Austin Public Schools: Administration Can be a Good Word

January 18, 2010

I’m a finance guy, so I’ll get right to the point. I want to talk about a dirty word, or at least a word that conjures up negative images in many people’s minds.

"Administration."

There, I said it. That one word which evokes a vision of bureaucrats squandering hard earned taxpayer money as we speak.

I’m sure that many of you are unconsciously tightening the grip on your newspaper right now.

But let’s step back and examine why administration exists, at least within the context of public school districts.

Administration is defined by the Minnesota Legislature as the school board, superintendent, principals, assistant superintendents and directors of instructional areas. Many people have a broader definition of administration that, in addition to the above, includes directors in the areas of accounting and finance, buildings and grounds, food service, community education, etc.

What do they do?

What do all of these administrators do? Well, like most businesses, they run the operations of the school district on a day-to-day basis. They manage people and processes, much like managers would do in private industry. Administrators make sure that staffing is adequate. They hire and evaluate employees. They ensure that parking lots and sidewalks are clear of snow. They purchase food for student lunches. They set the vision and provide educational leadership within their school buildings. I could go on and on, but hopefully you get the picture.

In addition, administrators provide accountability to the state of Minnesota (the source of a majority of school district funding), as well as to local taxpayers. Accountability and transparency are two popular "buzz words" that the public desires from government. With accountability and transparency comes the reporting of information, and lots of it.

On the Minnesota Department of Education Web site under Data Submissions, there are more than 150 categories. Within each category, there may be multiple requests for data. Every time the legislature requests additional data, new reports are added. Administrators are responsible for accumulating and reporting this data.

Now, add the fact that school districts are receiving more funding from the federal government (at least for the next two years because of the economic stimulus package) and, believe me here, you have even more reporting requirements. The feds make the state look like amateurs when it comes to collecting data so that school districts can receive their funding.

More and more funding is also becoming available to states and school districts in the form of competitive grants (example — President Obama’s Race to the Top grant). Someone has to write these grants and submit them. When a district successfully receives a grant, someone has to ensure that the money is being spent in accordance with the grant. Then, after the money is spent, it has to be reported to the granting body. Administrators are typically the people who perform most, if not all, of these functions.

How administrators help

Allow me to provide the simplistic example of a one-room schoolhouse with only one employee — the teacher. The teacher would have to arrive before the school day started and open up the building, possibly shovel snow, and prepare the lesson plan for the day. Students would arrive and the school day would begin. After students left for the day, the teacher would have to grade papers, pay the school’s utility and insurance bills (and any other bill that is due), order food for the next day’s student lunches, prepare financial data for the auditors, report data to the state and federal governments in order to receive funding, write grants, etc. If the teacher was lucky, he/she would be out of there by midnight. The next day would be the same. And the next.

Do you want to know the primary purpose of administration? It’s to allow teachers to teach students. It’s to take the management and bureaucratic functions out of a teacher’s life so that they can focus on a school district’s primary objective — to educate children.