Dearest reader... your Lady has finished counting the chairs in Grand Rapids. 👑🪶
And this ledger requires a rather closer look.
Over the last decade, Grand Rapids Public Schools lost 21.3% of its pupils — from 17,202 to 13,536.
But the chairs did not all move in the same direction.
Teachers declined 7.1%, considerably less than enrollment.
Instructional aides declined 39.7%.
Student support increased 79.0%.
Other support increased 69.7%.
And instructional support rose from 7.5 to 32 FTE — an increase of 326.7%.
But then your Lady arrived at administration.
Total administrators actually decreased 20.8%, almost exactly alongside the decline in enrollment.
One might be tempted to close the ledger there.
One should not. 🪶
Because underneath that total, something rather interesting happened.
🏛� District/Central Office administrators:
42.5 → 62.0 FTE
+45.9%
🏫 School/Building administrators:
117.05 → 64.4 FTE
−45.0%
Ah.
So this is not a story of an administrative workforce simply growing.
It is a story of where the administrative chairs moved.
While the district lost more than one-fifth of its pupils, central-office administration grew substantially, building administration was nearly cut in half, and the overall staffing mix changed considerably.
And that, dearest readers, is precisely why your Lady insists upon opening more than one page of the ledger.
A total can tell you what happened.
Sometimes you must lift the lace tablecloth to discover where it happened. 👑
No conclusions yet.
Next, we shall see what those chairs cost. 🪶
#LadyBudgetdown #GrandRapidsPublicSchools #MichiganSchools #SchoolStaffing #Transparency #FollowTheNumbers #WithReceiptsAndRespect