I think those individuals in Charlestown who think running their own school district is a good idea are off their collective rockers. It’s just plain expensive and the numbers I have seen bandied about are ridiculously low. Here are the costs to run a school system, from FY2009 Local Budgets
North Stonington, CT (pop. 5,000): $11 million
Oxford, CT (pop. 10,000): $24 million
Narragansett, RI (pop. 17,000): $27 million
Stonington, CT (pop. 18,000): $30 million
Westerly, RI (pop. 23,000): $50 million
Chariho (reg. pop. 24,000): $51 million
South Kingstown, RI (pop. 29,000): $51 million
North Kingstown, RI (pop. 27,000): $58 million
Frankly, I have no idea how North Stonington can run a school district on $11 million. There has to be something I am missing here (casino dollars?). If we assume NS is an outlier, it becomes apparent that the cost of school district correlates pretty well with population. This is not surprising. It also appears that Chariho expenditures are within what might be considered appropriate, based on neighboring towns. I have no doubt Chariho could be running leaner than it is, but how much can we shave off it? Another 5 million? If we assume that the budgets are inflated (which they are) we might manage it. But I’m not sure we could cut it much below $47 million with the current contracts in place.
So what is the point here? The point is that it takes at least $24 million to run a school district, as indicated by every other school district within proximity to us, with the exception of North Stonington. And Oxford is actually pretty damn far away from us but they are about our size. It’s possible a school district for a town of 8,000 people could be run for $20 million, but I’d like to see the numbers before I believe it.
July 16, 2008 at 12:46 am
North Stonington’s budget report has lots of great stuff in it.
http://www.northstonington.k12.ct.us/main/budget.pdf
Just two schools (one elementary and one middle/high school) and a very lean central office.
Overall costs are higher than average on a per student basis (one of the pages in the report makes that clear) — the $11 million is being spent on some 850 students.
I wish Charihos reports had such good information in them!
July 20, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Thanks David,
The North Stonington budget is much clearer than ours and it does have some very good comparative information as well. The way the 5 year plans are laid out – with ‘new’ or ‘replacement’ items is useful too. For instance, radial arm saw for the tech ed department – if someone in the community saw that note and either had a good one to donate or were able to donate a new tool (to the school’s specification for safety of students of course) that would assist with the relationship of community to school and help everyone.
There just has to be a better, clearer and more transparent way to get budget information to the community.
July 21, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Hi!
Very clearly a OUTSIDE management study needs to be made of the Chariho District. After the results are in we obviously need to look at contractual matters that in the short term at least, will hamper efforts to implement some of the reccommendations. Before we get there, a outside management study needs to donE1
Regards,
Scott
July 28, 2008 at 1:19 am
Hi Scott. I was away this week, so late in responding…
I’ve heard you talk about this management study before, but I don’t see why it’s such a big deal for you. If the school committee wants one because they’re not confident with administration, that’s okay, but to impose a study on a committee and administration just means that it’ll be stonewalled, or steered certain directions, or just plain ignored.
I’d be happy with the committee getting serious about the upcoming NEA contract and having some public goals established early in the negotiation process.
Take care, David