The research will be conducted over three years, focusing on three cities with contrasting decentralization structures - Milwaukee, Seattle and Chicago. We believe that answering these questions will provide the kind of information that policy makers, school governance councils, central administrators, school staff, unions and community members will find useful in understanding and improving school-central office interactions, toward the goal of improving instruction and achievement for all students. If Chicago had waited, it wouldn't have happened. Assume people will need lots of training as you go along, but don't confuse training with good information. Don't make rules with the weakest school, governance council or principal in mind.
Conflict is okay.
Disagreements can make for better decisions as long as people are respectful. If schools don't have control over funds or don't have adequate funds to control, you don't have site-based management. Reducing the central office without changing it just means fewer people are doing the same things. People whose jobs depended on the old system should not be in charge of the new system. It takes time for people whose opinions have never been sought to have confidence in their own decisions.