Dearest reader,
Well now... Rudyard continues to make the ledger interesting. 🧐📜
In Step One, I showed you something I don't see very often: every financial category we track finished the decade ahead of inflation, including average teacher salary.
Now we're opening the staffing ledger.
From 2014–15 to 2024–25, Rudyard Area Schools lost 13.85% of its pupils, falling from 702.00 to 604.78.
But teacher staffing?
It increased.
Teachers went from 34.18 to 35.02 FTE, up 2.46% even while enrollment declined.
That deserves to be noticed.
There are movements elsewhere in the ledger, too.
Instructional aides/paras declined 38.80%, from 5.00 to 3.06 FTE.
Building administration declined slightly, 5.66%, from 2.12 to 2.00 FTE.
District/central administration increased 33.11%, but here's where percentages need context. In actual people-equivalent terms, we're talking about 1.51 to 2.01 FTE. That's an increase of just 0.50 FTE.
Put building and district administration together, and total administrative staffing moved from 3.63 to 4.01 FTE, an increase of 0.38 FTE, or 10.47%.
Meanwhile, total staffing across all categories increased from 74.34 to 84.60 FTE, up 13.80%.
So let's put the decade side by side:
📉 Pupils: −13.85%
📈 Teachers: +2.46%
📈 Total administration: +10.47%
📈 Total staff: +13.80%
And this is exactly why I don't like looking at one percentage and declaring victory or scandal.
A 33.11% increase in central administration sounds enormous until you open the ledger and discover it represents half of one FTE.
Context matters.
So far, Rudyard has lost enrollment, but it did not respond by cutting teacher FTE. Step One also showed that average teacher salary gained purchasing power over the decade.
There are still questions, particularly what happened with instructional aides, and there are more receipts to examine.
But if we're willing to point out when the numbers raise concerns, we ought to be equally willing to point out when the numbers show something worth recognizing.
That's the deal around here.
No predetermined conclusion.
No red pen looking for somewhere to land.
Just the receipts.
Onward. 🪶
With receipts & respect.
#LadyBudgetdown #RudyardAreaSchools #ChippewaCounty #UpperPeninsula #MichiganSchools #PublicEducation #TeacherStaffing #SchoolAdministration #SchoolFinance #Transparency #Accountability #FollowTheNumbers #FollowTheReceipts #WithReceiptsAndRespect