DESE possible reorganization: March Board of Ed

UPDATE: the org charts are here as PDFs
Okay, here's DESE as of June 2015 (small, but if you click, you'll make them bigger):

Left then right

Chester: early retirement, RTTT ending, down in staff
seven years into tenure
Parthenon's report on organization
Parthenon now speaking: thank for access
"findings, reflections, and opportunities"
"where we saw opportunities to more strongly align with mission and strategic priorities"

five key areas of opportunity:

1. support for Commissioner: integration of work is "a huge challenge" for any state agency; how can organizational structure of agency better support work? ; identify areas of related work within the agency and bring them closer together
2. instructional supports: clarify role of state related to instructional support to the field; period of continuous improvement (work is no longer new); standards, curriculum, and assessment seen "as one"; state has real responsibility for educators to improve; "harness lessons learned from within the field"; bring closer together
3. communications: challenge for any agency to balance: internal and external stakeholders; 
4. student supports: socio-emotional learning a goal; challenge to find resources; bring together certain functions related to state support; high quality monitoring and compliance; bring more resources related to socio-emotional goals
5. educational options: diversity of school models; "that creates a real opportunity" for state to take the lead in what are the needs of students; how does access to options vary; helping to inform and in some ways steer in developing a diversity of options across the state

Chester: can see elements that reflect report in new org chart (Below in three photos; no names on chart, just titles):

Left then right

chief of staff handling communications & external relations
single deputy commissioner directly responsible for student assessment
"not expanding, we're down probably fifty positions" compared to last year
"have to be smart about our compliance and regulatory function"
opens floor to question
Stewart: what other sorts of work needs to happen to maximize design?
Chester: have people's attention on expectations on student learning in a way we haven't
MCAS has sort of lost it's relevance in a lot of areas
particularly for districts that were delivering high quality instruction
make standards very concrete and real
organize ourselves in a way that supports the instruction in a way that underlies
much more systematic to support schools in upgrading their instruction
Noyce: direct reports increased?
Chester: yes, to drive alignment, and based on discussions with other states
Willyard: down 50 positions? what happened to those responsibilities?
Chester: some no longer done, some displaced
Willyard: concerned about "littler guys" where don't understand how changes affect
worried that changes like these will affect other things that we're not knowing we're affecting through reorganization
Chester: take stock: how are we organized? What are we spending time and energy on?
Craven: hope there's a chance for department to bolster some of the roles we have here
speaks specifically of vo-tech
Chester: agrees; challenged to offer competitive salaries with those coming from districts
Sagan asks for the chart to be filled in with names