January 22, 2009

Because Garth Harries doesn’t have enough to do…

Written by Helen @ 9:11 am
   

Over the past week or so, we and others have written about the DOE’s Garth Harries. He’s in charge of the Portfolio office, which controls the closure and opening of schools, charter school development, and Career and Technical Education programs, among other large-scale projects. Harries has newly been dispatched to evaluate (and probably remake) the special-education system within the public schools. It’s no stretch to say, Harries’ plate is, essentially, loaded.

Now comes news that Harries has been chosen for a prestigious executive management training program sponsored by the Broad Foundation, designed to “prepare prominent leaders from education, military, business, nonprofit and government sectors to lead urban public school systems.” The program spans ten months and includes six extended weekend workshops in cities across the United States, after which, the “Broad Center will help place participants in urban school districts as superintendents and senior executives.”

Broad program graduates have been placed at the heads of school systems in 37 cities across 23 states, and in dozens of leadership slots in non-urban settings. Which forces the questions: Where, exactly, is Harries going? And what, exactly, will happen to his many, many projects and myriad responsibilities, if and when he exits New York City for greener pastures? Or, is this a first step into the well-shined shoes of Joel Klein, should the day come when the current chancellor leaves the scene? The answers will, of course, be closely guarded. But what’s certain is that an already-full plate is now brimming over. Can one person — even a super-capable “analyst and mechanic of large operations,” according to DOE spokesman David Cantor – juggle it all?Update: As of Monday February 2, Harries will devote 100% of his estimable energies to special education, according to Deputy Chancellor Marcia Lyles’ testimony on January 29th, before the City Council’s Education Committee.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

Powered by WordPress