60 pupils. Fink has said she believes the enrollments will grow when a principal is assigned and the beginning of school draws closer.

Thompson maintained that while school board interference in the daily operations of a district is a national problem, he was able to give his colleagues at the Lake Tahoe conference a good laugh when he told them about reopening the two elementary schools.

His contract even reveals an attempt to mold a collegial relationship between him and the board by spelling out that "the board pledges to work together constructively with superintendent to address the educational and financial issues facing the district." The contract also calls for board members to "refrain from individual interference with the administration of district policies."

Thompson said yesterday he didn't believe any one action by school officials, including Fink's resignation, would solve what he characterized as a deep-rooted problem among top school officials.

"You can't just have a couple of actions take place and then have things go back to the way they were," he said. "There has got to be a long-term, institutional change in the way we're thinking. It has to be a series of things to show the community that it's a new day."

But just as he did not believe Fink's resignation would solve the district's problems, Thompson said he had no plans to resign, despite facing this new challenge.

"We will continue to do everything possible to make this a world-class district," he said. "I know this community deserves better than this right now."