The Morgan Hill Unified School District has cut nearly $9
million from its budget in the past 24 months. But, less than $1
million of that has come from the district office. There are about
43 administrators, including principals and vice principals, in the
district.
There’s still room to cut from at the district office level
The Morgan Hill Unified School District has cut nearly $9 million from its budget in the past 24 months. But, less than $1 million of that has come from the district office. There are about 43 administrators, including principals and vice principals, in the district.
Superintendent Alan Nishino says administrators took the biggest hit in the latest rounds of cuts, but he also has increased the number of administrators each year since he was hired in June 2005, leaving plenty more to trim.
Compared with the five other unified districts in Santa Clara County, Morgan Hill has a management staff rivaled in numbers only by Palo Alto Unified, which has an enrollment of about 1,700 more than MHUSD. While the other four like districts averaged about an administrator for every 290 students, Morgan Hill’s student-to-administrator ratio is about one for every 210 students. Palo Alto has an administrator for every 200 students. While the number of Morgan Hill administrators has increased each year, the number of teachers, which is contractually obligated, has stayed about the same, with a teacher for about every 22 students.
Yes, some good comes from programs trying to raise test scores
Granted, some of those administrators have instituted programs that have benefited students. In early 2006, Nishino hired Ricardo Amador to implement and oversee the English Language Learners and Migrant Education program. Last month, nearly 200 graduated from the programs and are now fluent in English, and hundreds more are in the program.
“I believe that right now, every administrator that we have, is doing work that needs to be done,” said MHUSD Trustee Mike Hickey. “If the administrator leaves, that work is piled onto somebody else, but it still has to be done.”
That might be true, but cuts from the top have less impact on students than cuts closer to the classroom, such as laying off teachers, increasing class sizes, closing Burnett Elementary School and slicing $252,000 from the budget for special education.
Words aren’t enough, leaders need to lead by example
Adding administrators in an effort to increase test scores sounds admirable. But to date, the positions of Amador and Bob Davis, who both left the district last spring, have been eliminated, and Director of Testing Esther Corral Carlson took on some of their duties. The only other administrator in jeopardy of losing a job is grant writer and district spokesman Dan Ehrler.
Nishino needs to set a better example. Cutting from the top and adding responsibilities to other high-paying jobs is better than cutting programs. Refusing to take a pay raise – he’s accepted three consecutive 3 percent increases – would be the act of a man who wants to lead by example. When cutting into bone, every slice is painful. But there’s more meat on that bone at this point at the district office level than at the classroom level. More cuts need to be made from the top.
