Misleading Claims Made by the Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams Administration Regarding Davis Center Staff Reductions as Fiscal Year 2026 Budget of the Minneapolis Public Schools is Finalized
Staff members at the Davis Center totaled 568
(five hundred sixty-eight) as of 13 May 2025, according to my
calculations; sixteen additional staff members may occupy positions at
the Davis Center; if so, this would bring the figure to 584; but as
I clarify the actual figure, I am proceeding with the figure of 568 (five
hundred sixty-eight) as reference for most of the comments and data that I
provide in this series.
The figure of 568 would be a reduction of 26
(twenty-six) staff members from the figure of 594 (five hundred ninety-four)
that prevailed eight months ago, in September 2024; this would
calculate to a 4.38% reduction. The figure of 584 would be a
reduction of 10 (ten) staff members from the figure of 594 (five hundred
ninety-four) that prevailed eight months ago, in September
2024; this would calculate to a 1.68% reduction.
Both figures (4.38% and 1.68%) would be far
short of the 14.22% reduction claimed in the FY 26 Budget document presented by
Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams and staff at the 22
April 2025 Committee of the Whole meeting of Minneapolis Public Schools Board
of Education.
The claim in that document is that “Staff
based at the Davis Center are being reduced by 14.22%” for fiscal year
2026. If the latter claim is valid, further cuts will be made in
staff by comparison to the mid-April figures on which the current series is
based.
But then, the administration of Lisa
Sayles-Adams has had difficulty stating clearly and definitively the percentage
reductions that have actually occurred:
A figure of 11.74% was given in the key
document at the 13 May Regular Business Meeting of the Minneapolis Public
Schools Board of Education; and on that very evening a high-ranking
staff member stated that the figure pertinent to Davis Center staff reductions
as Budget FY26 (the district budget of fiscal year 2026) would be 13.8%.
And then there is the matter the basis for
that 13.8% reductions.
District officials give appearance of
deception in the provision of these figures:
Data that I received upon request indicates
that the 13.8% figure is not based on reduction of staff actually working at
the Davis Center but rather on FTE (Full-Time Equivalencies) assigned to the
Davis Center as of 14 April 2025--- meaning the maximum number that
could be hired as staff--- and the FTEs projected to be assigned to
the Davis Center when Budget FY26 is finalized in June 2025. With
the figure of 678.8521 FTE on 14 April 2025, reduced to 585.3092 FTE by
the time Budget FY26 is finalized in June, this would calculate to a 13.78%
(rounded to 13.8%) reduction.
Understand, then that the administration of
Lisa Sayles-Adams has been highly deceptive in statements to the public and to
the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education:
At no time in the course of my eleven year
investigation into the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools have
there been 679 staff members actually working at the Davis
Center; the figure has tended to hover just above or just below 600
staff members.
The figure for actual employee FTE (as opposed
to assigned FTE) on 14 April 2025 was 607.015 FTE.
On 13 May 2025 the comparable figure was
606.015 FTE.
This would mean that as the budget was being
finalized there has been a reduction of only one (1) FTE; in
percentage terms this would be a negligible 00.16% (far under even one percent
[1.00%]).
………………………………………………………………………………………………
The above account indicates intentional
misrepresentation of the level of central office staff cuts made as Fiscal Year
2026 Budget was finalized, a powerful indicator of an administration led by
Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams that is not only incompetent but also in
grievously lacking in integrity.
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