📜 LADY BUDGETDOWN: FENTON AREA PUBLIC SCHOOLS: FOLLOW THE STAFFING
Our first look at Fenton Area Public Schools showed something that immediately caught my attention:
Enrollment declined 15.7%.
Total funding per pupil increased 63.8%.
And Instructional Support spending per pupil increased 122.1%.
So naturally, Lady Budgetdown went looking at the staffing records next. 🔎
And Fenton's staffing story is an interesting one.
🎒 FEWER STUDENTS - MORE STAFF
From 2014–15 to 2024–25, student headcount went from:
3,414 → 2,872
That's:
−542 students - or −15.9%
During that same period, total staff headcount went from:
654 → 843
That's:
+189 employees - or +28.9%
And when we use FTE, which gives us a better picture of the actual staffing level rather than simply counting individual people:
352.07 → 463.95 FTE
That's:
+111.88 FTE - or +31.8%
But here's where this one gets particularly interesting.
🏛� THIS IS NOT AN ADMINISTRATOR-GROWTH STORY
Unlike some of the districts we've examined, Fenton actually had fewer administrators.
Administrator headcount:
24 → 18
−25.0%
Administrator FTE:
21.57 → 18.00
−16.6%
So where did staffing increase?
🍎 TEACHERS
Teacher headcount:
209 → 250
+19.6%
But teacher FTE only increased:
198.96 → 205.95
+3.5%
That's an important distinction.
Counting people alone makes the increase appear much larger than the actual increase in full-time-equivalent staffing.
👥 PARAPROFESSIONALS & AIDES
This category moved considerably more.
Headcount:
36 → 63
+75.0%
FTE:
31.45 → 56.02
+78.1%
And then we get to the largest FTE increase in this comparison.
🔎 NON-INSTRUCTIONAL STAFF
Headcount:
234 → 302
+29.1%
FTE:
100.09 → 183.98
That's an increase of:
+83.89 FTE - or +83.8%
So over a decade in which Fenton served 15.9% fewer students, total staffing FTE increased 31.8%, with particularly large increases among paraprofessionals/aides and non-instructional staff.
Now remember what we found in the financial records:
Instructional Support spending per pupil increased 122.1%.
Do these staffing numbers prove that staffing growth caused that increase?
No.
And I'm not going to pretend they do.
These reporting categories don't map neatly enough for us to make that leap from these records alone.
But they absolutely give us a more specific question to investigate:
What positions and services account for Fenton's growth in Instructional Support spending and its substantial increase in paraprofessional/aide and non-instructional staffing?
That's where the ledger leads next.
Sometimes the numbers give us an answer.
Sometimes they tell us which question we should be asking.
With receipts and respect.
#LadyBudgetdown #FentonAreaPublicSchools #FentonSchools #GeneseeCounty #SchoolStaffing #EducationTransparency #FollowTheMoney