District Administration - June 2011 - (Page 30)

District-level Downsizing AASA survey this past December of school superintendents, who indicated that 5 percent of their budget cuts are targeting fellow administrators. “We expect that percentage to accelerate,” adds Domenech. What’s more, he says, whereas past job cuts were covered by attrition, half of the coming cuts will likely affect administrators who want to keep their jobs. The entire administrative spectrum has become vulnerable, say Domenech and other educational leaders, from gutting such departments as assessment and operations at the district level to turning assistant principals into an endangered species on the school level, even as student numbers continue to increase in many districts. “I’ve talked to old-timers who have been in education for 42 years, and they’ve never seen anything like this,” reports Brent Clark, executive director of the Illinois Association of School Administrators. “We’re a microcosm of what’s going on around the United States, and it’s tough.” In California, layoffs have narrowed the administrative corridor considerably. Over the past three years, almost 3,000 administrative positions have vanished— an almost 17 percent reduction, notes Bob Wells, executive director of the Association of California School Administrators. In comparison, he adds, California has lost 20,000—or 6 percent—of its teachers over the same time. With more than a $4 billion cut in state education aid looming, Wells foresees as many as 2,000 pink slips going out to administrators for the coming year, although those numbers could decrease if Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to temporarily raise some state taxes is approved by voters in November. California isn’t alone in its inclination to cut administrative positions at a more rapid rate than teachers. “Your first effort is to try to make the cuts as far away from the classroom,” says John Allison, superintendent of the Wichita (Kan.) School District. 30 June 2011 At the Wichita (Kan.) School District, community members made suggestions regarding the school board’s budget in an annual Board of Education Night Out event. Metro-Boulevard Alternative High School Principal Lisa Wyatt (standing on right) and South High School Principal Cara Ledy (squatting at easel) take suggestions, which the board reviews later. Although administrator salaries account for just 2 percent of the district’s $632 million budget this year, Allison continues, the district cut its central administration by 22 percent. “That’s morally where we had to look first,” he says. “Our bottom line is core instruction for our students.” Losing Administrators “We always believe that leadership has to illustrate and model what we expect others to do,” adds Michael Bobby, chief financial and operations officer for the Charleston aries of its 3,400 teachers and laid off what Bobby terms “a handful of teachers who wanted to stay,” the Charleston County School Board is cutting between 60 or 70 nonclassroom positions for the coming year. As many as six upper-level administrative positions could be eliminated, including those of associate superintendent and several supervisors in the operations department, which covers everything from food services and transportation to financial services and information technology. Bobby also says that raising local prop- “We can’t sustain the type of transformation we need to make as a district unless we have the right people in place.” —John Allison, superintendent, Wichita (Kan.) School District (S.C.) County School District. In attempting to preserve jobs for the 2010-2011 school year in the face of a $25 million budget deficit, Bobby imposed an aggressive furlough plan of nine days for nonteachers, including all administrators, and four for teachers. “Fast forward to 2011-2012,” Bobby says, referring to the $28 million projected shortfall to the district’s $339 million budget for 2011-2012. “The first thing we’ve done is take the 41 highest-paid administrators in the district and imposed a 10-day furlough and five days of forced leave—a 6 percent savings in salary,” he says. But while Charleston has frozen the salerty taxes to increase educational funding is not an option in the current economic climate. “You’ve got to remember that every school district has a board that’s sensitive to asking people to pay more taxes when unemployment is so high. It doesn’t seem right,” he explains. Big Cuts in Irving and Wichita Dana Bedden, superintendent of the Irving (Texas) Independent School District, says that there currently is no plan in his area to raise property taxes, which account for almost 37 percent of the school budget. Instead, he has tapped $6.5 million of the district’s reserve fund required under state District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - June 2011

District Administration - June 2011
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Curriculum News
Sustainability News
Administrator Profile
District Profile
District-Level Downsizing
Lessons Learned from One-to-One
Partner for One-to-One Success
Pioneering States
The Changing Role of the CTO
New Directions for Special Ed
Problem/Solution
Books
Products
Student Counsel
Going Mobile
Professional Opinion

District Administration - June 2011

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