HEMLOCK PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT: FOLLOW THE STAFFING
Dear readers, the numbers have led Lady Budgetdown back to Hemlock, and this time, we are looking at who was staffing the district then, and who is staffing it now.
Using Michigan Department of Education staffing data, we compared 2014-15 to 2024-25.
Over those ten years:
👩�🎓 Pupils: 1,207 → 1,249
+3.45%
🍎 Teachers: 54.21 FTE → 61.64 FTE
+13.71%
🏛� Administrators: 8.00 FTE → 9.99 FTE
+24.88%
📚 Paraprofessionals/Aides: 15.77 FTE → 7.53 FTE
−52.25%
📋 Non-Instructional/Support: 50.48 FTE → 70.79 FTE
+40.23%
📊 Total reported FTE: 128.46 → 149.95
+16.73%
And that, dear readers, is where the comparison becomes interesting.
Enrollment grew a modest 3.45%.
Teacher FTE grew 13.71%.
But non-instructional/support FTE grew 40.23%, while paraprofessional/aide FTE moved sharply in the opposite direction, falling 52.25%.
Lady Budgetdown is not here to tell you which positions were necessary, unnecessary, good, bad, justified, or unjustified.
That requires considerably more information than a spreadsheet can provide.
But the spreadsheet can tell us that the composition of Hemlock's staffing changed substantially over the decade, and that overall reported staffing FTE grew considerably faster than pupil enrollment.
That is precisely why we show the categories rather than simply announcing one big staffing number.
The question isn't only whether staffing increased.
The more interesting question is where it increased, and where it didn't. 👀
Note: FTE means Full-Time Equivalent and is reported by functional category. It should not be interpreted as a count of unique individual employees, as an employee may be reported in more than one functional category.
Source: Michigan Department of Education staffing data, 2014-15 and 2024-25.
👑 Receipts aren't very useful if we only keep the convenient ones.
With receipts and respect.
#LadyBudgetdown #HemlockPublicSchools #SchoolFinance #EducationTransparency #FollowTheNumbers #PublicSchools #WithReceiptsAndRespect