Resource Reallocation at the District Level
While most of the money to be reallocated in any school district is at the building level, some district-level resources can also be reallocated. Such reallocations may include cutting some programmatic positions at the district level and shrinking the size of the district office or finding ways to operate district functions such as transportation, food service, and maintenance more efficiently. To identify ways that resources could be used more effectively, districts should examine the alignment between their activities and their mission of educating all students to high standards.
A good example of central office resource reallocation is Community District 2 in New York City (Elmore & Burney, 1996). Recognizing a crippling lack of meaningful professional development opportunities for teachers in the district, the central office eliminated most of the categorical program and instructional support staff and turned those resources into dollars for professional development. The district eliminated nearly all program support staff for both federal (Title I) and state compensatory education programs, bilingual education, and special education. It took those funds and reallocated them to professional development focused on reading, writing, and mathematics. Over a five-year period, the district expanded professional development expenditures to about 5 percent of its operating budget. It then used those funds to focus relentlessly on developing teachers' instructional expertise in reading. After that time period, the district's students produced one of the highest-ever scores on the New Standards Reference assessments.
School Profile
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School: PreK-5 school serving 275 urban students Student population: 70 percent minority; 56 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch New strategies: A certificated teacher tutor and aide time dedicated to one-to-one tutoring for 20 minutes each day for students in Grades 1-3 who are struggling with the new curriculum; an instructional facilitator; a new reading curriculum; and professional development to help teachers implement that curriculum How they reallocated resources: The school used the bulk of its state and federal compensatory education dollars to pay for its reforms. Some of the money was "new" to the school; the district began allocating Title I dollars to schools in a lump sum the same year the changes were made. Because 56 percent of the school's students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch, the school was eligible to apply its Title I funds to schoolwide purposes. Other dollars were reallocated: Two child development specialist positions, originally hired to deal with behavior problems, were eliminated in favor of a teacher tutor and instructional facilitator. Additional funding came from eliminating two special education positions that were no longer needed because more students were being served in regular classrooms. Additional initiatives: The school used regular staff meeting time for professional development related to its new strategies. Results of the reform: Over the past four years, students have shown dramatic improvement in reading scores on national, state, and district exams. |
The superintendent in charge of the overhaul of District 2, Anthony Alvarado, is now the chancellor for instruction in San Diego. This district also lacked a professional development program for teachers that would help them teach students to higher standards. Therefore, he reduced the central office by about 10 percent to begin the process of reallocating a large portion of the operating budget for a similar kind of focused, intensive, and ongoing professional development in literacy and numeracy.
In another district we studied, the central office was reorganized around a reform process that the superintendent put into place. This reorganization involved cutting staff positions that were not critical for accomplishing the new goals, over-hauling the computer system to reduce inefficiency and eliminate the need for some positions, and implementing a new system for monitoring maintenance projects that dramatically reduced wasted time and money.
In sum, there is potential at the central office to reallocate staffing resources and other central resources. This process is especially important for districts to undertake because it forces them to examine whether dollars are being spent as effectively as possible. Having done so, they are in a better position to advise schools to do the same.
