Article #29 in A Series of Highlights from My Book, >Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect<, Concerning Staff and Systemic Overhaul at the Davis Center and at MDE That Will Occur Due to My Revelations >>>>> The Five-Point Program for Transforming the Minneapolis Public Schools into a Model for the Locally Centralized School District >>>>> Programmatic Emphasis #5 >>>>> Staff Reductions in the Central Office Bureaucracy

5)  Staff Reductions in the Central Office Bureaucracy

 

A Note to My Readers    >>>>>  The following is an analysis of the MPS central office bureaucracy that I did four years ago.  As I continue to refine my draft of Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect, I will update this careful analysis for attention to such current superfluous or mis-assigned staff members as Ron Wagner, Brian Zambreno, Shawn Harris Berry, LaShawn Ray, Aimee Fearing, Ed Graff, Michael Walker, Jennifer Simon, and the entire staff at the Department of Teaching and Learning.  Those staff members---  and you readers---  may extrapolate from the comments below what I am likely to recommend with regard to the dismissal of staff members for further relief of the onerous central office bureaucracy at the Davis Center.

 

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During the 2015-2016 academic year, I generated a highly detailed account of the central office bureaucracy of the Minneapolis Public Schools that yielded the following observations.  Readers should compare this account with the objective information pertinent to Davis Center staffing during the most recent two academic years (2018-2019 and 2019-2020) presented in Part One:  Facts.

 

In 2016, 553 staff members worked at the central offices of the Minneapolis Public Schools, located in the Davis Center at 1250 West Broadway in North Minneapolis.  Employees at the Davis Center received wages totaling $37,264,361 for a median wage of $67,508.  A bevy of employees at the Davis Center received well above the median for the staff of 552.  There were 58 employees (9.61% of the total 603) receiving $100,000 or above, 29 employees (4.80%) receiving between $90,000 and $100,000, 84 employees (13.93%) receiving between $80,000 and $90,000, and 82 employees (13.60%) receiving between $70,000 and $80,000.

In all, then, 41.94% of employees at the Davis Center received $70,000 and above;  32.33% received $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 in 2016 the minimum salary paid to a teacher in the Minneapolis Public Schools was $41,292; the maximum was $95,808; and the median was $63,358. Note that the maximum paid to a teacher on the step and lane salary schedule was $90,679, so that the teacher making that top salary of $95,808 combined 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 greatly reduce central office staff at the Davis Center.

The positions of employment at the central offices of the Minneapolis Public Schools given under the first bold underlined heading below should be eliminated immediately.  The existence of these positions clearly represents bureaucratic overkill, involving functions that can be easily subsumed under the job responsibilities of another employee at the Davis Center---  so as to eliminate the time that so many staff members at the Davis Center stare at computer screens or in other ways fritter away idle time and taxpayer dollars.

In 2016 I made the following recommendations:

Minneapolis Public Schools Central Office Staff Positions for Immediate Elimination

Position Title                                     Employee Name              Salary

Chief of Schools                               Michael Thomas              $151,000
Chief Academic Officer                 Susanne Griffin

Deputy Chief                                     Stephen Flisk                    $148,875
    of Schools
Chief of Staff                                     LeAnn Dow                         $120,000
Strategic Projects                            Lanise Block                       $100,958
    Administrator
Associate                                            Cecila Saddler                   $141,500
Superintendent (High Schools)
Associate                                            Jackie Hanson                  $141,500
Superintendent (Middle Schools)   
Associate                                             Paul Marietta                   $141,500
Superintendent  (K-8 East Schools)

Associate                                             Ron Wagner                  $141,500
Superintendent    (K-8 West Schools)
Associate                                             Laura Cavender              $141,500
Superintendent (High Priority Schools)
Associate                                              Lucilla Davila                  $141,500
Superintendent (Magnet Schools)

The next category of job positions for evaluation as to necessity and efficacy are located in the

Department of Teaching and Learning, which should be a logical focus for evaluation, given the mediocrity of teaching and low level of learning that prevail in the Minneapolis Public Schools.  The Department of Teaching and Learning is one of those realms of the Davis Center whose staff performance was ultimately the responsibility of Chief Academic Officer Susanne Griffin (she also oversaw Community Education;  College and Career Readiness;  Early Childhood Education;  Education and Cultural Services;  Indian Education;  Professional Development;  and Research, Evaluation, and Assessment).

Department of Teaching and Learning Staff Positions for Careful Evaluation and Possible Elimination

Position Title                     Employee Name              Salary

Chief Academic                Susanne Griffin                $151,000
Officer

(Department of Teaching and Learning is among the programs under Ms. Griffin’s purview)

Teaching                              Macarre Traynham          $117,000
and Learning Executive Director
Focused Instruction        Christina (Tina) Platt       $73,237
Project Manager
Director, Elementary      Amy B. Jones                      $96,093
Education
Elementary Education    Janna M. Toche               $78,070
District Program Facilitator

Elementary Education                   Julie A. Tangeman           $81,223
District Program Facilitator

Elementary Education                   Barry J. Wadsworth       $78,070
District Program Facilitator

Elementary Education    Sara Naegli                        $66,511
District Program Facilitator

Elementary Education    Michael J. Wallus           $68,612
District Program Facilitator
Elementary Education    Katherine Dunbar           $58,557
School Success Program Assistant

Secondary Education      Christopher Wernimont  $77,019
District Program Facilitator
Secondary Education      Jennifer W. Rose              $81,223
District Program Facilitator
Secondary Education     Katharine B. Stephens      $65,461
District Program Facilitator
Secondary Education    Kleber Ortiz-Sinchi                             $52,850
District Program Facilitator
Secondary Education     Nora A. Schull                       $62,308
District Program Facilitator
Secondary Education      Sarah J. Loch                          $42,145
District Program Facilitator
Secondary Education       Ashley A. Krohn                  $51,800
District Program Facilitator
AVID                                        Tommie J. Casey               $77,019
High School Coordinator  
AVID                                         Paula J. Kilian                    $80,171
Middle School Coordinator 
AVID Counselor                   Wendy J. Wolff                  $75,969

AVID                                         Christen M. Lish                 $73,866
Elementary Coordinator   
AVID Project Manager     Maria L. Roberts                 $100,958
Advanced Academics       Melanie K. Crawford         $106,069
District Program Facilitator
Advanced Academics      Kelly A. McQuillan          $54,952
District Program Facilitator
Advanced Academics      Margaret S. Smith           $74,917
District Program Facilitator
Advanced Academics      Theresa J. Campbell       $80,171
District Program Facilitator

Office Specialist                  Jeanne M. Lacy               $52,416
Associate Educator            Samantha A. Weiman   $71,078

I also recommended termination of employment for the following:

Office of the Chief of Schools--- Positions for Evaluation and Likely Elimination

Position Title                     Employee Name              Salary

Turnaround Specialist                   Kandace Logan                  $93,750
District Program               Christina Ramsey             $83,250
Facilitator  
District Program              Maria Arago                        $77,868
Facilitator  
District Program              Jacqueline Ray                   $83,253

Facilitator  

District Program               Andrew Skendi                 $82,176

Facilitator  

District Program               Renae Nesburg Busse    $78,945

Facilitator  

District Program               Debra Anderson               $91,869

Facilitator  

Principal                              Carla Steinbach               $139,518

on Special Assignment                  -Huther

Occupants of all positions linked to a salary of $100,000 should be reviewed, with particular attention attention to job performance and the necessity of position occupied.

As the I compiled the above data and made recommendations, I did not list those positions that have genuine competitiveness with the private market beyond the locally centralized school district bureaucracy.  The positions not listed, therefore, include those pertinent to the fields of law, finance, psychology, and computer technology.

With the exception of parenthetical notations for Michael Walker (Director, Office of Black Male Achievement) and Terry Henry (Executive Director, College and Career Readiness), only position and salary are given in the next bold and underlined category.

 

All of the following positions, presently earning for their occupants annual salaries of $100,000 or more, should be given careful consideration for elimination or consolidation:

 
Positions from Various Departments with $100,000 and Above in Salary

Position Title                                    Salary

Director,                                          $106,069
Special Education Programs     
Director,                                              $117,080
Special Education Programs     

Director,                                          $111,430
Special Education Programs     
Director,                                           $120,007
Special Education Programs     
Executive Director,                         $119,976
Community Education

Executive Director,                         $117,000
Special Education & Health    

Executive Director,                         $117,500
Early Childhood Education    

Director, Indian Education            $106,069
Coordinator,                                     $100,958
Area Learning Centers     
Executive Director,                         $100,000          (Terry Henry)
College and Career Readiness     
Director,                                            $119,224       (Michael Walker)
Office of Black Male Achievement

Manager, Social Work                    $100,958

 

I recommended that the following positions that received for their occupants upper-tier salaries of at least $89,000 should be reviewed for their necessity and as to the effectiveness of the current occupants. These positions involved administering the law that in its current federal legislative incarnation has been changed to Every Student Succeeds (from the appellation No Child Left Behind, which prevailed from 2001 through 2015).

Other Positions for Review of Need and Effectiveness of Current Occupant

Position Title                                   Salary

Coordinator,                                  $93,749
Elementary &

Secondary Education Act
Coordinator,                                   $91,463
Elementary & Secondary Education Act
Coordinator,                                   $89,232
Elementary & Secondary Education Act

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Many Davis staff members given above are no longer employed at the Davis Center;  a few have been assigned to positions at school sites, but many are no longer with the district in any capacity.

 

Superintendent Ed Graff won the approval of the members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education (by a 6-3 vote) after a 17-month, two-phase search that cost over $200,000. He officially occupied his new position this summer, on 1 July 2016.

Graff has trimmed the bureaucracy considerably, from a peak of approximately 650 staff members during my five years of intensive investigation to the current approximately 450 staff members at the Davis Center.

 

But a sharp lens should have also been trained on the four programmatic features of 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, the following program should be implemented, with continuing bureaucratic trimming and rationalization attending very acute focus on the first four, programmatic, features:

1) Knowledge-intensive curriculum
2) Well-trained, professionalized teachers
3) Aggressive tutoring assistance and academic enrichment
4) Greatly expanded outreach to students and families right where they live
5) Great reduction of central office staff positions

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.