In a new administrative system, Maria Quail is still a familiar face.

Quail, former principal of PS 8 Bedford Park, became a Network Leader last year as part of the Bloomberg administration’s new empowerment support system for New York City public schools.

Every day, she arrives at the Learning Support Center on Zerega Avenue by 6:30 a.m. She answers her e-mail, and is out the door after 8 a.m., headed to one of the 28 schools under her direction.

Quail, a Brooklyn native, joined the school system in the early 1970s, straight out of college. She transferred to District 10 a little over a decade ago, attracted by a strong reputation for staff development and adult learning.

“I knew that was a place I wanted to be in,” Quail says. She has remained in the district since, becoming a vice principal and then a principal in 2002.

Expanding a Pilot Program

In 2006, Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein expanded a pilot administrative program, opening the empowerment support system to all principals as part of ongoing reforms.

“We allowed every school to choose a support organization that’s best for them,” says Andrew Jacob, a Department of Education spokesman.

Jacob explained that some schools affiliate with nonprofits or universities. Five hundred have joined Empowerment Support Organizations led by network teams like Quail’s.

The five-member “empowerment system” teams, instituted by the mayor in the summer of 2006 as part of the administrative centralization program, are intended to give principals and schools access to some of the most talented staff in the school system.

Quail’s Special Services Manager (SSM), Caterina DiTillio, who oversees services for special education and English Language Learners, was also her former assistant principal at PS 8. Her support staff also includes an achievement coach who oversees data analysis, a business services manager, and an attendance coordinator.

Quail says this five-person team now accomplishes the work once done by 30 people under the previous regional system.

The whole team creates a monthly agenda and sends a calendar to schools to let administrators know when they’ll be in the building and what they will focus on.

The group works well together, but DiTillio does note the conflicting demands on her own time.

She spends more time than she would like on compliance, she says, and consequently less on the questions of instruction that matter most to her. There have been challenges for which they have been able to bring in additional staff, such as making existing data inherited from previous systems usable.

Quail says her network came together fairly naturally with a number of school administrators who have worked together in the past.

Leading Bronx Schools

Empowerment networks were intended to replace the formerly geographically bound system of regions. The new networks can span all five boroughs. However, 26 of the 27 schools in Quail’s network this year will be in the Bronx. “We wanted to stay together,” says Quail. “I think people kind of gravitated together because we feel we work well together.”

The empowerment support team does not control funds, but provides support and coaching on a range of decisions facing school administrators.

DiTillio describes her responsibilities as partly supporting instruction but also primarily dealing with issues of compliance to ensure students get mandated services.

Quail says in the course of a normal day she can be consulted on anything from professional development to the placement of individual students.

“I may not be an expert on everything,” Quail explains, “but I need to know who to go to when I don’t know something.”

Quail sees herself as a supportive presence in the school, making connections between schools and organizations within the public school system.

In the past, she recalls, as a principal, the regional system felt like a source of more pressure. “I think it felt more judgmental,” Quail says. “I think it feels more supporting now.”

“When you’re in something you don’t always see the bigger picture,” Quail notes. Some schools call on her team less, but most often, “People will say, ‘I want feedback from you.’”

Beverly Miller, principal of PS 246, one of the schools in Quail’s network, joined the program this past year.

Teacher Mentoring Initiative

“It’s been a wonderful year with our empowerment leader and with the support of the superintendent,” Miller says, adding that all the team members have been through her school this year. Network support staff assisted with the school’s new teacher mentoring initiative.

“If I call, they’re here,” Miller says.

Jacob said he could not speak to the success of the program overall as the DOE had not completed an assessment, but the empowerment networks have undergone adaptations.

This year, Quail’s network will be part of a network cluster overseen by her fellow former District 10 principal, Jackie Young, which will coordinate its professional development efforts and presentations together.

The events the network teams hold are not mandatory, but Quail thinks they offer opportunities to meet and learn from each other that school administrators appreciate.

“What’s changing for me as a network leader is part of my focus is really on building that capacity within schools so if there is another shift, schools will have the ability to run themselves,” Quail says.