After 6 months on the job, Camden’s superintendent begins his first full year leading school district

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It has been six months since Alfonso Q. Llano Jr. officially took the reins as the state-appointed leader of the Camden City School District. As classes begin Thursday, he will get a full academic year to implement his vision for the district.

“We want to be a positive place that we can build great relationships,” he said. “I’m looking to observe that in action, see it real time, and then work from there to make it an even more wonderful place to accept all of our families.”

Llano spoke with WHYY News during the district’s Back-to-School Enrollment Extravaganza in August. He was appointed as the state superintendent of schools for the district last January by the New Jersey Board of Education. He was welcomed with open arms by city officials ahead of his March 1 start date.

In May, the district’s entire central office received pink slips, as Llano pursued a restructuring that he said is designed to better support schools.

“We’re really a school-based support network where we’re going out to the community, we’re going out to schools to provide what they need to help them do the best that they can with their families,” he said.

Front office adjustments include a data team to help leaders make decisions in real time, a community engagement team to help build relationships and a new business administrator to examine finances.

“[We] got rid of the silos, connected every networking department to be really focused on student outcomes, student achievement, and developing relationships with our families,” Llano said.

The district is still grappling from the crippling effects of deep budget cuts announced in the middle of last year because of a $91 million deficit that saw 289 jobs cut, including teachers, behavioral specialists and attendance officers.

But teachers have a better handle on what to expect this year, according to Pamela K. Clark, president of the Camden Education Association. That includes a new curriculum that teachers need to learn.

“As long as we get the training and the professional development, then we should be fine,” Clark said. “I’m looking for the partnership with [New Jersey Education Association] to come in and do some professional developments.”

Llano’s grade on collaboration

Clark praised Llano for his willingness to collaborate, citing an enrollment fair in April and the August event.

Alicia Figueroa-Falcon, executive director of Parents Invincible, a school-choice organization, also expressed appreciation for Llano’s openness.

“He has been really responsive towards us,” Figueroa-Falcon said, adding that some community members mistakenly believe that her organization works to undermine the Camden City School District.

“I think he’s been really good at trying to demystify some of those myths,” she added.

Ronsha A. Dickerson, executive director of the Camden Parent and Student Union, said her organization has not had a lot of interactions with Llano, despite reaching out to him prior to his start date.

“It wasn’t received in a spirit of giving us time to speak ‘til we were actually offered a 15-minute meeting with him,” Dickerson said. “It has been kind of like this ‘seesaw kind of energy’ in the community. He’s a new kid on the block. People are trying to understand what his energy is and what his standards are and also what his platform is.”

Camden Parent and Student Union, a community-based education justice organization, is also contending with perceptions that it is difficult to work with and slowing progress in Camden’s education system. Dickerson said “that’s not the case,” adding they have reached out to every appointed superintendent since the state took over the district in 2013.

“We were created out of a moment of teachers being fired and students walking out,” she said. “Students were up in arms about how they felt about their mentors and people who they were beginning to have a good relationship with being let go. And then things were just being shifted while they were asked to become a stellar student in the school district.”

Concerns around a lack of transparency

Both Dickerson and Figueroa-Falcon have both said the district, which has been under state control since 2013, needs to be more transparent.

Residents expressed concerns about a lack of communication after the search firm HYA Associates held forums seeking community input on what they wanted to see in a new superintendent. The state went several months without providing an update on the search for a new superintendent until Llano was selected.

Concerns also linger from last year, when the $91 million deficit was announced by Llano’s predecessor, Katrina McCombs. She cited declining enrollment and increased payments to charter and renaissance schools as reasons for the deficit.

“Maybe more transparency could help kind of alleviate some of those myths,” she said. “I’m hoping throughout time we can all work more collaboratively.”

Dickerson added that the state needs to be held more accountable in its management of Camden schools. She also had a message for Llano and his team.

“We hope that the school district, and this cabinet that the superintendent has chosen to keep, really has a sense of community and professionalism,” she said, and “works to build trust amongst a community that has watched the last three superintendents not really dig deep into helping the community have a sense of safety or a sense of belonging or a sense of transparency.”