Lisa
Belzberg: Principal Mover of Principal For a Day
By
Joan Baum, Ph.D.
Looking
back over an extraordinarily successful eight-year program - Public
Education Needs Civic Involvement In Learning – better known as
PENCIL – founder and passionate devotee Lisa Belzburg says she
prefers to lookto “tomorrow” and keep her gaze on deeper, not
wider involvement. “Big” is not as important as “effective,” she
says, meaning that those already volunteering in the PENCIL program
will return (not necessarily to the same school) and spread the
word that community involvement in the public schools can improve
the quality of education in the city and promote respect for teachers,
parental presence, and significant volunteerism from business
executives.
Though Principal for a Day (PFAD), part of the PENCIL program,
now has a cadre of close to 1200 individual and corporate leaders
who visit schools – from the bodega owner on the corner to the
corporation head – Lisa Belzberg says that the one-shot event
is hardly what PFAD is about. That one “day,” she says, makes
a “real difference” when the subsequent 364 days realize new ideas,
resources, and connections. And that’s all levels she’s talking
about – elementary, middle school, high school. The common theme
is, “it’s cool to be involved,” it’s “hip” to care. She speaks
with an enthusiasm that almost belies her crisp and focused administrative
manner. She’s got it all together – from outreach to follow-up
seminars and company feedback, all tracked on a huge and growing
database. She talk sof further “franchises” – the program already
has been exported to Australia, New Zealand, and Canada as well
as eight American cities with large urban public school systems.
A Barnard grad (`82), who went on to study at the London School
of Economics, she is now studying for her Ed.D. at Teachers College,
Columbia University, enrolled in its fast-track Inquiry program.
She says the “simple” idea of “targeting civic involvement” –
anything from individual initiative to a system-wide project –
came to her almost in a flash. She had been working for the political
consultant David Garth and noticed that no one was discussing
education issues. Later, she met Ray Cortines, then Chancellor,
and proposed that such a program run outside the Board of Education
and not costing anything could be successful. He, “never merely
chatty,” said “go for it.” And so she did, delighting in the “incredibly
supportive” response from every Schools Chancellor since.#
Education Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001. Tel:
(212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919. Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of
the publisher. © 2001.
|