Monday, October 29, 2012

Space Center

The fire marshall recently shut down the space center at Central Elementary for safety reasons. The estimate to reopen the space center on the current site is $700,000. A committee has been formed to decide on what to do next with the space center. This could include building a new facility on the property next to Central Elementary or other options. 

I would like to find a way to preserve the leadership opportunities and the simulations of the space center. I think it has served our community well.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Superintendent Compensation


There has been a discussion recently about superintendent salaries.  As I have researched this subject, I have concluded that our superintendent compensation is in line with national and state averages for large districts.

This article from the Salt Lake Tribune in 2010 examined the average salaries and how Utah compares to other states.  Across the country, superintendents' base salary averages $225,897 for districts with 25,000 or more students.

 "Alpine School District recently decided to adjust Superintendent Vernon Henshaw's salary to make it more competitive. Henshaw leads the state's third-largest district, but last year, he received the smallest compensation package among superintendents of Utah's five largest districts. "The Alpine Board of Education conducted a market analysis, comparing his pay with regional and national salaries. The board opted to give Henshaw a 5.3 percent raise for 2010-11, boosting his salary from $188,969 to $198,965, but still well below the national average."

"The bottom line is, we're competing with the Wasatch Front," said Board President Debbie Taylor. "People from out of state take one look [at Utah's per-pupil funding and large class sizes] and say, 'Never mind.'

In 2012 KSL reported "The Alpine School Board approved a new contract and pay increase for Superintendent Vern Henshaw on Tuesday. Henshaw will begin his 13th year as superintendent over the state's largest school district with a 2-percent raise, bringing his base salary to $211,335" The superintendent received the same percentage compensation increase as teachers in the district.
"To get quality, you have to be competitive," Taylor said. "People don't work for nothing. They want to be paid for their work. We are really very efficient with our money."

 A recent article in the Daily Herald compared gross compensation including benefits.  The large districts included in the analysis were:
  • "Alpine: 68,000 students, 5,010 full-time employees, ... superintendent gross compensation: $266,998"
  • "Granite: 67,700 students, 4,901 full-time employees, ... superintendent gross compensation: $245,000"
  • "Davis: 67,000 students, 4,000 full-time employees, ... superintendent gross compensation: $256,350"

It appears to me that the superintendent for Alpine district is receiving comparable compensation to other large districts in Utah.

I am highly committed to spending taxpayer dollars efficiently. Compensation decisions are always difficult, but they are particularly difficult when you look at the leader of a large organization. I am guessing that you have seen the impact a great leader can have on the vision and morale of an organization. I have been really impressed with the culture that Vern Henshaw has created in the district.

Almost every teacher is involved in continual improvement and student scores show that his approach is working. If his compensation were tied to increases in student scores, his compensation would be much higher than it is.

The district operates on a budget of around $400,000,000 per year. Most of this is teacher salaries. If a great leader were able to motivate employees to be even 1% more efficient, this would result in a $4,000,000 increase in net benefit to the students. I guess I use this to illustrate the importance of having a great leader for the organization. If you decided to save money by hiring a less effective
leader with perhaps a $100,000 lower salary, you would be able to hire 2 additional teachers (this would lower the average class size by only 0.04%). And yet if it lowered teacher motivation by even 1%, this would be an extremely poor financial decision (you would save $100,000 and yet lose $4,000,000 in productivity).

I guess that it is difficult from even an individual employee perspective to justify paying lower than average salaries. You eventually lose the great employees that really make your organization
successful.

I would like more input on how to deal with salaries in the district. Although some items seem to have simple answers, I have looked at the budget in detail and I do not see any wasteful spending. Our business administrator is extremely careful with finances and in every case where I have thought I have spotted waste, I have received an explanation that shows that the budget decision was based on a valid and careful examination of the data.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Superintendent Compensation

This discussion has been moved here

Last in per pupil spending

Although I appreciate the need to be conservative in spending, I am disturbed by the fact that Utah is dead last in per pupil spending in the nation (and this using spending adjusted for regional cost differences).  In the past I have heard that Utah spends more as a percentage of our total taxable resources, but this is also not true.  We are in the middle of the pack with many states spending a much higher percentage of their taxable resources on education.

I am also disturbed to find that our per pupil spending has actually decreased when adjusted for inflation when compared to 2008.

I think that an investment in our children's education will pay back more than any other investment we make for economic growth.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Pleasant Grove High School Honors

I was excited to see that Pleasant Grove High School had the highest pass rate on the CRT tests of any large high school in Utah.  They scored better than Lone Peak, Timpview and many other schools.  I was also excited to see how many Alpine District schools are clustered in the top of the list.

The article reported in the Deseret News gives scores and demographics for each high school.