CAPAC COMMUNITY SCHOOLS: THE STAFFING LEDGER

[Shadowninja]

CAPAC COMMUNITY SCHOOLS: THE STAFFING LEDGER

Dear readers, the first Capac ledger showed a district whose pupil count declined 41% over ten years.

So naturally, my next question was:

What happened to staffing?

From 2014–15 to 2024–25:

👥 Students:
1,146.00 → 676.02
Down 469.98 — 41.0%

🏫 Total Staff FTE:
136.95 → 94.17
Down 42.78 — 31.2%

🏛� Administrators:
6.77 → 5.70
Down 1.07 — 15.8%

🍎 Teachers:
56.97 → 36.69
Down 20.28 — 35.6%

👥 Paraprofessionals/Aides:
16.38 → 4.92
Down 11.46 — 70.0%

⚙️ Non-Instructional/Other:
56.83 → 46.86
Down 9.97 — 17.5%

There is an important distinction here.

Capac did reduce staffing as enrollment declined. Total staff FTE fell more than 31%.

But the reductions were not distributed equally.

While enrollment declined 41.0%, teacher FTE declined 35.6% and paraprofessional/aide FTE declined a striking 70.0%.
Administration declined 15.8%.

Non-instructional/other staffing declined 17.5%.

That doesn't automatically mean those differences were inappropriate. School districts have positions and functions that cannot necessarily be reduced proportionally every time enrollment falls—particularly in a smaller district.

But it does give me another question for the ledger:

As Capac became a substantially smaller district, how did its staffing structure change, and where did the reductions actually occur?

That's why I don't stop at one number.

Next, I'm heading into Capac's budgets and audited financial statements.

And based on what I've already seen there, that may be where this rabbit hole gets considerably more interesting. 🐇

Source: MI School Data / CEPI, Registry of Educational Personnel (REP), 2014–15 and 2024–25.

Receipts aren't very useful if we only keep the convenient ones.

With receipts & respect.

#LadyBudgetdown #CapacCommunitySchools #SchoolStaffing #PublicEducation #EducationTransparency #FollowTheNumbers #MichiganSchools