The Echo

Delaware school districts balk at Denn's push to cut back on expenses

Lieutenant governor: More education, less administration
By NICHOLE DOBO • The News Journal • November 13, 2010
Lt. Gov. Matt Denn came with a message to Friday's meeting of New Castle County school boards and administrators: Reduce class sizes, move resources into classrooms and lower administrative spending.

Speaking to about 20 people at the monthly New Castle County Combined Boards of Education, he pointed to an April report his office drafted that showed some $28 million could be used for instruction if districts would downsize administrative costs.

His audience pushed back.

Describing the April report as "harmful" to school districts, Appoquinimink Superintendent Tony Marchio said it used flawed methodology and that districts were taken by surprise when the state released the administrative cost analysis. The districts want to work with the state before the next report is released, he said, adding that the April one "fed into this feeding frenzy on this notion" that there are too many administrators.

"The way that it came out was harmful to the districts," Marchio said.

Denn stood by his report.

"It may just be something that we disagree about," he said.

The report is part of an effort by Gov. Jack Markell and the state Department of Education to encourage districts to send more money into the classroom. The two districts with the highest spending on administrative expenses were Laurel (10.03 percent) and Appoquinimink (9.99 percent), according to the report. The districts that spent the highest percentages of their budgets on direct educational expenditures were Seaford (77.47 percent) and Caesar Rodney (77.27 percent).

The report shouldn't have been a surprise, Denn said, because a state House bill signed in 2009 requires the state to create an annual report that outlines district spending. He brushed off a suggestion at the meeting that he present the report in a "more positive than a negative way," saying he favors reporting in an "accurate way." He also disagreed that the report should be combined with test score data to show that some high-performing districts are getting good scores because of administrative spending. He did agree to meet with district officials to work on collaboration.

The report used spending data reported by districts. Districts report financial data broken down by categories. The government provides definitions for each category, with the intention of gathering it in a uniform way.
Marchio and other administrators said it's not fair to compare schools using those numbers. Some districts may report the same kinds of spending in different categories because each district makes some judgment calls on where to report the money. And there's a problem for some schools where administrative costs are inflated because of expensive programs for special-needs students.

Throughout the meeting, Denn urged the group to find ways to cut costs and solve problems without asking for more money from the state. In these economic times, there's no money to spare, and schools should shoulder some of the responsibility for finding efficiencies, he said.

States have been grappling with how to fund education initiatives in a weakened economy. The issue of administrative costs was addressed this week in New Jersey, where Gov. Chris Christie proposed caps for superintendent pay based on district enrollment -- a move that calls for significant pay cuts for current superintendents.

There's been no effort to push down a similar plan in Delaware. The message from the governor's office has focused on putting pressure on districts to come up with their own savings plans. At the same time, the state cut its own payroll by eliminating jobs through attrition.

Some at Friday's meeting expressed doubt that administrative spending cuts are feasible.

Decreasing administrative spending will be difficult given that the state has passed down new initiatives -- such as Common Core standards and the Race to the Top education reform program -- that have created more administrative work, said Judy Curtis, an assistant superintendent in Brandywine. She predicted that future reports will show increased administrative spending because districts have been tasked with making these statewide initiatives workable on a local level.

"That's not books and pencils ... and it's not work that can be laid on teachers or principals," Curtis said.

Brandywine School District Superintendent Mark Holodick said those trims do not come without consequences. His district, for example, decided to consolidate bus routes this year to follow a suggestion from the governor's office. Now, droves of parents are showing up at board meetings to complain fiercely that there are fewer neighborhood bus stops.

"It's easy to talk about saving money ... until it affects you," he said.