The Development of Planning and Control Systems for an Evolving School District

The relationship between Boston University (BU) and the Chelsea Public School District has always been a fiduciary one. Since 1989, the Partnership has produced deep changes in the configuration of the planning and control system of the district, especially with regard to the way in which organizational activities are reported. The planning and control system of an organization is a multi-step process, meant to help the organization achieve long-term development goals through an effective and efficient use of its financial and human resources. Before the process can function, however, the organization must have a clear vision of its developmental strategy for the future. An understanding of the realistic goals to be reached, especially in terms of resources and skills, constitutes the starting point of effective strategic planning. Furthermore, those goals need to be negotiated and promoted among all stakeholders related to the organization. Prior to the establishment of the BU/Chelsea Partnership, there was little, if any, accountability for day-to-day activities within the district, educational and otherwise. The organizational structure in Chelsea did not support a chief financial officer, and all managerial data was manually collected with no clear method. Aside from the teachers and principals, who were charged with knowing the educational programs in their own classrooms and buildings, only the superintendent was responsible for understanding the educational programs at work. Of course, this duty came in addition to the superintendent’s responsibility for all other activities—managerial and budgetary included—fundamental to running and developing a school district. So in the 1980s, as corruption began to slowly take hold in Chelsea and the resources available to students and teachers began to dramatically decline, few were in a position to understand the true impact. Managerial analyses of effective public administration have shown that when services must be provided despite decreasing resources, an imbalance develops between the internal and external environments (Anthony & Young, 2003). In the case of Chelsea, these environments were represented by organizational members on the one hand and the citizens of Chelsea on the other. To avoid such imbalances, administrators should ameliorate the effects of diminishing resources via a planning and control system that allows for anticipation of future economic activities (which may include discovering or raising alternative funds), optimizes resource consumption for internal operations, and avoids non-visible activities by citizens who, nonetheless, consume labor and other financial resources (Wolman, 1983). Upon encountering an organization where no such planning had been undertaken and where existing human resources had not been used to counter the effects of rapidly diminishing resources, the BU Management Team resolved to reengineer the existing management system in accordance with the formal administrative constraints that existed at the time. The BU Management Team was especially concerned with more directly controlling information flow within the district (Kickert, 1997). To jumpstart the turnaround process, BU managers introduced elementary managerial instruments to monitor the organization. They first attacked the district’s budgeting system and then attempted to revamp the existing communication and training process. The following is an account of how these managerial tasks were generally handled by BU and by relevant personnel in Chelsea. They provide a possible model of management for school districts in similar circumstances. This chapter provides a case study of the dramatic financial and managerial turnaround that occurred in Chelsea during its partnership with Boston University. In particular, the following paragraphs describe the managerial instruments that Boston University introduced with the aim of promoting an effective framework to hold school ..