NEW YORK, NY February 07, 2003 — When Mayor Bloomberg announced his plan to eliminate community school districts, last month, he said the change was all about improving education.

BLOOMBERG: Children and parents are not concerned about protecting bureaucrats. They want quality schools and that's what we're going to deliver.

But while Bloomberg won applause at that speech in Harlem, the changes are causing an uproar. WNYC's Beth Fertig has more.

The community boards that meet each month throughout the city oversee issues like zoning, planning and traffic. They have nothing to do with the schools. But when the community board in Bayside, Queens held its meeting this week, education became the top priority.

IANNECE: The mayor got his wish in regards to going out and abolishing the board of education as it exists now. Unfortunately he has a different vision in regards to what the school districts are.

Jerry Iannece is the chairman of Community Board 11. On Monday, his members passed a symbolic resolution opposing the mayor's plan to eliminate school districts. Their own district, number 26, boasts the highest reading scores in the city.

IANNECE: People identify themselves by their school districts. People specifically moved into this area because of school district 26.

Mayor Bloomberg plans to replace the 32 school districts with 10 regions each run by their own superintendent. Melvyn Meer, who has 2 young children, worries about what will happen when District 26 merges with 3 other districts in Queens.

MEER: First of all we have a district that's very responsive to parents right now. It contains about 25,000 students and they're seeking to make a super district which would have 130,000 students. To put that in perspective the largest district outside NY is in Buffalo and it has 40,000 students.

It might be tempting to dismiss these as isolated fears, because District 26 is in a relatively suburban corner of the city that's afraid of tampering with success. The new super-district would extend from Bayside and Little Neck to Cambria Heights and St. Albans.

In St. Albans, parent associations from District 29 held their own emergency meeting this week to discuss the changes. Just like the people in Bayside, parent Marie Baily doesn't want to lose the district office - even though fewer than half of all fourth graders in District 29 met the state standards for reading last year.

BAILY: Whether it's curriculum, whether it's multicultural, whether it's community problems, or whether it was behavior problem people found that it was accessible.

School districts were created in the late 1960s to enable more local control. Parents in this mostly African American district are uncomfortable about losing that. Some are also wary about the displacement of their African American superintendent. The chancellor plans to give each new superintendent 10 supervisors. But parent leader Charles Woods just sees more bureaucracy.

WOODS: Supervisors is basically answering to someone. It's like I'll get back to you.

The Chancellor's advisor, Michelle Cahill, has been reaching out to parents to ease these concerns. She says parents in some struggling districts are embracing the changes. She explains that each supervisor will oversee instructional needs for a cluster of 10 or 12 schools.

CAHILL: It's not a merger. In fact the decisions that we're making are decisions focused on getting more attention on each local school.

But it's not just parents who are asking questions. Some state lawmakers are also debating the legality of abolishing school districts. Frank Padavan is a Republican State Senator from Queens. He says the legislature voted only to end the old Board of Education and put the mayor in charge.

PADAVAN: There's nothing in that legislation that even hinted at the idea of eliminating those 32 school districts and creating these huge super districts if you want to call them that.

As parents consider the super districts, Marie Baily in St. Albans says she's keeping an open mind about Bloomberg's changes despite her concerns.

BAILY: I applaud him for what he's doing, I think he's doing an excellent job. But just certain areas, it's a lot to change at once. And I think that's what most people are having trouble with.

The chancellor's office says it plans to continue community outreach all over the city in the weeks ahead. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.