EPISD CENTRAL OFFICE GROWTH

Too Many Bosses, Too Much Money

The purpose of this message is to share with you the results of an Open Records Request (ORR) I submitted to EPISD. The ORR asked for “The number of persons in Pay Levels 105 to 111 and above employed by EPISD on March 31st 2019 and January 1st, 2020. This should be broken down by Pay Scale level and by year.” The ORR and this report does NOT cover Campus Administration.

The growth of Central Office senior administrators since 2013 has been an item EP AFT tracks and calls out, at EPISD Budget time. This should be an item of concern to every EPISD employee, parent and taxpayer.

As I have reported to you, between 2011 and 2018, the number of senior administrators in Central Office grew from just 72 to over 160 (125%). The vast majority of that growth under the current Superintendent. And, there is an obvious trend of pay grade inflation. (Getting your pay grade increased, and thus your salary for doing the same work.)

Too Many Bosses, Too Much Money.

It is illogical that as student enrollment, number of campuses, number of campus-based educators and education support staff decreases, the number of The Bosses increases.

CENTRAL OFFICE GROWTH — 2011–2018

CENTRAL OFFICE GROWTH 2019–2020

Short Version. The results of the ORR show two things, neither of which is good.

First, the number of Chiefs continues to increase.

Second, within the ranks of Chiefs, it is becoming increasingly top-heavy.

This chart captures the raw data provided by EPISD.

This chart provides a visual of the growth and the increasing top heaviness at Pay Grades 107 and above.

This chart shows the cost and cost increase of the growth and top heaviness. Both are calculated based on 2020 salary scales. Green is decrease in total cost. Red is increase in total cost, at Midpoint (MP).

These are the Maximum Salaries (and most probable) Senior Administration are paid.

This doesn’t cover the additional costs of contracting out parts of their jobs, like the BrandEra contract did with one of the Executive Directors who said they didn’t know how to buy media. If you are making between $115k and $135k, you should be able to do your whole job.

Math teachers, how long would you last if you couldn’t teach or do multiplication, just addition, subtraction and division?

Comments:

1. It should be clear that there are too many high costs Chiefs.
2. If a person is ‘promoted’ from a 106 to a 107 that is a $10K raise in addition to any other raises given by EPISD.
3. If an Executive Director is “adjusted” from a 109 MP to a 109 Maximum it is a nearly $21K raise in addition to any other raises given by EPISD.
4. I bounced these numbers of the Chief of Staff of Texas AFT. Jenny’s response was I was “the only time someone sees this type of ballooning admin spending, a charter chain seems to be involved…. “
5. It remains clear that EPISD’s focus and priority needs to shift back to campuses, classrooms, actual students (not data points) and the adults that actually educate the students.
6. Board Meeting, 5:00 PM, February 19th.
7. There are a lot of other comments that could be made, but I think you get the point.

In Solidarity,

Ross