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I-SS should cut administrators, not valuable classroom teachers
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Published: March 27, 2009
I became quite distressed when reading the R&L article on March 9 titled " I-SS Board: Jobs may be cut.
Why did I become distressed? I have grandchildren in this school system and their education is very important to me. I support public schools and the hard-working people that staff them. The majority are overworked and underpaid, doing their best to educate every child every day.
I was also angry — but not surprised — that there was no mention of any administrative cuts of any type, only of teachers and teacher assistants.
First, start with administrative salaries. There are 25 people in Iredell-Statesville Schools making more than $81,000 per year, according to the payroll data on the R&L's Web site. Out of those 25, six are principals and one is a therapist, so I assume they actually work in a school with children. The others have titles such as "executive director leadership academy," or "director of innovations." Fancy at best, nebulous at worst. What does the director of innovations do? Innovate?
My question is this: Could I-SS not hire someone capable of doing the job for less money? Yes, and probably for much less. Until administrators, who apparently are making 3 to 4 times what a teacher makes, take a pay cut, the I-SS board should not be talking about cutting teacher or teacher assistant jobs.
Don't kid yourselves that someone capable couldn't be found who would be willing to do an administrative job for less than $100,000 per year. I'd be willing to bet that it could be done and without tremendous effort.
If the salary cut idea isn't acceptable, the board should simply do away with a few of those $100,000 positions. Thirty teachers at $30,000 each, or nine administrators at $100,000 each, would equal $900,000 in savings. This would save just as much money and put fewer people out of work.
Another suggestion to save I-SS some big bucks: How about doing away with the instructional facilitators at each school? According to the I-SS Web site, there are 32 instructional facilitators and two coaches. By taking their names and cross-referencing them with the R&L's database, I was able to find some interesting numbers. The salaries range from $38,918 to $71,835. The average salary is $51,920.62. The grand total is $1,765,301. That's 58 teaching positions right there.
They don't have to be fired; simply put these folks back in the classroom where they would actually be helping students instead of creating busywork for other teachers. If we just have to have them, at least put them back in the classroom for half days. Instead of meeting all day Thursday, they can meet half the day. If that won't work, cut the number of positions in half by having two schools share a facilitator.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a school the size of Pressly or Union Grove shouldn't need the same amount of assistance as a large high school. The schools already share nurses. Why not facilitators?
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