Dearest reader,
Lady Budgetdown has finished counting the chairs at Lake Orion Community Schools, and one particular rearrangement deserves a circle in the ledger.🪶
From 2014–15 to 2024–25:
📉 Pupils: 7,603.00 → 6,921.87
−8.96%
🍎 Teachers: 346.21 → 328.52 FTE
−5.1%
🏛� District/Central Administration: 11.45 → 16.50 FTE
+44.1%
So over the same decade that Lake Orion served approximately 681 fewer pupils and reported 17.69 fewer teacher FTE, its district/central administrative staffing increased by 5.05 FTE, or 44.1%.
But there is another important receipt here.
Total administration actually declined 21.4%.
Why?
Because while district/central administration increased 44.1%, school/building administration moved sharply in the opposite direction:
🏫 School/Building Administration: 32.86 → 18.33 FTE
−44.2%
In other words, this is not a story of administrative staffing simply exploding across the district.
It is a story of where the administrative chairs appear to have moved.
And while enrollment declined 8.96%, total district staffing increased from 847.39 to 1,076.93 FTE, up 27.1%.
Other support staffing increased 76.1%.
Student support increased 52.2%.
School support increased 30.2%.
Lady Budgetdown isn't declaring those positions unnecessary. The numbers alone cannot tell us that.
But when pupils decline, teachers decline, and district/central administration increases 44.1%, the ledger has certainly given us something worth following.
Step Two does not answer why.
It tells Lady Budgetdown where to look next. 👓
📚 Sources: Michigan REP staffing data, NCES staffing data, and Michigan Department of Education Bulletin 1014.
#LadyBudgetdown #LakeOrionSchools #MichiganSchools #SchoolFinance #EducationTransparency #FollowTheReceipts #WithReceiptsAndRespect