The number of administrators in Morgan Hill Unified School
District has increased each year since Superintendent Alan Nishino
was hired in May 2005, according to state data.
Morgan Hill
The number of administrators in Morgan Hill Unified School District has increased each year since Superintendent Alan Nishino was hired in May 2005, according to state data.
The number of teachers, which is contractually obligated, has stayed about the same, with a teacher for about every 22 students.
Compared with the five other unified districts in Santa Clara County, Morgan Hill has a robust management staff rivaled only by Palo Alto Unified.
While the other four like districts averaged about an administrator for every 290 students, Morgan Hill’s student-to-administrator ratio sunk to about one for every 210 students. Palo Alto has an administrator for every 200 students.
When Nishino started in July 2005, there were 35.5 full-time administrators in Morgan Hill. In 2005/06, there were 37.9. These first two positions are easily attributable: the board chose to leave two vacancies for their new superintendent to fill. Nishino brought on assistant superintendents Michael Johnson and Jay Totter.
But the trend continued in 2006/07, when two more positions were added, with 40.1 full-time administrators reported to the state. And again in 2007/08, another two were added, bringing the total to 42.7.
By the end of last school year, however, two administrators left and were not replaced. And, this year, the new grant writer position was part of the sweeping cuts that have totaled almost $9 million.
During these cuts, Nishino has said management has taken the largest hit. But, compared with the year he was hired, the number of administrators in the district is still up, according to the data.
“Administrators have taken the biggest hit, in terms of the largest percentage of positions laid off,” Nishino said. “Higher even than classified, which is traditionally the most vulnerable to layoffs.”
The district office staff is a sticking point for both the SEIU, which represents classified employees, and Federation of Teachers.
“The reality is, everybody is making tough cuts and having to go to ratio, when the administration is not at ratio. And we’re cutting in the classroom,” Federation Vice President Theresa Sage said.
SEIU President Pam Torrisi added, “They should be looking at middle management.”
Trustee Julia Hover-Smoot said the additions were at Nishino’s discretion. His focus has been using data to drive curriculum, she said, which justified the increases.
“We don’t micromanage. We set policy,” Hover-Smoot said. “We have to give him some flexibility to get there.”
According to educational leaders, about all a district can do to gauge how much or how little they should staff their district office, and in school principals’ offices, is compare themselves to like districts.
“The truth of the matter is, there’s no formula for it,” said Arlando Smith, an educational leadership professor at San Jose State University. “It’s usually somebody who sits around and says, ‘We need this,’ and then they have to work very hard against the anti-administrative forces to get it passed.”
Smith explained that, ideally, districts would work thusly: teachers provide direct support to students, principals support their teachers, and the district office supports the principals.
Trustees Mike Hickey and Peter Mandel said the district learned its lesson after several lawsuits: they needed more managers.
Mandel said the lawsuits were a symptom of a larger problem.
“The underlying problem that the lawsuits brought out was that we needed to do a better job at managing the compliance of the district. You don’t do that because you’re worried about laws, you do that because it’s the right thing to do.”
“I believe that right now, every administrator that we have, is doing work that needs to be done,” Hickey said. “If the administrator leaves, that work is piled onto somebody else, but it still has to be done.”
Torrisi disagreed.
“Just because you have more people upstairs, doesn’t mean you’re going to avoid getting in trouble with an audit,” she said. “You could have two people up there doing a good job, or five or six people doing a mediocre job. If you say you have good people, they should be able to do the job without (the extra help).”
In early 2006, Nishino hired Ricardo Amador, to oversee the English Language Learners program and migrant education. Amador left the district last spring, along with Bob Davis. Their positions were then eliminated, and Director of Testing Esther Corral Carlson took on some of their duties. It is her position that is the remaining “surplus” in the Educational Services Department.
Trustee Bart Fisher said he didn’t mind having more administrators than other districts.
“The board has agreed with Nishino and his cabinet that the number of administrators we have is the number we need,” Fisher said. “But if we’re putting a disproportionate number of resources here, we need to see disproportionate results.”
Trustee Shelle Thomas said there’s not much the board can do at the moment. According to state law, the administrators must have been notified in March that they could be laid off and the board missed that deadline.
