Ann Arbor Reduces Administrators

A complete look into the Ann Arbor Public Schools and the type of adjustments that have been made throughout the past few years show that a total cut of 11.9 percent has been made when it came down to the number of administrators working within the schools. At the same time, throughout the span of five years, there was 5.6 percent reduction of teachers working for the Ann Arbor Public Schools. The report was made public by David Comsa, the superintendent for the human resources department of the schools. The report outlined a number of different responsibilities that that human resources department has to take care of and the report also provided an entire breakdown on the staff and cuts that have been made.

Board members were pleased with the presentation that came from Cosma. In the meantime, the report did help to build discussion on how the schools can work on improving the process for recruiting individuals for employment and for hiring teachers as a way of attracting a number of minority teachers, which is something that the public schools currently lack. For this school year of 2012-2013, the Ann Arbor Public Schools is employing 59 full-time administrators, along with 165 employees who are working as custodial staff, 262 paraprofessionals, and a total of 1,137 professional staff members. The professional staff members include teachers, nurses, physical therapists, and several others as well. When compared to last school year of 2011-2012, the staff size is about the same, with only one less certified staff member than before.

The Secretary for the Board, Andy Thomas, said that during the past five years, the district opened up a new school, the Skyline High School. And, at the same time, the school district had also increased the amount of responsibilities that both the principals and the administrators would have to deal with, which includes the collection of data and performance evaluations. Thomas also said that there are times when the Ann Arbor Public Schools is actually criticized due to the number of administrators it is currently employing. Thomas asked, “So Mr. Comsa, is there any reason why a rational, knowledgeable person would reasonably reach the conclusion … that administrators have somehow been held harmless in all of (these recent budget cuts)?” Cosma did provide an answer to his question. He said, “I couldn’t comment on why a person would hold a particular opinion, but I would say the data speaks for itself.” In the meantime, it is known that the Ann Arbor Public Schools does have highly trained staff members.