The Ledger

Lady Budgetdown: A Rather Crowded Organizational Chart

Dear readers,

For weeks now, curious little whispers about the administrative structure at Saginaw Intermediate School District have continued finding their way to Lady Budgetdown's desk.

So naturally, I opened the ledger.

And then I opened the organizational charts.

Oh my. The boxes have multiplied. 🪶

In 2019, under Superintendent Kathy Stewart, SISD showed a considerably flatter structure:

Superintendent → Executive Directors → Assistant Directors → Program/Building Leadership.

By January 2025, under Superintendent Jeffrey Collier, the path had acquired a few more stops:

Superintendent → Deputy Superintendents → Executive Directors → Directors → Program Directors/Principals.

A Chief of Staff position had joined the upper structure as well.

Using the same counting method on SISD's own organizational charts:

📜 Leadership positions shown: 16 → 25 (+56.3%)

📜 Central + Operational Administration FTE: 19 → 31 (+63.2%), comparing Stewart's final FY2020 with FY2025.

And then, dear readers, came the salary ledger.

SISD's own 2024–25 report shows the Superintendent, two Deputy Superintendents and six Executive Directors — just nine upper-management positions — carrying $1,514,233 in salary.

That is salary alone.

Benefits are not included.

Nor are the Directors, Program Directors, principals and supervisors sitting farther down the organizational tree.

But Lady Budgetdown encountered one more curious little problem while checking the receipts.

Michigan requires public school districts and ISDs to publicly disclose certain $100,000+ employee compensation information.

I checked SISD's transparency page again today.

I cannot find the current required $100,000+ compensation report.

So that particular missing receipt will be the subject of a letter to SISD.

Because after following all these boxes through the organizational tree, one thing became rather clear:

The number of major departments didn't dramatically multiply.

The management layers did.

And when taxpayers are paying for the layers, they deserve to see the ledger.

👑 Lady Budgetdown
With receipts and respect.

#SaginawISD #SaginawCounty #SchoolTransparency #MichiganSchools #TaxpayerDollars #SchoolFinance #PublicEducation #FollowTheMoney #LadyBudgetdown