Dearest reader,
We have already followed ten years of Clarkston Community Schools' dollars.
Now it is time to count the people.
And this is where the Clarkston ledger becomes particularly interesting.
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From 2014-15 to 2024-25, Clarkston's pupil count increased:
8,320.00 → 9,024.69
That is 704.69 additional students.
+8.47%
So, with more than 700 additional students, what happened to staffing?
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Teachers:
338.84 → 337.69 FTE
-0.34%
Essentially flat.
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Instructional Aides:
116.01 → 61.35 FTE
-47.12%
Nearly half of the instructional aide FTE disappeared.
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But other categories moved in the opposite direction.
Instructional Support:
5.35 → 16.63 FTE
+210.84%
Guidance:
10.85 → 17.50 FTE
+61.29%
School Support:
37.69 → 57.20 FTE
+51.76%
Other Support:
140.15 → 195.68 FTE
+39.62%
Student Support, meanwhile:
52.09 → 16.06 FTE
-69.17%
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And then there is administration.
Total administrators increased from 34.23 to 39.00 FTE.
+13.94%
But once Lady B separated central administration from building administration, the ledger told a much more interesting story.
School Administrators:
24.33 → 22.00
-9.58%
LEA/District Administrators:
9.90 → 17.00
+71.72%
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So let us put the decade together.
Students: +8.47%
Teachers: -0.34%
Instructional Aides: -47.12%
School Administrators: -9.58%
Central/District Administrators: +71.72%
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That does not tell us why Clarkston made those staffing decisions.
It does, however, tell us exactly what changed.
And that is why Lady B does not begin with conclusions.
She begins with the ledger.
Why did teacher staffing remain essentially unchanged while enrollment increased by more than 700 students?
Why were instructional aide FTE reduced by nearly half?
Why did building administration decline while central administration increased by more than 70%?
And what positions account for that growth at the district level?
Those seem like perfectly reasonable questions.
Especially after Step 1 showed us that average teacher salary increased just 5.08% over the same decade, a 22.26% decline after adjusting for inflation.
There are still a few pages left in Clarkston's ledger.
And Lady B has already started turning them.
With receipts and respect. 👑
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