Certified Staffing Benchmark Analysis

Memorandum To : David Sklarz CC: Executive Team From: Chip Ward Date: February 5, 2009 Re: Certified Staffing Benchmarks At the February 4, 2009 Board meeting we discussed with the Board of Education how we have applied benchmarks to our budgeting process. This memo provides some additional detail and explanation of the certified staff benchmarking process. Each district annually reports to the state of the Connecticut on the number and assignment of all certified staff that are employed by the district. Combining that staffing information with the student enrollments we can calculate the number of certified staff per 1,000 students and compare those staffing ratios across all the districts in DRG B. Table 1 on the next page provides a description of the various classification of staffing codes that are used in the analysis. Table 2 compares the staffing ratios in West Hartford to the average for DRG B as well as the specific ratios for surrounding DRG B towns. Listed below are the areas where West Hartford’s staffing levels differ significantly from the DRG averages: World Language: We have 8 more teachers in World Language compared to the DRG Benchmark – this a reflection of our offering of World Language K-5 compared to most other districts where World Language starts at a higher grade level. Classroom teachers: In total we have 3 more classroom teachers compared to the DRG B benchmark – but if you exclude the World Language ...