Principal For a Day:
Follow-Up & Feedback with Jane Pauley
By Sybil Maimin

They were there in force to share their stories and get feed-back about the extraordinary experiences they had had a few days previously as “Principal for a Day” (PFAD) in a New York City public school. They included celebrities, CEOs, elected officials, a fireman, and “just plain folk.” Education Update’s Editor in Chief and publisher, Pola Rosen, was a PFAD in the Bronx. Some of the city’s most powerful figures came to the Great Hall at Cooper Union to salute the volunteers, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg and an entourage of top aides, the president and members of the City Council, Chancellor Harold Levy and members of the Board of Education, and Randi Weingarten, president of the Teachers Union.

Moderators Belzberg and TV news anchor Jane Pauley asked for reactions to the day. A parent volunteering in the school his son attends (which the parent also attended as a child) was surprised and pleased by changes, especially the policy of partnering a child with the same teacher for six years. A man in a wheelchair reported a “heartwarming day that he will always remember” at a school for the disabled. He spoke to the students about “possibilities” and reminded them that “success comes not from your arms or legs, but from your head and heart.” Edith Everett, former CUNY trustee and an education activist, was both “exhilarated and depressed” by the Bushwick, Brooklyn school she visited. The floor that housed 12 kindergartens did not have a toilet; the tots had to use one in the basement. Twenty-eight 220 volt air conditioners were not useable because the school is wired for 110 volts. She was rewarded by meeting a hard-working principal, fine teachers, and “third graders equal to those you would find in a good private school.” A volunteer who found only fifty books in the school library reported she wrote to 100 friends asking them to donate funds for more books. Another PFAD discovered that PS 161 in Harlem was in terrible shape three years ago but has made dramatic improvements after being put in the Chancellor’s District which entitles it to extra funding.

Mayor Bloomberg stated that, “education is the number one focus of my administration,” also pointed out that “choices have to be made and a balance must be found” among the many necessary public services. “All agree that our children must get a better education,” he said. “We will find a way.” One way is explored by Principal for a Day. As expressed by PENCIL’s Belzberg, “Our schools will thrive when our citizens work with schools collectively.”#

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