County School Board member Jonathan Welch has defended county school administrative pay that was questioned by County Commissioner Tim Boyd, saying that without federal dollars it is 1.7 percent.
He also questioned county administrative expenses, saying Commissioner Boyd "should get his house in order" before "throwing stones" at the county schools.
The board member said the Boyd statement "was done recklessly and with a personal agenda, with an attempt to make light shine somewhere off of him and onto others."
Commissioner Boyd, who is chairman of the commission's education committee, said when he showed two principals the list of the pay of school administrators that they were shocked and had tears in their eyes.
Board member Welch, who represents District 2, said, "I want to thank Commissioner Boyd for his research into our county schools budget. The more interested, engaged and watchful eyes we can have on public dollars the better as it allows for more checks and balances and accountability of those dollars.
"Those $7 million in salary represent 2.1 percent of our general purpose budget, which is approximately $345 million. But many of those positions come from federal dollars, which we have little to no control over. If you take those out the percentage drops to 1.7 percent. There are many large private businesses that would like for their administrative costs to be this efficient.
"When spread across 43,000 students that administrative cost comes to approximately $162 per student. Our total cost with all secretaries is slightly higher and comes to almost $299 per student but by comparison the state of Tennessee spends a significant amount more to administer Hamilton County from Nashville. The state's own numbers add $178 per student in administrative cost that stays in Nashville that we never see here. That alone comes to almost $7.5 million. I’m not sure how it costs the state department that much per student to administer Hamilton County.
"I would submit that while there may be some job descriptions on the list of salaries that Commission Boyd is not sure what they do, he would do well to ask our superintendent or school board members some of these questions before he releases numbers with no background information. Many of those people work in maintenance and are in schools every day. HCEA pays for Sandy Hughes' salary and benefits, not the taxpayer as Commission Boyd asserted. And if those aren’t simple enough to research, there was also a former employee on his salary list who is now deceased and I offer my apologies to their family.
"I would think that after Commissioner Boyd so recklessly accused some on Erlanger’s board of unethical behavior he would have learned to research and ask questions before making assertions of waste. While we may not agree about the necessity or salary for every employee there is a difference in having a productive conversation and simply stating things as fact. And while we should always be looking for waste or positions that are no longer needed at this point there are few places to cut that actually move the budget in a significant way. Our central office expenditures per pupil are $299. If you add all school based administrators, central office administrators and even if you put maintenance personnel into the data we spend less than 10 percent of our budget in those areas combined. Compared to other large counties we are significantly lower. Each of the other large systems, Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville, spend over $400 per student in central office administration costs.
"Our current budget does not ask for any positions to be added to the central office which would bring those percentages even lower. I can agree and I think most everyone can agree that we need to get as many resources into the classroom as possible. And at less than 3 percent administrative cost in the central office we are getting most there.
"However, Commissioner Boyd’s list was not meant to further the discussion of how to make our school system better, it was done recklessly and with a personal agenda, with an attempt to make light shine somewhere off of him and onto others. And it was done to imply that the school board does not take our stewardship of public dollars seriously. I can assure you this school board member does. If it was done for any legitimate reason then Commissioner Boyd would have given the courtesy of at least asking some of those questions and finding some answers before taking positions on them publicly with no background information.
"So I’d like to ask Commissioner Boyd this: how does our administrative cost compare to the county government? I hope your house is in order before you begin to throw stones."