Displeasure with School Board and Superintendent

Below is a letter from Linda Wise to the School Board, originally sent on February 12th. We appreciate her permission to reprint her words here.




Dear Mr. Meng,

As a taxpayer and concerned citizen in your District, I feel it is my duty to express my extreme displeasure with the School Board and the Superintendent. I have followed the yearly saga of the budget via the newspaper, on the GEPA blog, the School website, reports from other concerned citizens, and attendance at some of the meetings. I find it remarkable how every year the School Board and Superintendent use smoke and mirrors to vilify the Board of Supervisors and even parents and citizens who cry out for a more responsible budget.

I have been extremely impressed with the efforts of the GEPA. I found their presentation and speeches to be eloquent, thoughtful, practical, well-researched and credible. Their attempts to present new and fresh ideas and solutions to the financial problems facing the school system , should have been received with open minds. In fact, these are suggestions that you yourselves should have come up with long ago. Instead, the Superintendent and the School Board responded in an arrogant, dismissive and condescending manner, which in the final analysis simply made all of you look supercilious and ignorant. In the past, your Board has been able to stir up the parents and scare them into believing that the bare-bones school budget is being viciously cut by the callous Supervisors and County Administrator and as a result their children will suffer. You use these passionate parents as pawns in a game that attempts to take any blame or responsibility off your shoulders and places it on the Supervisors and Administrator.

Thankfully, this time is different and an impressive group of parents and citizens have refused to be used in this way, and instead have insisted that the Superintendent and the Board come up with a more responsible, effective and realistic budget. They have taken a close look and realized that there is waste and excess in the budget and that the school payroll has become top heavy with Administrative jobs, at the expense of teachers and instructional supplies and programs. Parents and citizens, through this economic downturn have had to learn to be more careful, responsible and resourceful with their money and prioritize, and they are now demanding that local, state and federal governments do the same.



Be very careful not to think that this is just a small group of people, when over 400 signatures were collected on a petition in a very short period of time. You can figure that for every signature on that petition, there are at least 10 people behind the scenes in total agreement. One of the reasons I chose to speak out is because I know there a many parents who are scared to speak out for fear of reprisal. I don’t have to worry about that. It’s time parents and citizens were heard, and what we’re telling you is that we expect our Supervisors, County Administrator, Department Heads, Superintendent of Schools and School Board to be better guardians of our hard-earned dollars and come up with a responsible and effective budget that best serves this County. A storm is brewing and you best sit up and take notice. We hope the Supervisors will never accept a budget that allows cuts to teachers’ jobs, instructional programs and supplies. We want average, gifted and challenged children alike to receive the best education we can offer. On the other hand, financial hardship is a reality for this County right now and we expect a more sincere effort on your part to cut waste and meet the request of the Administrator.

While there are many other areas of concern in your budget, my focus here is on the payroll. I strongly suggest that the School Board and the Superintendent do some in-depth analysis of personnel and make cuts to administrative staff by consolidating jobs and eliminating non-productive positions. Conduct a serious review of job descriptions and workload studies, that will lead to determinations of who is competent, resourceful, proficient, and efficient and who is not. Determine which employees are not really working a fulltime job and combine various positions and in this way make your administrative budget more cost-efficient. I have taken a close look at the administrative positions in our school system and was shocked by the number of people earning over $70,000 a year.

Every effort should have been made by Dr. Underwood to cut down administrative personnel and consolidate positions, rather than cutting teacher’s positions or instructional programs. Perhaps it’s harder for her to cut people in Administrative positions she works more closely with, but frankly that’s why she gets paid the big bucks. As a manager she must show us that she will make the right decisions based on facts, not friendships. Running our schools is a business like any other, and should be run in a businesslike and professional manner. In difficult economic times, tough decisions have to be made. No one wants to see someone lose their job, but the highest priority must always be given to teachers.

Take a close look at the payroll. There is no question in my mind that some of these positions could be eliminated or combined. There seems to be a great deal of overlap and at times an overabundance of positions geared for the same purpose. Sometimes managers think they will increase efficiency and productivity by adding more people. Often it is quite the opposite. Tasks and duties spread across more people often leads to less efficiency, more delays, missed details and loss of continuity. It also would seem that there is an over-abundance of top level administrators. By the way, only positions highlighted in yellow were designated as Admn in the budget for 09-10.

The following information was obtained from a database of GCPS salaries as provided by the School System to The Gazette, as of August 31,2009.

Board Member $ 5,500

Board Member 5,500

Board Member 5,500

Board Member 6,000

Board Member 6,000

Superintendent 121,808

Assistant Superintendent 107,279

Director of Secondary Education 105,812

Director of Elementary Education 66,998

High School Principal 94,263

Middle School Principal 79,882

Elementary School Principal 94,407

Elementary School Principal 80,139

Elementary School Principal 75,177

High School Assistant Principal 73,644

High School Assistant Principal 70,547

Middle School Assistant Principal 65,027

Dean of Students 90,301

School Board Clerk/Administrative Services Specialist 54,835

School Secretary 43,883

Administrative Assistant 37,516

Secretary 29,313

Receptionist 25,967

Administrative Assistant 18,479

Administrative Assistant 21,975

School Secretary 34,662

School Secretary 43,883

Receptionist 20,579

Director of Finance 83,070

Account Payable Specialist 45,869

Payroll Specialist 29,968

Middle School Secretary/Bookkeeper 38,345

School Bookkeeper 31,224

Human Resource Specialist 60,654

Teacher Induction Specialist 32,533

Human Resources Clerk 33,011

Information Technology Specialist 63,293

Technical Services Specialist 58.856

Research & Information Services Analyst 50,570

Technical Services Coordinator 89,925

Services for students and/or parents, but clearly not instructional:

Procedural Due Process Specialist 47,973

School Nurse (Underwood put some under Admn, some Instr) 46,755

School Nurse 49,298

School Nurse 58,862

School Nurse 43,874

School Psychologist 53,851

School Psychologist 42,911

School Psychologist 23,469

Guidance Counselor 41,194

Guidance Counselor 40,400

High School Guidance Counselor 72,543

High School Guidance Counselor 58,640

High School/Middle School Counselor 56,295

Elementary Guidance Counselor 50,798

Guidance Counselor 46,272

High School Guidance Secretary 23,830

Secretary (Clinic/Guidance) 17,213

Student Services Specialist 40,571

Student Services Secretary 37,075

Elementary & Parent Involvement Specialist 45,438

At this point the total is $2,999,546

I would consider all or most administrative, but I suppose these are open to interpretation:

Director of Special Education and Student Services 97,492

Internship/Independent Study Coordinator 45,303

Coordinator of Student Services and Special Education 65,527

Administrator of Alternative Education 45,620

Testing Coordinator 50,172

Transition Specialist 43,287

Library Media Specialist 49,298

Library Media Specialist 44,500

Library Media Specialist 45,374

Library Media Specialist (this is not a repeat) 44,500

Library Media Specialist 42,373

Supervisor of Instructional Technology 71,313


I am flabbergasted that Dr. Underwood didn’t even consider eliminating or combining Administrative positions in order to make some cuts to the budget. Obviously, I cannot pretend to know what each person does and whether or not what they do is essential or unnecessary, or how productive they are. But the point is that a responsible and competent manager is supposed to do just that. The Superintendent’s job is to make sure that the work is done as proficiently as possible, with the least number of people and at the lowest cost possible. Anything short of that is frivolous and irresponsible use of taxpayers’ money. It would appear that positions within the School System have just been piled on, with no real plan or coordination of duties and tasks.

Henrico’s website states that the cost per pupil is $9,469, while our cost, as stated by Dr. Underwood herself is $10,594. Henrico County’s pie chart shows that 79.2% of the budget is under Instructional and 3% Administrative. Dr. Underwoods’s pie chart states that 70% is Instructional and 3.65% is Administrative. She reports that $889,913 of the budget is Administrative and $17,123,254 is Instructional. When if fact, just adding up the salaries shown above, that are clearly not Instructional, it comes to $3 million, and that’s not to mention the benefits such as health insurance and retirement that would be added to the figure. These salaries alone make Administrative costs over 12 %, and reduces Instructional to 61%. That is simply unacceptable.

The argument from Dr. Underwood as to whether a position can or should be categorized as Administrative or Instructional is ridiculous. I don’t care where she sticks each person in the budget, I care that we not argue semantics and get down to the facts. Unless you are talking about a teacher or someone who assists and supports the teacher and students with actual instruction, it’s not instructional, it’s administrative. We realize that we need nurses, librarians, counselors and support personnel, but when cutting personnel and costs, teachers and educational programs should be last on the list. To do anything else is frankly, illogical and reprehensible. The determination comes down to what jobs can be cut or consolidated with the least amount of pain and impact on our students.

The Board apparently also needs to be reminded that the Superintendent works for them, and they need to start demanding that she show more leadership and careful guardianship of the taxpayers’ money, and the education of our County’s children. In my opinion, the Board simply cannot allow Dr. Underwood to continue to behave irresponsibly, incompetently, and arrogantly, when her actions have become so divisive and destructive. The Board must also start taking more responsibility for the decisions made, and do their own research and analysis. Stop simply rubber stamping whatever she does. Like the Supervisors, the members of the School Board were elected by the citizens and you must be responsive and responsible to the citizens.

We are not pawns and we certainly are not stupid…….I suggest you start listening. There is more at stake here than whether or not you and your fellow Board members get re-elected. There is the matter of reputation, pride, honesty, and integrity at stake. Under Dr. Morgan our school system excelled and his leadership, honesty and knowledge inspired teachers, students and parents alike. He turned our school system into something we could all be proud of, so let’s not lose that legacy now. These are difficult times and it takes a competent manager and leader to make the tough choices, for the right reasons. As a taxpayer, I am demanding and expecting our Superintendent and our School Board members to admit mistakes and oversights in this budget process, go back to the drawing board, and take a more responsible and accountable look at the budget you manage. Much better to recognize and rectify your mistakes now, than to have the Board, Superintendent, parents, citizens and most especially the children pay for them later.

This letter is not confidential, so feel free to share it with anyone you like.

Sincerely,


Linda Wise

CC Board of Supervisors

School Board Members

County Administrator

Superintendent

GEPA Board