Supervision

Hillsborough taxpayers who join in on the common refrain "we need to cut administration" might be surprised to learn that there is nothing left to cut.

Hillsborough was an administratively lean district when I was elected to the board in 2007 and became leaner through successive belt tightenings each year - and for better or worse I contributed to that. In the previous post, I described how the district was perpetually underfunded in state aid beginning in 2008 and continuing for nearly a decade. While other districts were funded adequately or even overfunded and were able to build surpluses in cash, personnel, or sometimes both, Hillsborough was forced to cut.

During those years I fought to preserve the most needed programs, especially special education - but the one thing that I insisted upon was that teaching staff cuts were only made if they were in proportion to cuts in administration.

In the beginning, it wasn't too difficult. The district was transitioning from a model where we had subject-area supervisors at the high school level and also district-wide supervisors in those same areas - with potential duplication of duties - to a district-wide-only model. As high school-level supervisors retired savings were achieved through attrition.

Then it became harder. Facing budget shortfalls, superintendents came to the board with recommendations to combine responsibilities, have the high school vice principals pick up some duties, and eliminate positions outright. For example - the supervisor of Visual & Performing Arts and Related Areas - besides those named areas - also covers Applied Technology, Business, and Family & Consumer Sciences. And don't bother asking the name of the Nursing Supervisor or Health & Physical Education Supervisor because there is none.

In the next post, I will outline my proposal to fix this unsustainable state of affairs and suggest at least one other position to be created. After that, we will get into the cuts!