The Orleans Parish School Board has had quite the week.
Within seven days, it has contended with a school shooting, a budget crunch that almost left teachers unpaid, demands from the state superintendent that an outside party take over the district’s accounting and now Superintendent Anthony Amato has resigned.
Amato’s departure comes eight months after state lawmakers signed Act 193, which gave Amato almost unprecedented control over the city’s schools while limiting the powers of a school board that often opposed him. At that point, the public voted out the five board members who had tried to secretly fire Amato.
Since then, the new board has slowly begun to criticize Amato as well, saying that he keeps vital information from them and often makes decisions without input or support of the board.
Support for Amato declined following confirmation that an employee asked school employees to board up Amato’s house before Hurricane Ivan then encouraged them to falsify time sheets. An internal investigation deemed the action “improper,” which led to the termination of the employee.
Criticism of the superintendent came to a head in recent weeks amidst financial projections that showed a school system unable to make payroll for approximately 12,000 employees. The school system is the largest employer in the city.
The state is now investigating $71 million dollars of federal expenditure that board members called “wasteful.”
In response to a financial crisis that has left the schools nearly bankrupt, the state superintendent Cecil Picard declared that the only solution was to contract out financial management at a cost of $1.5 million.
School board members expressed concern over the cost but agreed on outside intervention during their meeting Monday.
The board will take out a loan for $50 million. The only budget increase will be for additional police security, most likely in response to two school shootings in the past month.
The day before he quit, Amato was ordered to terminate $10 million worth of contracts and halt all expansions. His plans for a magnet Lusher High were quashed amid serious concern from supporters of the proposed school, who say that Lusher Middle and Elementary are two of the few schools in the system that are racially and socio-economically integrated.
The few who still support Amato say that he has raised test scores and is entirely dedicated to education.
“There’s abundant evidence of his extraordinary commitment of time and creativity focused on curriculum, academics and kids,” said Brian Sweeney, a community activist, in a recent Times-Picayune article.
