The headline above is from the print edition–KSH.
With cash in short supply but loud mandates from above to keep test scores high, principals say they are confronting some of their most challenging decisions, like small class sizes or tutors in English and math? After-school remediation or extra lunchroom monitors? Chess club or drumming class?
“It’s tough,” said Melessa Avery, principal of P.S. 273, which earned an A on its report card from the city this year. “I want to be held accountable, I’m always open to that, but you are stripping me of funds that have helped me become successful.”
At the start of school, Ms. Avery gathered her staff to tell them it would be one of the most difficult years they would face. This year, the school will have 29 students to a class, instead of 21, four fewer teachers and fewer incentives for students, such as free bicycles.
In a back-to-school slideshow, Ms. Avery told teachers they might be asked to take on multiple jobs. She suggested they scour advertisements for supplies and post cheap finds in the teachers’ lounge, and urged them to hold grant-writing get-togethers.
Read it all from the front page of yesterday’s New York Times.
Ok, let’s see…they spend and average $14,119 per student in NY, multiplied by 29 students equals $409,451 per average classroom of students. Now, the median teacher salary in NYC is $53,017, so subtracting the teacher’s salary, that still leaves $356,434 to pay for building maintenance, utilities, janitorial services, administrative costs, etc. I don’t know, that seems like a pretty hefty sum still left over. Even if they bought 6 new textbooks for each child, each year at $200 each, that would only cost $34,800 for new textbooks every year for every student in the class. Why are they having to “scour advertisements for supplies”?
What the heck is the administration doing with all that money?
I mean, if they paid for the textbooks as mentioned above, then paid for each classroom to have their own personal janitor at $40,000 per year and their own personal school administrator at $100,000 per year, and paid $100,000 per year for utilities and maintenance…that would still leave over $81,000 per year in surplus funds!
Now, we all know that they do not buy 6 new $200 textbooks for each student each year, and classrooms do not have their own personal janitor or personal executive administrator.
So what the heck are they doing with all the money?!?
Based on what many private schools spend, I agree with the theme of #1 and #2 that there should still be more than enough money. However the math is more complicated. At a minimum add Social Security, Medicare, and Health insurance to the salaries. But I would still like the answer to S&T’s question “So what the heck are they doing with all the money?!? “