When you dig a hole you have two choices: fix it or fall into it. The hole got a lot larger when the administrative costs of the MPCSD took a humongous leap -- from a total of 14 people to 33 people during the reign of Maurice Ghysels. Why is the school board gnashing their collective teeth over whether to increase class sizes and freeze teacher salaries? Follow the Charter School model where you put all your money into direct services for children and keep overhead to the barest minimum. Children learn from good teachers and small class sizes. The rest is window dressing. Why are they paying a staff of thirty-three to manage five schools? Maybe the Board of Education needs a refresher math class if this is too hard for them to figure out.

Although these facts have been widely publicized over the past several months, I thought this table below would help readers like "There you go again" understand MPCSD administrative spending. The district has included staffing reductions in administration in its preliminary recommendations for potential budget cuts. However, Menlo Park City School District already spends less money per student on administrators than any of its high-achieving peer districts. Based on 2014-15 data publicly available on EdData, when all administrators are included, MPCSD once again gets the most value for the money it spends.

District Administration Costs Per Student
MPCSD $2,169
Palo Alto Unified $2,177
Hillsborough $2,396
Las Lomitas $2,406
Portola Valley $3,915
Woodside $3,937

Umm, the charter school model has wildly inconsistent results across every metric. By definition, each charter is unique with different staffing models, strategies, leadership, programs, and more. You can not compare a standard district with charters. Charters do tend to be much smaller than a district with over 3000 students to serve. Why don't you compare administrative overhead and electives as a ratio to student body size, rather than actual numbers of administrators?

Sorry to break the news that quality education costs a substantial amount of money. Aint nothin good for free. We're only talking about our children, their future, and the good of the community.

Of course if the secret objective is to convince lots of parents to move away or enroll their children in private school, then well done.