With six weeks to go before the General Assembly returns to Dover, the state’s auditor has revived debate over whether Delaware should consolidate its 19 local school districts into three countywide systems and one centralized vocational school district.
A report released Nov. 30 by Audit or of Accounts Tom Wagner indicates the state could save upward of $50 million per year on administrative salaries and benefits through consolidation, much to the delight of legislators who have put forward measures to move Delaware in that direction.
But, school district officials and the state teachers’ union warn that Wagner’s report represents just one facet of a complicated issue. Some even say the figures used to draft the report aren’t reasonable.
The basis of the report is a bill filed in May by Sen. Karen Peterson, D-Stanton, which would direct the state Department of Education to come up with a plan for consolidating districts along specific boundaries effective July 1, 2011.
Under the Peterson bill, school districts north of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal would form a single Northern District, districts in southern New Castle County and all of Kent County would constitute the Central District and all of Sussex County would become the Southern District. In addition, all three of the state’s vocational high schools would be organized in a single district.
The three districts would encompass as many as 53,000 students in the north, 34, 000 in the Central District and 21,000 in Sussex. Wagner’s report, which examined administrative staffing levels only, said 823 redundant positions could be eliminated statewide if the districts are consolidated.
The largest number of downsized positions would be secretaries, with more than 200 such jobs identified for reduction.
To arrive at those figures the auditor’s office identified the number of administrative positions in each local district and totaled them for each proposed consolidated district. The number of jobs, by category, were then compared to districts in neighboring states that have roughly the same number of students as the consolidated districts.
For example, the six school districts that would comprise the proposed Central District each have their own superintendents, while comparably sized districts elsewhere have just one. If the districts are consolidated, five superintendent positions could be eliminated for a savings of just under $1 million per year, according to the report.
Some comparison districts used included Howard County, Md., for the Northern District, Pittsburgh, Pa., for the Central District and Central Bucks County, Pa., for the Southern. Wagner said the report was driven by a need to reconsider state government operations in light of ongoing budget challenges.
“The revenue streams that the state has enjoyed in the past are just not going to be flowing in the future, I don’ t think anybody in government disagrees with that,” he said. “What this report does is look at the administrative side, the administrative costs of providing education and it challenges it. It fundamentally says we have too much administration and we can save substantial dollars.”
Peterson was pleased with the auditor’s decision to run some numbers on school consolidation, and thinks it’s a good sign for her bill that the issue continues to be discussed.
“My bill is really designed to get people talking about it; it doesn’t matter if it’s four districts or five districts or whatever, what matters is that we start talking about it,” she said.
In his first State of the State Address in January, Gov. Jack Markell did talk about school cons olidation, but he stopped short of announcing a timeline for combining districts. Instead, Markell talked about sharing services among school districts to generate cost savings.
Though the Department of Education is studying consolidation at the governor’s direction, a report on the issue isn’ t expected from the agency until next year.
Rep. Darryl Scott, D-Dover, a co-sponsor of Peterson’s bill, said the auditor’s report is an important step toward further investigation.
“I think it’s part of the discussion that Sen. Peterson and I wanted to see happen, to see that the issue is given serious consideration and proper study,” he said. Scott, a former member of the Capital School Board, said consolidation not only makes sense from a financial standpoint, but it resolves other concerns about uniformity across districts — specifically in terms of curriculum and student discipline.
“If we’re setting standards at the state level and competing on a state, regional and global basis, doesn’t it make sense that our kids across the state are being taught with consistent curriculum?” he said.
“With differences in policies not only among districts but across the state, it makes it difficult for agencies to support us, whether it be the courts or law enforcement or others.”
However, school chiefs say that while local districts should work toward cost sharing and uniformity when it helps advance the education of students, consolidation and the sort of severe staffing reductions proposed in Wagner’s report aren’ t a good idea.
“When you look at the cost savings, it’s always extreme,” said Caesar Rodney Superintendent Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald. “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done at the district level, and to cut a secretarial position, to cut a supervisor’s position, it may appear to be a cost savings, but in the long run certain work might not get done that affects a student’s education.”
Fitzgerald’s colleagues in other local districts also argue that Wagner’s comparisons to other districts aren’t necessarily valid.
Dr. Daniel Curry, superintendent in the Lake Forest School District, questioned how thoroughly the auditor’s office considered the job descriptions of the staff it recommends eliminating.
“It is possible to reduce in some way a few of the higher level administrative positions, but all these people do important work, from secretaries up to supervisors,” he said. “I’ve been a superintendent of a county district before, and in that one district I had 15,000 kids, three assistant superintendents and three administrators overseeing the transportation system.”
Curry also wonders if the auditor’s office did enough to make sure the positions it was citing in the comparably sized districts matched up with their real counterparts in Delaware’s districts.
“I think we could have some apples-to- oranges kind of comparisons here, it leaves the numbers that auditor is working with somewhat skewed,” he said.
Tammy Bailey, an acting senior audit manager who worked on the report, said the job comparisons are somewhat rough, but adequate.
“A lot of the very high-up positions are very comparable,” she said. “When you get down to the secretary and accountant level, there are a lot of positions that I’m sure there are differences between. We had to look at it and use our judgment. It’s an estimation.”
Some also say the auditor’s report leaves out a huge piece of the consolidation puzzle: teacher salaries.
If the state did consolidate into four districts, teacher pay would have to be equalized, meaning teachers in the highest-paying districts would likely see their pay frozen while salaries for teachers in lower-paying districts are increased to the same level.
This “leveling out” of teacher pay could negate much of the savings realized from administrative cost cutting.
“The auditor had a very limited focus, it was strictly around how could consolidation save on administrative costs, and the issue is far larger than that,” said Howard Wei nber g, executive director of the Delaware State Education Association, the state teachers’ union. “It’s going to cost you more money to pay salaries by leveling up, and it’s not just teaches, it’s other employee groups too.
“Clearly that is an important factor that has to be studied and taken into consideration if you’re going to approach this.”
Wagner did admit the report is not meant to be the basis for a consolidation program.
“Do I think that this plan would be taken and put into law next session? Absolutely not,” he said. “This is a starting point, this is a discussion point.”
Fitzgerald also supports discussing the issue, but he wants legislators and state officials to be sure they adequately weigh the pros and cons. One thing he thinks schools lose in bigger districts is the close relationship students have with staff.
“We need to examine if bigger is better,” he said. “I’ve worked in a larger school district in Maryland, and I know how easy it is to get lost in that type of system. I went to school in Prince George’s County [Maryland] and it was very disconcerting. It was difficult to get to know anyone or reach out and talk to a school board member. I had no clue who the superintendent was. I think there would be something lost when you look at that type of consolidation.”
Wagner said he knows most school officials will call his suggestions drastic, but drastic might be what the state needs as it stares down what will likely be another year of painful budget cuts.
“The problem is, if we don’ t start being innovative, all we’re going to be looking at is more across-the-board cuts,” he said.
“The reductions have come on the backs of teachers and paraprofessionals, and in my opinion that’s the last place you should make cuts.”
Wagner also knows the report won’t gain him any favor with local school officials.
“I’ve probably killed any chance of a new high school in Magnolia being named Tom Wagner High," he said.
