photo by: Journal-World

Lawrence Public Schools district offices pictured in April 2021.

Though a report indicates the Lawrence school district has significantly more central office administrators than other large districts in the state, school board members were told that information needed to be considered in context with other data.

As part of its meeting Monday, the board received a report about the district’s administrative staff levels from the Kansas Association of School Boards. In a recorded presentation, KASB Assistant Executive Director of Leadership Britton Hart presented a report that indicated the Lawrence district had a higher level of central office staff than several other larger districts. However, Hart said that data needed to be considered in the context of the district’s building-level staff.

Generally, Hart said there are some variations by district in how districts draw up job descriptions, identify titles and distribute the work throughout the district, which needed to be kept in mind when considering the report. For example, he said some of the work being done at the building level in other districts was being done in the central office in Lawrence.

“And so think about that and be cognizant about how that looks as you move forward, comparing building level and district level admin as well,” Hart said.

photo by: KASB

A graph from a report from the Kansas Association of School Boards shows the ratio of students to each certified central office administrator for the 18 largest school districts in Kansas.

The district is facing a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall, and in December the school board asked for an analysis of the district’s administrative costs compared to peer school districts to understand if the district is “administrative heavy.” The KASB study overview states that data in the report will assist the board in identifying potential areas for budget reductions.

The study uses data from the 2020-2021 school year and focuses on the ratio of administrators to students for the state’s 17 largest school districts, comparing the number of administrators to total student enrollment, free and reduced lunch enrollment, and special education enrollment. For all three student groups, the Lawrence school district’s student-to-administrator ratio for certified central office administrators was significantly lower than the average among the 17 districts, meaning the district has more of that type of administrator per student on average than the other districts.

photo by: KASB

A spreadsheet from a report from the Kansas Association of School Boards provides details about the number of certified central office administrators, total student enrollment, and the ratio of students to each administrator, among other data points, for the 2020-2021 school year. A KASB representative presented the report to the Lawrence school board as part of the board’s meeting Feb. 28, 2022.

Specifically, among the 17 districts, the average ratio of total students to certified central office administrators was 838.4 students to each administrator. The Lawrence district had 20 certified central office administrators and a total K-12 enrollment of 11,150, giving the district a ratio of 557.5 students to each administrator. The district had the third lowest ratio, behind Salina and Olathe, which had ratios of 408.8 and 499.1, respectively. The Andover school district had the highest ratio of total students to certified central office administrators, with a ratio of 1,470.7 students to each administrator.

In addition to the certified central office administrators, the study analyzed the ratio of students to certified administrators at the district’s school buildings. The Lawrence district had 33 total certified building administrators in the 2020-2021 school year. Among the 17 districts, the average number of certified building administrators per building was 1.71 and the average ratio of total students to those administrators was 319.2. Hart pointed out that the Lawrence district had 1.57 certified administrators per building, lower than the average, and 337.9 students for each certified building administrator.

photo by: KASB

A spreadsheet from a report from the Kansas Association of School Boards provides details about the number of certified administrators working in school buildings, as opposed to working in a district central office, for the state’s 17 largest school districts.

The report also looked at non-certified staff district-wide, which included personnel in business services; maintenance and operations; and technology, among other categories. The district’s 200.6 non-certified staff represented an all-student ratio of 55.6 compared to an average of 49 among the 17 districts. The district’s ratio for students enrolled in free and reduced lunch and special education students was 16.7 and 8.2, respectively, compared to the averages of 18.3 and 7.2.

The school board did not make much comment about the report, apart from school board Vice President Shannon Kimball. Kimball asked if the data reflected the district’s philosophy to be less “site-based” and more centrally operated. Superintendent Anthony Lewis said one focus of the strategic plan was providing centralized support to school buildings so the district’s efforts were more coordinated.