Lean Production: Inside the war on public education

[mbperrin]

48. "Bloated" administration? I teach in a large urban high school of 3600+ enrollment.

We have a principal, vice principal, 4 assistant principals, 4 counselors, and 4 attendance clerks. There are 177 teachers on staff and five janitors and one uniformed officer as well.

They handle all building maintenance, discipline, security, counseling, former student services, and parent contact, as well as conduct district policy, attend all sports and other extra-curricular functions, and work 50 weeks a year.

Our attendance is about 90% daily, and there are about 200 discipline referrals written per day by teachers for staff to resolve, and then oversee the ISS program, tutoring activities, truancy enforcement, and hallway and cafeteria security between classes and during lunch.

Now which of these 14 people would you do away with, since they're all working 14 hours a day at the building now and more some weeks? If the kids ever really count hard numbers, we're doomed from a security standpoint. But go ahead now and tell which of these bloated bureaucrats we can do without and which functions we can safely eliminate.