Washington Learns on Administration

I'm spending some time going through the new materials from Washington Learns. One new bit of paper they've produced is a review of central office administration--how much is needed, what would the composition of an average district look like, etc. Some interesting points:

• The state pays for 4 administrators for every 1000 full time enrollments (FTEs), covering both schools and the central office. When you think about how expansive that can be, that's really not an awful lot.
  
• Picus and Associates (who wrote the paper) recommend that a district of 3,500 students would have 6 administrators, 3 professionals (maintenance, transportation, etc.), and 12 clerical positions. After some deletions and reassigning to the schools, they say that 6 administrators, 2 professionals, and 7 clerks is sufficient.
  
• They hav a neat chart (it's on page 101-E) showing the different roles in the central office. Food for thought.
  

Administrative spending is one of those big hot-button issues, hence the popularity of the 65% Solution. It'll be interesting to see what the final report recommends.