Pat Schneider writes that the Madison School Board last night delayed a study of administrative costs:

The district would need $318 million to continue current programming next school year, but a state formula caps district spending at $308 million.

Superintendent Art Rainwater proposed cutting approximately 135 jobs, resulting in larger class sizes in middle and high schools, and reductions in special services. Schools would be cleaned less often, and athletic programs would be pared down while fees would be raised.
School board members must hammer out a spending document by July 1, but teachers facing downsizing must be notified by the end of May.
Veteran board member Carol Carstensen, who had proposed the evaluation of administrative costs, said she sought it because of her own limited understanding of many of the district’s business functions. “I don’t know how many people we ought to have working in the purchasing department,” she said, for example.
According to Carstensen, $3.6 million in administrative salaries – not counting 70 school principals – fall under the state spending caps,.
An in-house draft document seeking the administrative evaluation did not include anyone in the superintendent’s office, legal services or the district’s public information office as among those to be evaluated. No administrators in instructional programs were included, either.
Carstensen acknowledged that no study could be done in time for this year’s tough round of budgeting. “But if we don’t get it started, we’ll never have it,” she said.
Board member Ruth Robarts seemed eager for a measure of administrative effectiveness, but she argued that that could not be obtained until the board laid out an instructional plan with performance goals.