Because in Lazio school principals will have to change school locations after six years? The initiative would not come from the director of the regional school office: Dr Rocco Pinneriresponsible forUsr Lazio, in fact only announced that “starting from next year, school principals who have already served two terms in the same institution will be transferred”. It was actually the one who asked for the forced change of headquarters after two terms the Court of Auditors.
To explain it to School technique and Vincenzo Alessandro, of the Cisl Schoolpresent at the January 4 meeting between the director of Usr Lazio and the unions.
“Dr. Pinneri – said Alessandro – has announced to us that from now on the principal will not renew beyond two terms, because this is the clear indication given by the Court of Auditors” on the basis of current regulations. “After that, in view of the need for continuity in school management, some of which are particularly complex, efforts are now being made to obtain greater flexibility from the Court itself”.
“I believe the director of the USR will make a significant effort to provide valid reasons to those responsible, especially after the many negative reactions of the last two days”, concluded Vincenzo Alessandro.
The trade unions, even national ones, have in fact expressed all their perplexities: they believe that the schools are not comparable, for mission and objectives, to other public administrations. The principals were the most displeased.
“It is good to specify – he insists Viviana Ranucci, coordinator of school directors Cisl Scuola Lazio – that the director Rocco Pinneri has not said that he will bring the positions to three mandates, as we are reading from many quarters, but would have asked, on this point, for an interlocution from the Court of Auditors”.
“We have to stick to the facts. At the moment these tell us that the Court of Auditors, the Lazio Regional Section, would have expressed, in writing, the formal intention not to renew mandates beyond six years. So, let’s talk about things to check,” Ranucci stressed.
But where does this need to change the school headquarters of the principals come from? Everything stems from what is foreseen by anti-corruption code (approved in 2001, then confirmed in 2012) which also includes i school principals among the categories subject to rotation. It is then up to the individual directors of the regional school offices to establish the maximum duration of the mandates after which the transfer is triggered. So much so that there are regions, such as Puglia, where the change of location would take place after 12 years and not 6.
To conclude, if the Court were to confirm the position, in Lazio from September every head teacher who finds himself with an expired contract (after two three years), will have a good chance of being transferred.
Therefore, the numbers of the mobility of principals would also rise: in the Lazio region, in fact today on average annually less than 10 per cent of principals change their school location.