Administrative Spending in NLMUSD

By Greg W. Hunter

Administration is taking a large slice of our budget and needs to be reduced to improve our District.

Some administration is needed to run a school district, but every dollar above the bear minimum spent on administration is a threat to the primary mission of our public school system + to provide children with the best education.

Administrative spending in NLMUSD is much higher than most other similar districts in the State. The California State Department of Education list spending on administrative salaries (formally know as "object code 2300") as 30% above other unified school districts in the state. That corresponds to an excess of about $600,000 a year spent on administrative salaries. To make another comparison, Downey Unified + our neighboring school district + spends about $6.7 on administrative salaries compared to $9 spent by NLMUSD. Both Downey and NLMUSD have about 22,500 students. This implies that if we managed our resources the right way, our District could easily free up $1 million additional dollars for instruction.

What is the cost of excessive administration? Ultimately, the teachers and the students suffer. To use Downey Unified again, their average teacher is paid about $5000 more per year than teachers in NLMUSD. Teacher salaries that are less than they could be are a problem for recruitment and retention, which trickles down to the classroom experience of our children. Teachers need to be well supported because they are the conduit through which education is transmitted. Lower teacher salaries affect morale also + especially if administrators are paid excessively.

In sum, I believe administration is inessential to the mission of a public school. I would make every effort to decrease administration and focus our District's budget on teachers and student.