Murfreesboro (Tennessee) City Schools extended the school day and year with no additional cost to taxpayers. Implementation was arduous and faced great resistance. Eventual solution made better use of the school system's capital assets and human resources, rearranged Chapter 1 money, required additional business support and parents' willingness to…

Individuals interested in derailing school-based management lurk in most school communities. Some stakeholders are against true decentralization and can play their cards to subvert the process. Illegitimate intransigence can arise at the exploration or commitment stages. A sidebar shows how to defend against sabotage by making critical choices…

An administrative team member/restructuring facilitator analyzes the failure of a block scheduling reform in a small, suburban district. The prevailing dynamics that obstructed success were fear of change, propagandizing of data, and a culture of complacency. These problems could have been avoided by training staff to work in longer periods,…