Dearest reader,
Step Five of the Saginaw Township Community Schools ledger is complete. This time, I followed administration.
And this is precisely why Lady Budgetdown keeps digging beyond the first number.
Over this eleven-year ledger, STCS enrollment declined 6.7%, from 4,847 students to approximately 4,525.
Actual administrator staffing went the other direction.
LEA administrators increased from 6.00 to 7.00 FTE.
School administrators increased from 18.17 to 20.08 FTE.
Combined, STCS went from 24.17 administrator FTE to 27.08, an increase of 12.0%.
So yes, STCS is serving fewer students with slightly more administrators.
But that's only part of this ledger.
Business & Administration spending increased from approximately $4.72 million to $7.57 million, 60.6%.
On a per-pupil basis, it increased from $973 to $1,674, 72.0%.
Now, it would be very easy to stop right there and say:
"Administrative spending increased 72%."
Technically, the number is sitting right there.
But it would also leave out something important.
Business & Administration is not simply administrator salaries.
When I opened the audited financial statements, that broader category included General Administration, School Administration, Business Services and Central Services.
So I kept digging.
The superintendent's reported base salary increased from $136,000 in the historical record we located to $192,919.98 in STCS's own 2025 compensation disclosure, an increase of approximately 41.9%.
Inflation over roughly this period was approximately 35.8%.
That tells us something.
But it doesn't explain a 72% increase in Business & Administration spending per pupil.
Neither does a 12% increase in actual administrator FTE.
So where does that leave the ledger?
With a much better question.
If STCS is serving fewer students, administrator staffing increased relatively modestly, and superintendent salary growth alone does not explain the increase...
What drove the much larger growth in the broader Business & Administration ledger?
Some of it is clearly spread across school administration, business operations, central services, compensation and benefits.
We also found substantial increases in reported administrative-support staffing — although the reporting changes sharply beginning around 2020-21, so I am not going to pretend I know how much represents additional staffing versus classification or reporting changes.
And yes, I briefly checked whether temporary COVID/ESSER funding explained it.
The timing overlaps.
The receipt proving causation does not.
So it stays out of the conclusion.
That's what "context" is supposed to look like.
Not explaining away a number.
Not turning a number into something it isn't.
And certainly not starting with the answer and working backward.
Open the ledger.
Follow the numbers.
Ask the question.
And when the receipts complicate the story, tell readers that too.
Step Five is complete.
The numbers tell part of the story.
Now we ask why.
With receipts and respect,
Lady Budgetdown
#LadyBudgetdown #WithReceiptsAndRespect #TheLedger #FollowTheNumbers #FiscalTransparency #SchoolFinance #SaginawTownship #MichiganSchools #PublicEducation #PublicMoney
Sources:
Saginaw Township Community Schools — Audited Financial Statements, 2014-15 through 2024-25.
Saginaw Township Community Schools — 2025 Salaries Over $100,000 compensation disclosure.
Michigan Department of Education — Bulletin 1014, Michigan Public Schools Ranked by Select Financial Information.
Michigan Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI) — Registry of Educational Personnel staffing data.
Mackinac Center for Public Policy — historical Michigan superintendent compensation database (district-reported compensation information).