The definition of theater … “The activity or profession of acting in, producing, directing, or writing plays.”

The recent budget meeting on May 14 was a sequel of past performances. Clearly, the strategy of the School Department was to perform a narrative similar to previous budget meetings.

The Plea

The audience was the recipient of the Department’s request to increase their budget by $28,000 to restore a half-time music teacher. The leadership decided that the additional budget allocation should be communicated to the Council by a carefully planned portfolio of constrained and incomplete quantitative facts. And, as in the past, layout the audience with various constituencies.

The Professionals and the People to Focus

It was fulfilling to hear the stories and experiences associated with music and the arts have developed community and a place for them to develop their talents. They delivered their thoughts in a coherent, passionate and mature manner. Their thoughts were heartwarming. The teaching professionals also provided their genuine thoughts on the importance of music in the lives and education of students.

The Figures That Need Attention and the Spotlight

Over the last twenty years, SPS enrollment has declined 14%. However, the certified personnel has remained at approximately the same level over the same period. Those two objective facts require some not-so-deep thought. At any school system, the number of teaching professionals should be a direct relationship to enrollment. Which ultimately factors into a metric known as student-teacher ratio (STR). Realizing that some classes require a higher or lower STR due to programmatic or pedagogical reasons. However, the overall calculation as an average of the whole should remain fairly stable over all sections and classrooms.

One of the data points discussed during the hearing is the expanded number of students involved in the music program. Several of us in the audience then thought … Why did SPS decide to cut the labor associated with a growing program? It did not make any sense. While the data was not available from SPS, it appears that the expansion number discussed may be focused on after-school activities associated with the music department. Maybe verifiable data is needed during future meetings/hearings.

So some thoughts and questions to ponder:

• Quality and committed teaching professionals are at the very core of delivering a quality education. Period!
• Layoffs of certified personnel should be a last resort. Layoffs can be implemented when a sudden, unforeseen and unplanned event occur.
• However, enrollment is an input into the equation of resource allocation. The direct resources in this case are certified personnel. In education, there is a movement of enrollment as promoted through the grade levels; fairly predictable for the following year. Did management adequately monitor, plan and lead the process of operating the entity effectively?
• Any entity, including non-profit organizations and government, needs to balance the effective delivery of services at a efficient cost. Does management review the cohort (class grade levels) when planning their labor allocation model?
• Over the last twenty years, why did SPS management fail to manage the certified personnel levels with the declining enrollment?
• AND, to eliminate the need to layoff certified personnel … Did management leverage personnel retirements or re-allocation of personnel as a strategy to maintain an efficient financial and operational model?

These, and other questions, should be analyzed, discussed and vetted in an environment framed in transparency with complete, accurate data.

Preliminary Takeaway

The focus needs to be on delivering a quality educational product to develop young people. With the market-based skills to integrate with problem-solving skills that higher education and employers need.

Additional thoughts and questions will be published in the second part of this article.

Kenneth J. Sousa, PhD