Seattle Schools Central Administration Spending
From Reader 47:
From the 2015/16 Budget book (pg44)
CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION Actual 2013/14 Adopted 2014/15 Recommended 2015/16
TOTAL CENTRAL ADMIN $35,222,804 $37,439,433 $43,583,963
By my calculations, that's about a $6 million increase in Central Admin - what could the schools (remember them, the places kids go) do with that?!
Editor's note: I do not believe this includes Central Office which is different from Central Administration.
From the 2015/16 Budget book (pg44)
CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION Actual 2013/14 Adopted 2014/15 Recommended 2015/16
- Board of Directors $4,377,610 $2,603,840 $4,270,653
- Superintendent's Office $5,263,869 $5,515,745 $6,418,660
- Business Office $5,790,899 $6,207,175 $6,980,623
- Human Resources $4,685,999 $4,705,558 $5,283,638
- Public Information $490,227 $500,189 $623,449
- Superv. of Instruction $11,886,009 $14,331,199 $16,131,620
- Super.Nutrition Services $766,624 $916,965 $904,898
- Super Transportation $1,125,084 $1,648,618 $1,876,805
- Super Maint and Operation $836,484 $1,010,144 $1,093,617
TOTAL CENTRAL ADMIN $35,222,804 $37,439,433 $43,583,963
By my calculations, that's about a $6 million increase in Central Admin - what could the schools (remember them, the places kids go) do with that?!
Editor's note: I do not believe this includes Central Office which is different from Central Administration.
Comments
Actual is important, but by comparing actuals to budgeted, it makes for a little bit of an apples to oranges (though it is important to note that central administration overspent the planned budget by several million bucks in 2013-14).
2013-14 budgeted: $31.9M
2014-15 budgeted: $37.4M
2015-16 budgeted: $43.6M
central administration is a budget category on OSPI. "Central office," like "natural foods" can more or less mean what they want it to.
Wow!
In general, I don't think centralized control of the budget is producing what we want. I'd love to see a much smaller central administration focus solidly on helping the schools rather than controlling them through the budget.
http://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/Budget/Budget%20Book%202015-2016/2015-16%20Budget%20Book%20updated%2006162015v2.pdf
School districts help fund elections. Costs to the district are approximately $800K. I would like to see a line to line analysis of the board budget.
Parents are very upset about the district cramming K classes. They are wondering if the district is acting illegally. I hope they continue to investigate this issue.
File is HERE
If I'm reading it correctly, the majority of the Board's budget goes to something called "purchased services" whatever that might be...perhaps the recording of Board meetings etc? It does include some salary funds as well. Hopefully someone with more knowledge will illuminate things for us all ;)
reader47
A significant portion of expenses for the board of directors is for levy and school board elections.
I don't know if levy planning is budgeted there or not, as part of the election expense, but it would make sense.
The School Board directors are also paid a small per-diem.
- North-end Mom
The School Board budget increases by approximately $1 million to fund election costs. In 2015- 2016, there will be an election for four Board seats and a levy.
The Deputy Superintendent budget increased in 2014-2015 after the budget was adopted to add three project manager positions. These positions are two-year terms with the work focused on the bell times study, special education and improving the start of schools process.
The Research, Evaluation and Assessment department will add 2.0 Assessment Specialist positions. These positions will support the Curriculum and Instruction team with assessment development and professional development around data and assessment. .
Portions of the Executive Directors of Schools budget transfers to Strategic Planning (formerly TIF) to better align the work conducted. The Strategic Planning budget increases as the department adds budgets to support Career Ladder, the School Leadership Institute, the Aspiring Principal Academy, the Peer Mentor Principal Program and other leadership development initiatives.
The General Counsel budget increases due to contractual services for outside legal counsel services as well as from the conversion of 3.0 FTE vacant positions to fund additional contractual services.
The Communications & Public Affairs budget adds 1.0 FTE Executive Administrative Assistant position.
Note that the Deputy Super gained 3.0 FTE and Strategic Planning gained 7.6 FTE
and improving the start of schools process. clearly they have some work to do there!;o)
And frankly, to me, all those "leadership development" initiatives are frosting on the cake compared to keeping sufficient numbers of IAs in SPED classrooms. Seems like a spiffy place for some re-arranging of funds?
Another thing that makes me go hmmm...
According to the SPS jobs listings - they are seeking the following admin level hires:
1.Job Title: Director/Executive Director, Strategic Planning and System Improvement Salary: $107,621.00 - $148,611.00 Annually
2.Job Title: General Counsel
Salary: $144,387.00 - $199,480.00 Annually
The principal leadership thing about had this salary listed:
Class Title: Principal Leadership Coach
Salary: $121,635.00 - $127,272.00 Annually
reader47
read3447
TIF funds are over? Time for TIF work to be over. We don't need another project thrown over the transom with no funding from the people in Washington who have stomped all over our local public schools.
DistrictWatcher
Stop the special ed classroom cuts. Stop the central management waste and abuse. This impacts nearly all students, and it isn't getting much airtime.
Reader
I pretty much stole this idea intact from a comment by someone else a week or two ago. I liked it so much I intend to keep repeating it as long as necessary! :)
Scrawny Kayaker
Reader, I have heard one candidate beat this drum at the few candidate forums I've attended. I think improving special education outcomes and cutting central administrative cost are his 2 primary goals. It's interesting to see the entire field is now repeating and adopting his message.
I also see by reviewing the PRR logs, that he has been very active in requesting information from the district, I don't see that from any of the other candidates.
It's refreshing to see someone running that is consistent and willful about their intentions. I'm really tired of SB candidates pandering to the crowd!
Too bad the media doesn't seem to care. Maybe the media should attend the Hale student school board election forum this Thursday it's the last big event before the election.
2 Cents
Transparency