Dr. Hanlon's Presentation

 

Chardon School District Superintendent Michael Hanlon has created a presentation on the upcoming levy.  Citizens for Chardon Schools has posted similar information before, and this is likely where Hanlon received much of his material from.

 

Teacher Compensation Myth

  

Why this matters

One outcome of a levy passing will be a raise in teacher salaries.  Citizens for Chardon Schools has said:

 

"Contract negotiations with our certified and classified staff are currently underway. It is important that we maintain a competitive salary to secure the best and most highly-qualified personnel to work with our students and in our school buildings each day. Our Five-Year Forecast projects modest increases in compensation over the next five years to ensure that we do not lose the strong personnel base that contributes to high student achievement."

So, a "modest" increase in compensation will occur.  It's important to get the correct information then, so voters can decide based off what is actually happening.

 

The Claims of Hanlon

Hanlon has been adamant about teacher salaries being lower than average, claiming that "Chardon’s teacher’s salaries are significantly lower than comparable districts and the state average" (emphasis ours).  Citizens for Chardon Schools says "NO" to the "frequently asked question" of whether teachers are overpaid.

Their claims are based on the following chart:

 

 

Hold On, Doctor

 

It is first clear that it's a big stretch to say that Chardon teacher salaries are "significantly lower" than the state average or comparable districts.  But, another interesting point is that this doesn't answer the question on whether Chardon teachers are overpaid, even relative to other districts.  Citizens for Chardon Schools are conflating salaries and compensation.  Compensation includes benefits, which are both expensive for the taxpayer and will increase the money teachers will be able to use elsewhere.  If benefits are not important, and should not be counted when looking at compensation, perhaps they should be cut.

 

So the question that naturally arises is: Why do Hanlon and Citizens for Chardon Schools not add benefits in, or at least display the numbers somewhere? And how do benefits compare to surrounding districts?

 

The truth is that the numbers do not point in their favor, so they just ignore them.  The numbers, which come directly from the same source they used (making it clear that they didn't just "miss" it) can be seen in this chart:

*Source: ODE FY 2012 Fiscal Benchmark Report

Calculating total compensation based off these two series of numbers gives us:

So, teacher compensation is actually higher in Chardon than the state average.  It is certainly not "significantly lower."

Teacher salary also has context.  Just because other districts pay more is not a reason to follow them.  There are also many factors that could impact the numbers in a positive or negative direction.  For example, the average teacher has 12.9 years of service in Chardon, but 14 years for the county and 14.2 years for the state.  A teacher working for 14.2 years will naturally have a higher salary than a teacher working for 12.9 years (on average) - if they were being paid the same amount, all else being equal, the teacher with less experience would be overpaid relative to the more experienced teacher.

 

Administration is Cheap?

 

Levy proponents are gleeful at a new chart supposedly showing that Chardon has low administration costs.  Hanlon and Citizens for Chardon Schools have both displayed this chart:

 

 

Unfortunately, the chart is slightly misleading.  When talking about the levy, the number of administrators is not really as important as the cost of the administrators.  Administrators are not all paid the same amount; some districts pay much higher than others.

 



*Note: This does not include benefits.
*Source: http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Finance-and-Funding/Finance-Related-Data/District-Profile-Reports/FY2012-District-Profile-Report

So, Chardon administrators are indeed paid higher than average.

Another thing to note is that the number of administrators and their salaries do not capture the whole story of administrative costs, although they are certainly the main portion.  When looking at administration costs, Chardon does not remain the lowest, and is in fact only slightly lower than the state average.

 

*Source: http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Finance-and-Funding/Finance-Related-Data/District-Profile-Reports/FY2012-District-Profile-Report

Furthermore, looking at what the Ohio Department of Education call "Similar Districts" to Chardon, Chardon is actually higher for administrative expenditure per pupil (with "Similar Districts" at $1,087 per pupil and Chardon at $1,195 per pupil).

At the very least, administrative cuts should not be dismissed before looking closer at the situation.  The assistant superintendent was a "last likely addition" if the last levy passed, and was hired regardless.  Citizens for Chardon Schools now claims that he was partially hired "due to the overwhelming demands required of our staff following the February 27, 2012 tragedy."  If someone was necessary for a short time period afterward then someone should have been hired part time.  Keeping a permanent assistant superintendent at the expense of almost $90,000 a year not including benefits, when other cuts are being made, is not a wise use of resources.

 



Low Expenditures per Pupil?

 

Another popular chart being spread around deals with expenditures per pupil.  Hanlon claims that expenditures per pupil are "lower than the state average," and it definitely looks like it at first glance:

 

 

It turns out that, while true that a rough calculation of just dividing pupils by total spending concludes with this chart, the chart is extremely misleading.  For example, students with disabilities will cost more than students without disabilities.  When some districts have more students with disabilities than others, the total cost of educating students will rise.  When such a simple method is used to find expenditure per pupil, this will not be accounted for.

Citizens for Chardon Schools certainly realizes that this is the case.  As they write:

 

"The average cost to educate students without special needs is $10,024. Currently, we support 452 special education students (including students in the non-public programs) in the district. On average, 60 of these students have severe handicaps which require high levels of support. Our costs for educating students with disabilities that are considered a 'catastrophic' expense have increased over the last few years."

 

Keeping that in mind, when the Ohio Department of Education posted the information on disabilities directly under the information on expenditures per pupil, one would assume Hanlon and Citizens for Chardon Schools would pay attention.  The numbers for each district and the state average are:

 

*Source: ODE FY 2012 Fiscal Benchmark Report

So Chardon's disability problem is actually lower than average.
 

Fortunately, the Ohio Department of Education also calculates for "equivalent pupils," adjusting for students with disabilities, low English proficiency, etc.

*Source: ODE FY 2012 Fiscal Benchmark Report 

So Chardon actually is above the state average when comparing similar students.

Hanlon points out that Chardon has a very high achievement compared to other districts.  This is true.  But, claims that if Chardon is not "adequately funded" it cannot be "sound" are unfounded and no evidence is provided to back up this claim.

 Interestingly, looking at districts with similar Local Report Cards, Chardon actually spends more per pupil than average:

	Chardon	LRC Similar District
Expenditure per Pupil	$10,237	$9,315
Expenditure per Equivalent Pupil	$9,255	$8,147

Chardon clearly then has room to cut and still have high achievement.  This is not to say that cuts are good, but warnings of the schools "dismantling" or that a failure to pass the levy will "erode the core of our school system" are simply not true.