Reduction of the Central School District Bureaucracy >>>>> Ed Graff’s Fifth Priority as Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools (The Fulfillment of Which He Has Made a Promising Beginning)

Among the most dramatic of my findings in conducting research for my 300-plus paged, nearly complete new book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect, is the fact that despite the fanfare around then-Interim Superintendent Michael Gore’s 16% budget paring in the spring of 2015, not many moons passed over the Midwestern plains before the bloat resumed and intensified. 

 

My figures show that from autumn 2015 through this early spring of 2017, staffing at the Davis Center (central offices of the Minneapolis Public Schools, 1250 West Broadway) increased from 551 to 655.  Expenditures for staff salary alone went from $37,361,274 to $43,322,790.

 

This is a dramatic and notable development as a discrete occurrence, now amplified by the fact that faced with a $28 million budgetary deficit, the administration of new MPS Superintendent Ed Graff is proposing a 10% cut at the Davis Center. 

 

But as so many exercises in persiflage at the Davis Center, this apparent central office budget cutting does not constitute bureaucratic paring at all.  If the current cuts go through, there will still have been a $1,629,237 increase since that autumn of 2015, in the aftermath of the putative paring of the Goar phase.

 

Consider this clear presentation of the figures from my research:

 

Increased Staffing and Expenditures at the Davis Center

(Central Offices of the Minneapolis Public Schools)

Autumn 2015-Spring 2017

 

Number of Staff Members at the Davis Center

 

Autumn 2015                                   _____551______  

 

 

Spring 2017                                       _____655______  

 

 

Expenditures for Salaries at the Davis Center

 

Autumn 2015                        _____$37,361,274_______  

 

 

Spring 2017                           _____$43,322,790_______  

 

 

Increase from Autumn 2015 to Spring 2017

 

_____$5,961,516________

 

Relevance to Projected Budget Cuts

 

Increase from Autumn 2015 to Spring 2017

 

               >>>>>                                     $5,961,516

 

10%  of  $43,322,790 =                    $4,332,279

 

 

                                                                 $5,961,516

                                  -  $4,332,279

 

                                        $1,629,237

 

Observation  >>>>>         After 10% budgetary cuts at the Davis Center to address $28 million deficit,

                                             central office expenditures will still be $1,629,237 greater than

                                             the figure in autumn 2015.                                                           

               

 

This is powerful evidence of the endemic problem of bureaucratic bloat at our Minneapolis iteration of the locally centralized school district, one the many problems that I address as I advocate for overhaul of all MPS programs and processes in Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect.

                                                             

……………………………………………………………………

 

Kudos to MPS Superintendent Ed Graff for His Achievements Thus Far in Reorganization of the Central School District Bureaucracy

 

To his great credit, Ed Graff has since these figures were collected disbanded the Department of Teaching and Learning and terminated the employment of Macarre Traynham (another measure for which I have advocated vigorously).  He has also swept away the Department of Communications and the Office of Student, Family, and Community Engagement.   These actions are consistent with the bureaucratic paring for which I have advocated as the fifth part of my five-point plan for overhaul of the Minneapolis Public Schools, and which you (my readers) will read again in the next article posted on this blog.

Graff has also demonstrated good judgment as an evaluator of talent, having elevated th administrative stature of Michael Thomas (Chief of Academics, Leadership, and Learning) and Eric Moore (Chief of Assessment, Innovation, and Research).   

Graff’s herculean task now is to build a staff that actually serves the needs of MPS students and families by implementing the five-point plan for overhauling curriculum, teacher training, academic remediation, family outreach, and bureaucratic structure at the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

I am in the process of analyzing current staffing at the Minneapolis Public Schools for details on expenditures for certain categories of employment.

 

Even when the staff count was only 551, staff members working at the central offices of the Minneapolis Public Schools Employees at the Davis Center earned wages totaling $37,264,361 for a median wage of $67,508.  A bevy of employees at the Davis Center earned well above the median for the staff of 552. There were 58 employees (9.61% of the total 603) earning $100,000 or above, 29 employees (4.80%) earning between $90,000 and $100,000, 84 employees (13.93%) earning between $80,000 and $90,000, and 82 employees (13.60%) earning between $70,000 and $80,000.

In all, then, 41.94% of employees at the Davis Center earned $70,000 and above;  32.33% earned $70,000 or above;  28.34% earn $80,000 or above;  and 14.41% earn $90,000 or above.

For purposes of comparison, consider that the minimum salary paid to a teacher in the Minneapolis Public Schools is $41,292; the maximum is $95,808; and the median is $63,358.  Note that the maximum paid to a teacher on the step and lane salary schedule is $90,679, so that the teacher making that top salary of $95,808 combines teaching duty with coaching, driver’s education instruction, or activity sponsorship.

To achieve budgetary priorities that emphasize those who actually interact with students and parents, we need to continue to greatly reduce central office staff at the Davis Center.

 

Ed Graff has made a promising beginning in paring the central school district bureaucracy and should continue to act on his propensity for reducing the central office burden.

Graff now needs to train a sharp lens on the five-point program for transforming the Minneapolis Public Schools from a standard public education mediocrity, into a model to which other locally centralized school districts can refer in striving for K-12 education of excellence.

To achieve academic excellence, Superintendent Graff must emphasize the following, as specified in this five-article series:

1)  Knowledge-intensive curriculum


2)  Well-trained, professionalized teachers


3)  Aggressive tutoring assistance for struggling students


4)  Greatly expanded outreach to students and families right where they live


5)  Continued reduction of central office staff positions

The new superintendent must create a culture in which all staff members are acutely focused with great confidence on the academic success of students of all demographic descriptors.

There is no room for superfluity in the bureaucracy.

Full and focused attention must be given and energetic efforts must be expended with a clear goal of student academic success.

There are lives in the balance.

A democracy long in gestation awaits birth.

The time is now.