Number of students per administrator*
Michigan City Area Schools: 289
School City of East Chicago: 284
Valparaiso Community Schools: 356
La Porte Community Schools: 359
Duneland School Corporation: 392
Merrillville Community Schools: 413
Portage Township Schools: 424
Crown Point Community Schools: 464
State average: 302
*The lower the number, the higher the ratio of administrators to students.
MICHIGAN CITY — Michigan City Area Schools has more administrators and other certified staff members than other school districts its size in Northwest Indiana, a fact school board members said they are keeping in mind during budget cuts.
According to Indiana Department of Education statistics, MCAS had 24 administrators at the beginning of the 2009-10 school year. Four years ago, the school district had 21 administrators, which was still the highest number among those comparable Northwest Indiana schools. It also has the highest number of other certified staff, which includes guidance counselors, librarians, curriculum directors and other certified non-teaching staff.
In 1987, the earliest year for which the state has the data, MCAS had an enrollment of 8,699 and 78 administrators and other certified staff. For the 2009-10 school year, enrollment had slipped to 6,877, but the number of administrators and certified staff had swelled to 96.
With enrollment falling nearly every year, shouldn’t that mean fewer of these staff members are needed?
Not necessarily, said Betsy Kohn, MCAS director of communication. The district is trying to provide a quality education for all of its students, Kohn said, many of whom need extra help with academic and behavioral issues.
“You have to look at the unique needs of our population,” Kohn said. “We have a high percentage of special needs students, and there are more of them now than ever before.”
It’s true — 22 percent of MCAS students are classified as special education students, which is also the highest percentage in the comparable schools in Northwest Indiana. Kohn added that some of the more recent staff additions were required as part of the school district’s response to three elementary schools’ failure to meet performance levels required by The No Child Left Behind Act. The performance levels are referred to as Adequate Yearly Progress.
“When a school does not meet AYP, the administration is required by Public Law 221 to develop an improvement plan,” Kohn said.
But the school district has already started to shed a few administrators as a result of the $2 million budget cut handed down from the state, and the possibility of another $8.2 million shortfall if a solution isn’t reached in La Porte County’s property tax mess. Former personnel, labor relations and policy director John Neilsen, as well as former Michigan City High School assistant principal Rick Ankney, have already found other jobs, said School Board Vice President Donald Dulaney. More than a dozen others have received notices that they may not have a job next year, including Eastport Principal Kent Davis and Knapp Principal Toni Mitchell. Even Interim Superintendent Carla Iacona received a notice, he said.
“It’s far reaching, but it’s also not really unusual for administrators or teachers to receive notices,” Dulaney said. “They are sent out every year in case we need to make cuts.”
In a list of budget cutting possibilities presented by Iacona, four central office administrators and three building administrators could be eliminated, as well several other positions, for a total savings of more than $1.3 million.
By April 15, the school district will send notices to nearly 100 teachers and curriculum coaches, Dulaney said, mostly due to the possibility of three school closures: Niemann and Edgewood elementary schools and Eastport Early Learning Center. Those notices are usually sent to the teachers with the lowest seniority, who may not actually work at those schools.
“I think the actual number of teachers we will not have room for will be a lot less, depending on how this tax court case comes out,” Dulaney said. “We did receive $5.3 million from the state recently, and we’ll use as much of it as we responsibly can to offset any cuts.”
That $5.3 million was mistakenly withheld from state payments to the MCAS general fund.
School Board President Jim Kintzele said it is up to the board to accept any recommendation on cuts from the administration, as it has the final say on any job eliminations or school closures.
“We are taking the number of administrators we have into consideration,” he said.
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