The much-awaited efficiency study of the Rowan-Salisbury Schools concludes that —drum
roll, please —the schools may be practicing too much efficiency already. With a couple of exceptions, the KPMG study indicates
Rowan-Salisbury schools rely on too lean of an administrative structure. What this system
needs, it suggests in so many words, is more middle managers. More evaluation procedures.
More process.
Is that the sound of gagging we hear?
This may come as a shock to the county
commissioners who requested the study. Looking at the schools’ $131 million budget,
they appeared certain the system was squandering money on positions or procedures that
were not contributing to the quality of education.
No so, according to KPMG. The biggest inefficiency
the study found involved the teacher application process. Staff there go through only 49
applications per staff member a year, which is 48 percent below the average for similar
school systems. Considering the shortage of teachers facing the system, that’s a
crucial shortcoming.
Also, an $827,400 savings might be realized if the
system lowered the number of children in special education programs to the average, the
study says.
But otherwise the report suggests hiring an
assistant for the associate superintendent, more curriculum specialists, a director of
guidance, an assistant for special education. It also says the system needs to pay school
food service workers more, come up with greater supplements for everyone from teachers to
superintendents, spend more on staff development, spend more on new buildings to replace
mobile classrooms —the list goes on.
Oh, and the schools should publish information for
free and reduced lunch program in more languages than just English and Spanish.
Despite its wish-list nature, the study could
prove useful to the school system. On the whole, it reinforces the administration’s
contention that it has shaved school expenses to the bare minimum —a fact that
principals and teachers live with every day. (Most PTA presidents could vouch for it,
too.)
The study goes on to profile each division of
school governance —administration, personnel, operations, technology — and makes
valuable observations about what they’re doing right and what they could do better.
It will take some time to digest all this
information and decide what to do with it. Commissioners should resist the urge to reject
its high-spending recommendations out of hand. The study includes hundreds of
commendations, findings and recommendations that can help everyone gain a better
understanding of what’s going on in the schools. It might not have reached the
conclusions commissioners wanted, but they asked for it.
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