Monica Ortiz Campus Schools

Annotation

Campus creation was the means to providing the children of NYC with the opportunity to engage in the learning process in a personalize environment of their choice that was safe and orderly regardless of where they lived. However, campus settings are complex environments with multiple principals responsible for one building; each leader with his or her unique personality, experience, and educational commitment. This book delves into the concept of collaborative leadership in campus principals charged with the task of transitioning two large underperforming and violent schools to campuses of small schools while learning to collaboratively manage a campus. Campus management, a new form of school leadership and administration, required consensus building among diverse and at time, competing forces. Multiple principals were now collectively responsible for agreeing on how to best serve the greater campus community while considering the unique needs of their small schools. Their greatest challenge was not the hostility from the closing school community or reducing school violence or even the countless restructuring from central administration but rather dealing with each other.