Don't Cut Too Many School District Managers

(Aired on May 20, 2010)

Kamloops School District is finalizing its staff cuts for the fall, and so far, seem to have a pretty good handle on what needs to be done to make ends meet without hurting the product in the classroom. There will be some teacher cuts, but that's not unexpected in the face of declining enrollment. Some support staff will also be axed. Seven principals' jobs will go, again because some schools won't be operating and others face reduced levels of staffing. And in an effort to ensure that the critics are silenced, there's also a restructuring at the top. Some senior administrative positions will be going, and job functions will change.

Perception is important, I suppose, and it must appear that the District is cutting top management as well as teachers in the classroom. All well and good, but I would caution that senior cuts need to be limited, or the long term result will be even more chaos and disruption than we have now. It's fine to keep teachers in the classroom, and provide the best service to students. That's what education is about. But without the planners and the senior people to look ahead and make decisions for the future, you have to have the senior administrators too. And to cut one or two positions at a senior level, where you only have a handful of people in total is a much more significant cut than cutting 30 teaching positions out of hundreds within the district.

If you have no managers, you have anarchy and chaos. Teachers can't and won't do the planning for the future. Neither will support staff or Parents Advisory Groups. You need the administrators to keep things running. No principals, no direction. No senior administrators, no future.

I'm impressed with how the District has handled a pretty dismal situation. But let's remember that if you take the Superintendent, give him more direct responsibility for individual areas of the administration, as Terry Sullivan is taking on, you take away some of his ability to function. And to curtail the ability of the top administer to administrate is a recipe for disaster.