Administration and non-teaching staff
Excerpt from Sudbury Public Schools' FAQs:
Assistant Principals (elementary schools) and House Administrators (middle school) are part of the administrative team in our schools and assist the Principals in ensuring the safety of students, managing the school, supervising and evaluating teachers and other staff, and working to improve teaching and learning. We have one assistant principal at Loring and one at Noyes. Also there is currently a half-time Assistant Principal at Nixon who is a recent retiree working on a part-time contractual basis. We also employ one House Administrator for each grade level at the middle school.
Loring School has an enrollment of 606 students this year. Without an assistant, the principal would be the sole administrator and would have approximately 80 people reporting directly to him. A similar ratio would exist at Noyes and Nixon as well; and, without House Administrators at Curtis Middle School, the ratio would be even greater. Compare this to the more typical ratio of 6-10 direct reports that exists in most businesses and for-profit organizations. The supervision and evaluation process is very extensive and time consuming. We believe this process is vital to ensuring high-quality teaching and learning in the classroom. Our evaluation process requires at least 3 formal observations for each non-professional status teacher (of which approximately 26% of our staff fall into this category). Each observation requires a pre-conference to discuss the lesson, observing the full lesson, and a post-conference to discuss the lesson and recommendations. These all have to be written up and documented. It is estimated that the evaluation of one, non-professional status teacher requires approximately 9.5 hours each year. When this is multiplied by the number of teachers being evaluated, the time dedicated to only this aspect of the position is clearly extensive.
Assistant Principals and House Administrators also are responsible for, or assist with, discipline (both staff and students), interfacing with parents, and a host of other administrative responsibilities. Students in the middle school age group generally need more supervision and support than they may when in elementary school. The House Administrators are integral to this effort. They are the administrators that students and parents are most involved with in the students' academic and social development. This configuration of administration (one principal with a House Administrator for each grade level) enables us to have a true "middle school;" that is, where the separate grades are quasi-independent, focused on the specific developmental issues of that age of adolescent, and provide a feeling and benefits of a smaller school.
The assistant administrators in all schools are also responsible for coordination of staff within the building, scheduling, student activities, and various programs and mandates (e.g. MCAS administration and security, Title 1, METCO, Bridges, DARE, anti-bullying programs, facility use, cleaning and upkeep, bus safety, and the list goes on.)
Excerpt from Sudbury Public Schools' FAQs:
We have 7 central staff administrators and 11 building-based administrators as follows:
Central Office Administrators and Staff
Dr. John Brackett, Superintendent
Robert Milley, Assistant Superintendent
Mary Will, Director of Business and Finance
*Jean Natale, Payroll and Transportation Manager
Kenneth Storlazzi, Director of Human Resources
Bob Kavanagh, Director of Technology
*Michael O’Brien, Network Manager
Deborah Dixon, Special Education Administrator
*Luan Dean, Out of District Coordinator
Linda Karpeichik, Early Childhood
Kimberly Donald, METCO Director
*These are staff positions, not administrative
Building-based Administrators
Jeffery Dees, Principal (Loring School)
David Ieong, Assistant Principal (Loring School)
Annette Doyle. Principal (Noyes)
Kristin Moffat, Assistant Principal (Noyes)
Kimberly Swain, Principal (Haynes)
Joni Jay, Principal (Nixon)
Eula Walsh, Assistant Principal (Nixon) (Part-time, contract employee)
Paul Lamoureaux, Principal (Curtis Middle School)
Stephen Lambert, Grade 6 Administrator (Curtis)
Kelly Campbell, Grade 7 Administrator (Curtis)
Angela Menke, Grade 8 Administrator (Curtis)
Excerpt from Sudbury Public Schools' FAQs:
The Assistant Superintendent has oversight of curriculum, instruction, and technology. This encompasses what is taught in all subjects in K – 8 classrooms, ongoing professional development, teaching and learning practices, special programs, and curriculum initiatives. Some of the numerous specific responsibilities include:
- Developing and managing educational grants for approximately $200,000 per year.
- Planning and overseeing the multi-year implementation for educational initiatives such as in math, science, technology, writing, with the goal of building district-wide consistency
- Coordinating the efforts of curriculum specialists in the development of curriculum maps, supports for classroom teachers, planning of professional development and early release activities
- Overseeing the technology team, CITs, ELL staff, and meeting regularly with counselors, librarians, and school nurses
- Overseeing district-wide programs such as Title One, ELL, and METCO
- Analyzing and reporting on state MCAS results and working with schools and grade levels in identifying areas of success and improvement measures
- Building challenge into various instructional programs
- Serving as a district liaison to the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for various functions (formerly the Department of Education); liaison to EDCO and to the Empowering Multi-Cultural Initiatives (EMI) team.
- Participating and leading in aspects of negotiations with non-instructional staff and in search committees for administrative positions
- Playing a key role in the district’s emergency response plan.
The Assistant Superintendent is also available to serve as a licensed, experienced, and informed stand-in for the Superintendent at times when the Superintendent might be out of district, on vacation, out-of-town, or on medical or personal leave.
Excerpt from Sudbury Public Schools' FAQs:
Many people ask why other personnel would be cut rather than teachers, assuming that the impact would be less significant or these services are not required. The services provided by all of our staff members are integral to the quality of the educational services we provide. About 73% of the total salary costs for SPS are for teachers. The district cannot significantly cut costs without cutting teachers. Decisions about which positions will be cut involve a balancing of the need to keep class sizes from growing too large with the need for the significant support provided to the students and to the classroom teacher by other staff members (including administrators, secretaries, nurses, guidance counselors, reading tutors, teaching assistants, curriculum specialists and custodians). Many non-teaching personnel provide services that are necessary such as ensuring the safety of the students, maintenance of the buildings, oversight of contracts and vendors, legal reporting and oversight of testing and other compliance requirements.
Educating the children of Sudbury is a labor-intensive process, and it is people that will have to be cut to close the very large majority of any budget gaps. In the last round of cuts that occurred, the cuts fell in rough proportion to the percentage of positions in each job category. Because teachers are by far the largest group of employees, despite all efforts to minimize the impact of any cuts on the students in the absence of adequate funding, teachers will necessarily continue to be eliminated in large proportions to close any budget gaps.
Excerpt from Sudbury Public Schools' FAQs:
Curriculum Specialists are teachers, not administrators. See Curriculum Specialists.