Greetings:
To those who don’t know me, I want to introduce myself. To those who do know me from my past
life at the Charter Schools Institute at SUNY, I want to say hello in my new role as chief executive officer of the New York City Center for Charter
School Excellence. To all, I want to convey some thoughts about the Center and its role. These are preliminary given that I have been on
the job for a month—and more importantly have not had the chance to talk directly with you about what you expect, what you want and what you
need.
First and foremost, I want to be very clear about my new role at the Center and my old role as authorizer at
SUNY. I am no longer an authorizer. I am pretty sure that the last thing you need in your lives is another authorizer, quasi or
otherwise. The Charter Schools Act, for all the important autonomy that it gives you, burdens you enough with double, triple and sometimes
quadruple oversight. I point this out not only because I was an authorizer, but because I know that sometimes the Center itself has been
perceived by some as authorizer like—with the only difference that you are supposed to welcome us voluntarily into your schools.
Obviously we must do better.
Doing not just better, but doing well in providing you the support and services that will increase the
quantity of high quality charter schools is of course our mission and the reason I took the job at the Center. And while I haven’t yet
had the chance to talk with many of you, I have read each and every comment (twice) that you provided last winter when the Center commissioned an
evaluation of its progress to date. So have the staff and they have taken them to heart.
Many of those comments were positive and are a tribute not only to the hardworking and dedicated people that
are here still, but, of course, to the amazing efforts of Paula Gavin and Matt Candler. Each played a critical role in bringing the Center to
life and initiating the programs and services that you have found valuable. Without them there simply would be no Center.
However, in the spirit of accountability that I know you hold, yourselves to, just as you hold the
Center, it must also be said that a number of comments that the Center received were not favorable. Too often, schools felt that the
Center’s efforts were not sufficiently focused and that Center staff sometimes did not have the expertise that schools needed or ready answers
to important questions. And sometimes your comments suggested that there has been at times a lack of understanding on our part of, and a failure
to sufficiently empathize with, the many challenges you face. Again, we must and will do better.
We must focus to provide the services and grants that make a difference by making it more possible for
you to fulfill your missions, whether it is through direct technical and financial assistance or by working in front and behind the scenes to ensure
that the chartering climate remains favorable.
During the next few weeks I hope to be talking to many of you. Your comments and feedback have been and
will continue to be a guiding force for us as we seek to make the Center all it can be. Please call me at any time. I can be reached at (212) 437-8302
or jmerriman@nycchartercenter.org. As we move through our process of refocusing, I expect to update you frequently.
In the meantime, I wish you the very best for the 2007-08 school year.
Sincerely,
James Merriman
