Consultants KPMG of Virginia released the efficiency study this week, jointly commissioned by the Rowan County Board of Commissioners and the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education.

The $200,000 study is part of a deal that committed the county to increasing per-pupil funding to the state average. Before they increased funding, commissioners said, they wanted to be sure it was getting to the classroom.

“I don’t see it telling us a whole lot of something that we didn’t already know,” said Newton Cohen, chairman of the county commissioners. “It’s a thing of priorities.”

The study offers many suggestions for making the system run more efficiently and for improving its basic goal of educating students.

But, says one Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education member, it offers too few specifics on how to make those changes, aside from adding staff in the system administration.

“They were able to point their fingers at some specific problems,”school board member Vick Bost said of KPMG. “They seem to rely too heavily on adding staff members, and that’s been a problem all along.”

The school board will meet at 6 p.m. at the school system’s Ellis Street offices to officially receive the study from the consultants.

Some specific findings and recommendations:

• Rowan-Salisbury personnel staff processed 49 teacher applications per staff member. The average of schools studied is 95 per staff member.

The system should review this process to increase productivity.

• Associate Superintendent Howard Hurt has too many staff members reporting directly to him to effectively manage them.

The system should create a curriculum director or assistant to help manage the department.

• Rowan-Salisbury places a slightly higher percentage of students in special education programs than other school systems studied.

The system should find ways to reduce the number of students placed in special education programs, which would save money.

• Having administration spread out in two offices creates communication barriers that lead to inefficiency.

The system should consolidate its administrative operations under one roof.

• With student population growth outstripping classroom construction, the system doesn’t have a plan meet its five-year capital needs.

The system should devise a plan involving the community to meet those needs.

“I think we’re always trying to improve some areas mentioned in the efficiency study, and this gives us some validation of those needs,” Schools Superintendent Dr. Joe McCann said. “And it encourages us to develop strategies to achieve those goals as quickly as possible.”

Some of the study’s findings, such as the lack of a strategic plan linking performance measures and funding with overall goals, are already being addressed, McCann said. And others will soon be attacked, he said.

The study included interviews with administrators and staff, six site visits, 100 questionnaires completed by central office administrators and staff and focus group discussions comprised of principals, teachers and business community members.

The consultants also compared Rowan-Salisbury with systems in Kings Mountain, Iredell-Statesville, Cleveland and Johnston counties.

Among those, only Cleveland schools equaled Rowan-Salisbury with the lowest percentage of students scoring at or above grade level on sate reading, math and writing tests. At 73 percent, Rowan-Salisbury fell two points behind the state average.

Bost pointed out that the study is limited because it is only “a snapshot in time”of the system. But, he said, it does make some valuable points.