09/05/2026
As schools consider budgets, we frequently hear a familiar suggestion: “Cut administrators and save costs.”
This got me thinking.
As a district leader responsible for resource allocation, I owe it to our patrons to make decisions grounded in more than assumptions or past practice. So, I did some comparison—not only with school districts of similar size, but also with businesses employing a comparable number of people.
Consider an organization with approximately 170 employees. Few successful businesses would expect two or three people to hire, develop, evaluate, support, and hold 170 employees accountable while also overseeing finances, facilities, compliance, operations, safety, and improvement.
Schools do all of that—while educating children, operating transportation and food service, managing technology and facilities, providing special education and student services, and meeting extensive state and federal requirements.
What I found was interesting: organizations of comparable size distribute leadership across managers and supervisors in ways not that different from our district.
That doesn’t mean more administrators automatically produce better results.
Leadership only adds value when leaders develop people, establish expectations, use evidence, align the organization, and are accountable for results.
But simply cutting leadership because fewer administrators sounds more efficient can also mean less support, less accountability, and less capacity to improve.
The goal shouldn’t be the largest administrative structure—or the smallest.
It should be the right one.
And ultimately, the question isn’t, “How many administrators do we have?”
Though this information can be seen below on the image.
It’s: Are our leaders helping our people perform at a higher level and creating better opportunities and outcomes for students?
Over the past two years, we have been building systems, developing people, establishing expectations, and creating greater alignment. Moving 170 employees—and nearly 300 when substitutes and coaches are included—in the same direction doesn’t happen overnight.
Think about cars at a stoplight. When the light turns green, the tenth car doesn’t move at the same moment as the first. Movement works its way through the line.
But eventually, every car should be moving forward.
We should expect progress. We should measure it. And we should hold ourselves accountable for it.
Give us three years, and then look closely at where our achievement levels have gone.
The car is moving.
And we aren’t letting off the gas.
