Staff numbers and roles

A school is a personnel intensive enterprise.  Most of our budget is invested in the people who teach and support our students.  Properly staffing the school both in number and expertise is critical to our success.  Equally important is training and retaining that talent.

Our school practices several methods to keep our workforce as flexible as possible to student need.  Hiring staff members with multiple certifications allows us to utilize a single employee to fulfill several part time roles.  This allows for more skilled and responsive student services, while also helping to attract and retain individuals looking for more than part time employment.

Another practice is to split responsibilities into the appropriate job descriptions.  In general, the cost of a certified staff member is higher than that of a support staff member.  It is important to make the most of that investment.  We handle several duties in this way in order to realize a lower total overhead cost and keep our professionals focused on students rather than paperwork.

Finally, we are cautious to watch trends and make data-driven decisions when it comes to hourly staffing costs (maintenance/custodial/office administration).  If certain work functions result in overtime hours, we weigh the trade-offs between absorbing the overtime versus contracting the work out or making future staffing adjustments.  In all cases, we look at the total impact to our budget prior to making a decision.

The only reason that the above concepts work is that we have a dedicated and highly skilled staff.  It is not uncommon to see people do whatever it takes to get the job done.

How many people do we employ, and what are their roles?  

Below is a chart of all anticipated staffing for FY16.

All positions and their FTE (full time equivalent) are audited and compared versus anticipated student need, Vermont State Education Quality Standards, and our own School Action Plan.  Positions are added or removed in direct response to these metrics.

In a preK-8 school house, employees must have the training to apply developmentally appropriate response to each situation.  Students can range in age from 3 to 14.

Many positions are part time, which can present staffing challenges as those roles tend to turnover more quickly.

Certified staff is unionized, our support staff is not.

In total, we are budgeting for a total of 31.45 full time equivalent positions for the upcoming school year.