NOVI'S PERSONNEL SPENDING: LET'S PUT THE PERCENTAGE IN CONTEXT

[Shadowninja]

**LADY BUDGETDOWN: NOVI'S PERSONNEL SPENDING: LET'S PUT THE PERCENTAGE IN CONTEXT**

Dear Readers,

Before we get into today's numbers, Lady Budgetdown wants to explain one thing up front, because this comparison can be confusing if you don't spend your evenings staring at school-district financial reports while eating cereal!

When you see that Novi spent **85.91% on personnel**, that does **not** mean Novi spent more actual dollars on employees than every other district.

The percentage represents:

**Personnel expenditures as a percentage of that district's TOTAL GENERAL FUND EXPENDITURES.**

Think of it this way:

For every **$1 Novi spent from its General Fund in 2024-25, approximately 86 cents went toward personnel costs.**

Novi spent:

**$89.56 million on personnel**
out of
**$104.26 million in total General Fund expenditures**
That's **85.91%.**

A larger district can spend substantially more actual dollars on personnel while having a lower percentage because its overall General Fund is also larger.

Farmington is a perfect example.

Farmington spent approximately:
**$144.11 million on personnel**

That's about **$54.5 million MORE** than Novi spent.

But Farmington's total General Fund expenditures were approximately **$173.38 million**, so personnel represented **83.12%** of its General Fund spending.

Novi spent fewer dollars-but personnel consumed a **larger share of the available General Fund pie.**

That's what today's comparison measures.

It does **not** rank districts by who has the biggest payroll.

It measures:

**How much of each district's General Fund spending is devoted to personnel.**

And once we understood that distinction, Lady Budgetdown wanted to know:

**How does Novi compare with other Oakland County districts of similar size?**

So we pulled the newest 2024–25 personnel-expenditure transparency reports for nine additional Oakland County districts and paired them with their 2024 Fall Pupil Counts from Michigan's Bulletin 1014.

Here's what we found:

|  Rank | District        | 2024 Fall Pupil Count | Personnel Spending | % of General Fund |
| ----: | --------------- | --------------------: | -----------------: | ----------------: |
| **1** | **Novi**        |          **6,766.14** |        **$89.56M** |        **85.91%** |
|     2 | South Lyon      |              8,316.44 |           $102.86M |            85.58% |
|     3 | Clarkston       |              9,024.69 |           $111.93M |            84.54% |
|     4 | Huron Valley    |              7,594.98 |           $102.40M |            83.53% |
|     5 | Lake Orion      |              6,921.87 |            $87.68M |            83.22% |
|     6 | Farmington      |              9,056.31 |           $144.11M |            83.12% |
|     7 | Waterford       |              6,774.29 |           $103.84M |            81.49% |
|     8 | West Bloomfield |              4,753.87 |            $62.10M |            78.97% |
|     9 | Royal Oak       |              4,834.43 |            $65.96M |            78.43% |
|    10 | Oxford          |              7,425.40 |            $76.87M |            73.81% |

**Novi ranked #1.**

That does **not** prove Novi is overstaffed.

Michigan's own personnel reports caution that districts structure operations differently. For example, a district that outsources certain functions may report those costs as purchased services rather than salaries and benefits.
So Lady Budgetdown isn't going to turn one percentage into a conclusion it doesn't support.

What it *does* establish is this:

**Among these ten Oakland County districts, Novi devoted the largest share of its 2024–25 General Fund expenditures to personnel.**

And one comparison is particularly difficult to ignore.

**Novi:**
6,766.14 pupils
85.91% personnel

**Waterford:**
6,774.29 pupils
81.49% personnel

That's a difference of only **8.15 pupils**.

Yet Novi's personnel costs consume **4.42 percentage points more of its General Fund expenditures.**

So naturally, Lady Budgetdown's next question was:

**What's inside Novi's personnel structure?**

And that's where the administrative numbers become interesting.

Federal staffing data cited in an analysis provided to Lady Budgetdown show Novi with:

**23 district-administrator FTE**
for approximately **6,770 students**

That's about **3.40 district administrators per 1,000 students.**

Northville, with roughly 7,000 students, reports **14** district-administrator FTE.

Troy serves **12,283 students** with **24**.

A separate position-by-position review identified **26 current executive, district and department-level leadership positions** and found support for at least **nine Mainka-era leadership additions or added layers**.

Some positions were reorganized, renamed or split from existing responsibilities, so those nine should **not automatically be treated as nine net-new employees.**

But administrative structure is only one part of personnel spending.

Then there's compensation.

**SUPERINTENDENT BEN MAINKA**

Novi's transparency reports show Mainka's reported gross pay increased from:

**2024 - $255,426.51**
to
**2025 - $295,360.98**

That's:
### **+$39,934.47 - a 15.6% increase in one year.**

His total employer cost increased from **$421,249.11 to $464,177.54.**

The assistant-superintendent figures also deserve examination.

Two continuing assistant-superintendent positions reported gross pay of approximately **$162,763 and $172,556 in 2024**.

In 2025, Novi's three assistant-superintendent positions were reported between approximately **$205,459 and $209,412**.

Because the 2025 transparency report doesn't identify which department corresponds with each figure, Lady Budgetdown isn't going to assign an exact increase to a specific employee.

But the continuing-position comparison implies increases ranging from approximately **19.1% to 28.7%.**

Meanwhile:

**Novi teachers received a 1.5% contractual raise for 2025–26 and are scheduled for 1.25% in 2026–27.**

The analysis reviewed by Lady Budgetdown did **not** find those teacher increases unusually high compared with the Metro Detroit peer agreements it examined. That does not mean teachers and administrators should receive identical raises.

Different jobs. Different contracts. Different responsibilities.

But when Novi's 2025–26 General Fund budget projects approximately **$106.10 million in revenue and $109.84 million in expenditures, a gap of about $3.73 million** all recurring personnel costs deserve examination.

So Lady Budgetdown has a few questions.

**Why does personnel consume a larger share of Novi's General Fund than the nine Oakland County districts we reviewed?**

**What explains Novi's administrative staffing structure?**

**What measurable benefits came from the leadership positions and layers added during the Mainka era?**

**How were the increases in executive compensation justified?**

**And before reductions reach classrooms, programs and veteran educators, how thoroughly has Novi examined recurring costs at the top?**

None of these numbers individually explains a $3.73 million projected gap.

That's important.

A budget problem of this size is the cumulative result of many decisions-not one salary, one employee group or one expense.

But when the numbers no longer balance, taxpayers are entitled to examine **all of those decisions.**

Not just the easy ones.

**All of them.**

The numbers are on the table.

**You decide.**

*With receipts and respect.*

**Lady Budgetdown**

Novi Community School District