Transformative Leadership

According to Dr. Joe Donaldson, author of Defining the Status Quo, "transformative leadership requires democratic collaboration and an understanding of what it means to lead collaborative and relationally rather than authoritatively." As an employee of the Chicago Public School, the road to transformative seems long. This essay will address some challenges faced by Chicago Public Schools if it were to have transformative leadership within the organization, and the professional development needed to accomplish the task.

Chicago Public Schools is the third largest school districts in the United States, and it manages over 600 public elementary and high schools in Chicago, Illinois . CPS is governed by locally elected school boards. That board elects a Superintendent, and they hire administrative staff. That administrative staff help oversee the 600 schools, and develop policy and procedures to ensure that the school are being run effectively and efficiently. Each of the 600 schools has their own hierarchy of leadership starting with the Local School Council (LSC), which is comprised of parents, teachers, and community stakeholders. The LSC elects the Principal. The Principal hires the Assistant Principal, the faculty, and so on. Since the Chicago Public School system is so large, it is difficult to uniformly transform the system. Although there is encouraged collaboration throughout the system, the final decision rests with the superintendent and the school board. An example of this is the currently proposed school closures. Due to a financial deficit, the Chicago Public School has proposed to close approximate 54 schools at the end of this school year. They informed the schools that there are being closed due to the schools being under-utilized. Each school has a story on why they should remain open, but the story of Buckingham Special Education Center seems to show an example of the need for transformative leadership. Buckingham Special Education Center is a school that has been identified for closure. Buckingham is one of three public Therapeutic Day School that is a part of the Chicago Public Schools. They service students with an IEP who have been identified with an emotional disorder. The students that attend the school have been kicked out of a general education setting because they cannot effectively manage their emotions, and it adversely impacts their learning in the general education. The school currently has a population of 39 students, but has room for 50 students. Buckingham is not a community school, and does not recruit. They receive students by referral from the Chicago Public School's Office of Specialized Services. The referrals stopped in January 2013. The staff at Buckingham feel that they are being penalized for not have enough students, but the reason why that don't have enough student is because they have not being referred the students. There is plenty of student s that is in need of this type of placement, but they are being placed in the private setting.

The Chicago School Board has coordinated town hall meetings where parents, students, staff, and all stakeholders can come to advocate for their school, and given reasons why the school should stay