Ready? Take a deep breath. Remember this comes from a place of love and genuine concern for our community.

We need to start talking about consolidation of services and administrations at our schools here in Wayne County.

Before you come for me with pitchforks lamenting the loss of your district’s identity or yelling about your already high taxes, let’s take an objective look at the current state of schools in our area.

Enrollment is down. Costs of just about everything are up. Buildings that were once considered state-of-the-art are now crumbling or in need of extensive repairs. In the past few years, several districts have even had to combine certain athletic teams. 

The writing is on the walls. We’re going to need some changes.

Now before we even discuss the closure of any facilities or merging of schools, let’s look at the very top. 

While every town and community has their own unique issues and identity, are administrative functions truly that different from school to school?

Superintendents, business offices and other administrative costs typically account for between 8-12% of a district’s total budget. 

Would a county-wide school district make sense for Wayne County?  Several rural areas have already adopted this model across the country, both out of necessity and plain common sense.

So, without tipping over the apple cart, let’s operate under the assumption that we want to keep the schools (buildings etc) as they are and simply focus on reducing redundancy and lowering costs.

One large, county-wide district could help address these problems. I hate needless and bloated bureaucracy as much as anyone, but with just shy of 12,000 students here in Wayne County, a centralized district would give us more bargaining power than 11 individual schools all fighting for the same resources.

I want the best for my kids and yours, but like most responsible taxpayers, I need to know how we pay for it long-term. 

I graduated from Gananda in 2002 and when I had the opportunity to decide where I wanted to raise my kids, the choice was easy. I wanted them to enjoy the same small class sizes and walkability I had growing up. I knew this would mean paying some of the county’s highest taxes, but for my wife and I, it was worth it.

Now, even Gananda is faced with making difficult choices despite their high tax rates. Loss of federal and state funding alongside growing mandates attached to the dollars they do receive have left our budgets looking like Swiss cheese. Holes everywhere and slices getting thinner by the year.

My questions is, do 11 rural school districts each need a superintendent who typically clears $150-$200k in order to keep our kids educated? I’m certainly missing some important functions, but it seems like the only time you hear their name is when something goes wrong. All in a statement likely written by a communications person and circulated to several other administrative staff for review.

Yes, that’s a very broad generalization of what they do, but tell me the last time your kid came home raving about their superintendent.

Teachers have a daily impact in our kids lives. Support staff help those teachers do their jobs. Cafeteria staff feed our kids. Principals ensure students learn and that staff get the support they need.  

I can quantify the value that each of those positions provide. I get stuck on the supers.

I’ve worked as a consultant for some of the largest companies in the world and have had these same awkward and impersonal  conversations. Having to replace people’s names and titles with dollar figures is an ugly way to think about education, but it’s an unfortunate reality we need to face. 

Schools aren’t meant to be businesses and shouldn’t turn a profit, but, at a minimum, they should to be able to support themselves. You can’t rely solely on federal or state dollars to be there when you need them as administrations and priorities are always shifting.

Will buildings need to be closed? Probably. Are there other areas to look for savings beyond the administrative level? Of course.

Difficult decisions need to be made and preferably ones that have the least impact on ensuring our kids can learn. Maybe not today, but definitely before they shift from decisions to inevitables.

Will cutting admin costs be enough?

Maybe. Maybe not.

At the bare minimum, I guess I’m just saying we need to have a conversation.