>Numbers show Ridgewood’s extremely lean staffing.
https://lauriegood.blogspot.com/2010/05/numbers-show-ridgewoods-extremely-lean.html
Over the past few weeks, Governor Christie and the media have made a big deal about some recently-released data. It showed that statewide, over the past 10 years, enrollment in New Jersey schools has grown 3%, while staffing in NJ schools has grown 14%. The Governor and others used these statistics to back-up the claim that there has been a “hiring spree” in our schools and that today there is “plenty of room to cut.” I would totally agree on a statewide level.
However, the statistics in Ridgewood are very different:
2000-2010 Ridgewood: (from DOE reporting)
Enrollment Growth = 11%
Total Staff Growth = 6.9%
And if we project ahead to next year (2010-11) based on the cuts we are making, it will look like this:
2000-2011 Ridgewood: (from DOE reporting)
Enrollment Growth = 11%
Total Staff Growth = 0%
In other words, Ridgewood’s staffing-to-enrollment growth ratio is the complete opposite of the rest of the state. (See year-by-year comparison chart at the end of this post.)
Unlike many other districts, Ridgewood is educating many more students in a much more rigorous program with much more state-mandated curriculum – and with the same number of staff — as 10 years ago. This doesn’t look like “bloat” to me.
FYI, the number of administrators in the district has gone down 34% in the same 10-year period. Our highest number of administrators was 37 in 2004-2005 down to 27 currently in 2009-2010 and cut to 21 next year. We have not had so few administrators in decades.
Our district serves 5,700+ students every day. And we will accomplish this next year with 21 administrators. I have to be honest and say while I’m all for streamlining and working “lean,” I’m a bit concerned about the workloads and effectiveness of those 21 administrators. It is for this reason that I can’t support cutting any more administration at this time.
Of course, if the Governor’s proposed 2.5% budget cap becomes law, we’ll be cutting our budget more next year, and we may have to find ways to consolidate a few more administrators. But for now, for this year, I think we’ve cut enough.
https://lauriegood.blogspot.com/2010/05/numbers-show-ridgewoods-extremely-lean.html
