I am sure I was not the only principal huddled around a computer, trying to listen "between the lines" during the Chancellor's address about the budget last week. Unfortunately, there was no more clarity about what to expect in the loss of funds, but it was extremely clear that we are facing incredibly difficult times, requiring very hard choices about staffing and layoffs. I do not envy these decisions; there is so much at stake.

When I started Arts & Lettersfour years ago, it was soon after the initiative to end forced hiring. The ability to hire my own staff, carefully and alongside respected colleagues and school planners, was the most essential ingredient in creating this school.

Today I was interviewed for a video highlighting the inquiry work that our teachers do here at Arts & Letters. This video was funded by the Department of Education to celebrate "innovation" in our schools. This kind of innovation is ONLY possible because I chose my teachers, one by one, and cultivated a culture of curiosity, inquiry and innovation. In fact, I never would have become a principal without the ability to do this. I cannot imagine being accountable for the success of my students without control over the most important factor in their learning: hiring and developing highly effective teachers, committed to our school's vision and to continuously improving their practices.

With these layoffs, the "last in, first out" rules, and the possibility of "bumping," we risk losing this most essential ingredient. While I listened last week, I thought of the newer teachers who work here, some of the most effective I've seen, who could be lost with no attention paid to their success, or to the effectiveness of their more senior colleagues. While many of my experienced teachers are extremely strong, I would not say that number of years is the only measure of their impact on student learning. And in fact, I believe that every one of my teachers would want to be recognized for their teaching skills, not only for the number of years "in the system."

I understand that the situation is complex and political, and that the budget woes are extreme. But for me, this is personal too. I believe -- as a NYC public school parent and principal -- that we should expect the best from our public schools, and that a public school education should be well-rounded, meaningful, rigorous, and joyful.

In a time of much difficulty, I sincerely hope that the DOE administration and the union leadership can come to an approach that would give principals (who are in every other way responsible for the quality of education in their schools) a fair and reasonable amount of authority to make the best decisions for their schools. Our city bestows trust upon principals to drive school improvement, to keep our children safe, to lead teachers to excellence, to support families in crisis, and even to tally lunches and immunizations. Surely, principals should also be able to make reasoned decisions about the quality of our teachers.

In difficult situations with our students, we tell them to look for the third way, a compromise, or a different look, at the problem at hand. To find this "third way"-- especially in a time crunch -- we need our most creative, most flexible, open-minded thinkers (the kind of people we want our public schools graduates to be) at the table to come to a solution that will benefit our children -- yours and mine.