Dearborn Schools Release Benchmarking Study
The Dearborn Public Schools System is overstaffed, has more administrator positions than it needs and pays more per mile to bus students than similarly sized schools in Michigan, according to the results of a four-month benchmarking study released Tuesday by the school district.
The study, however, also points out that across most cost categories, Dearborn’s costs as a percentage of expenditures are less than the overall average for other similarly sized districts used in the study.
Dearborn Schools Benchmarking Study
While the findings in the report may be uncomfortable for some to read, Whiston deserves credit for requesting it as a way to cut costs and improve efficiencies in our school district, which is facing a $10.5 million deficit for the 2009-10 school year.
The idea of having a third party come into the district for four months and study key areas of the Dearborn School District will help our school administrators more quickly identify the district’s successes along with the areas that need work and determine ways to improve them. School officials tell DeepSaidWhat.com that the next step for the district will be to examine what can be done to improve the areas identified in the report or determine if the reported costs are due to other factors not captured in the study. There were some anomalies in the raw data and the district says that could be attributed to how the numbers were reported
“This is only phase one in the process,” Whiston said. “The next phase will be to find out why the numbers look the way they do and, if needed, how can the district make improvements. The report has provided us with good information that will allow the district to make the types of changes needed to cut costs, improve efficiencies and implement a better reporting system.”
The study cost the district about $40,000, an amount some may question. However, when you consider the potential hundreds of thousands the district can save by implementing some of the recommendations, then long term it would be money well spent.
The benchmarking study, which covered the 2005/06 and 2006/07 school years, identified four areas for the district to consider to reduce costs and increase efficiencies. The areas included District Cost Metrics, Staffing Levels, Administrator and Professional Staffing Levels and Operational Metrics — Facilities & Transportation.
Plante Moran gathered information from eight districts, including: Farmingtion, Wayne-Westland, Rochester, Chippewa Valley, Walled Lake Consolidated Schools, Flint City School District, Ann Arbor Public Schools and Plymouth Canton Community Schools. It should be noted that of the districts mentioned above, Dearborn has the most students, more than 18,000. The only other districts that were close are Rochester (14,700 students) and Walled Lake (15,700).
The overall observations from the study show that for staffing levels, Dearborn is “higher than the average of the eight districts that participated in the survey.” The same was true for the Administrator and Professional Staffing Levels.
On the Transportation, the study revealed that Dearborn cost per mile for regular education was higher than similarly sized Oakland County districts. Dearborn paid $6.13 per mile in the 2006/07 year compared to $5.41 for comparable districts and its cost per rider was $1,033 compared to $675 for other districts.
Those high figures are likely a direct result of Dearborn’s low bus ridership levels, which shouldn’t come as a surprise as the Dearborn district was set up in the beginning as a walk-to-school district. There were few, if any buses, in the district in the 1980s. Today, just 17 percent of Dearborn’s regular education students are bused, which is low compared to Oakland County, which ranged from a minimum of 46 percent up to 80 percent in 2006/07, according to the report. But, again, Dearborn has always prided itself on having neighborhood schools, something this report doesn’t capture.
Dearborn’s Facilities costs (including custodial and maintenance) also were higher than average. While Dearborn’s electricity costs were comparable to other participating districts, Dearborn’s natural gas costs were much higher on both a per student basis (about $140 for Dearborn vs. $65 for other districts) and a square footage basis ($0.80 cents for Dearborn vs. $0.39 cents for other districts).
The report also indicated that Dearborn’s number of full-time custodial and maintenance positions is higher than the overall median number reported by other districts.
Supt. Whiston made it clear from the beginning that the study is by no means a way for the district to begin privatizing services. Instead, he said the study will be used to further investigate how the district can save money and resources.
The recommendations for the District to consider to reduce costs and increase efficiencies include:
District Cost Metrics: The study recommended the district investigate ways to reduce its natural gas costs, which were higher than similarly sized Oakland County districts.
Staffing Levels (compared to similarly sized Michigan districts): The study recommended the district perform a detailed organizational assessment of staffing requirements in areas with potential for improvement, including non-classroom teachers, secretarial/clerical staff at the buildings.
Administrator and Professional Staffing Levels (compared to national benchmarks): The study recommended the district perform a detailed organizational assessment of staffing requirements in areas with potential for improvement, such as Central Office, Special Education and Technology.
Operational Metrics — Facilities & Transportation:On the facility side, the study recommended the district consider conducting an operational/organizational study to find ways to increase efficiencies and reduce costs. While on the transportation side, the study recommended an operational analysis of transportation to determine cost-savings that might be achieved using either smaller, more fuel-efficient buses or eliminating some routes altogether.
Generating this report was a good first step for Dearborn. But now comes the hard part, trying to implement the recommendations outlined in it.
January 27th, 2009 at 8:21 am
Despite many of our serious concerns about the Dearborn Public Schools, it is wonderful to see that new Superintenden Whiston is having every part of the school budget analyzed. Hopefully it will bring significant savings to the district and also make it a more efficient, far better school district, which we’d all like to see.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Oh, what’s to worry about? The feds are giving an increased $13.7 mill per year to DPS for the next two years anyways.
In metro Detroit, the funding via those formulas would vary widely. Pontiac could receive nearly $20 million over two years’ time; Dearborn City Schools, $27.4 million.
http://www.freep.com/article/20090122/NEWS07/90122096/1118/PRINT
Yep, even without rounding the figure up $27,370,900.00 is how I read it being figured in the estimated allocations to LEAs for education under House Appropriations Committee Draft 2009 Stimulus Bill, the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009”.
Whiston needs to stop with the dog-n-pony shows that he was famous for in Oakland Co with all these reports and studies he is conducting on the district. He has made it clear that he is not going to implement most of the recommendations from them anyways.
Then again, Whiston couldn’t attend all those meeting and seminars all over the nation that he was famous for in Oakland Co that the taxpayers had to pick up either.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:07 am
It’s good to see some actual numbers associated with the budget challenges the district faces.
Any one have an idea of why Dearborn pays TWICE the regional average in natural gas costs?
January 27th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Good summary and analysis of the rambling 20 page report the district spent big money on. This is a lot better than simply copying the school’s press release. Anxious to see what the local papers carry. I sure hope the district can get its books in order and quickly.
January 27th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Brian lets see what you will actually implement. From what I’ve been told you are all for studies, and when it comes time to pull the trigger you fade away. Dearborn won’t let you get away with this — there are a lot of people waiting too see if you are all talk, and no action.
January 27th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Well, Winston has decided to ignore other recommendations, such as stop speaking Arabic in the classroom, http://www.freep.com/article/20090115/
NEWS02/90115087/1004/NEWS/
Dearborn+schools+leader++Foreign+language+use+limited ,
so what’s to think this will be any different?
January 27th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Jamal, could you explain what you mean by “Dearborn won’t let you get away with this? Thanks.
January 27th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Despite what one might read in the papers or other so called sources, I have been told by many well informed sources within DPS that Whitston is working diligently at making sure that English is the primary language utilized in DPS, unless an important point needs to get across to a student who doesn’t comprehend the point and unless the student does not understand English. Whiston and the board are now onboard to make sure English is the language spoken in schools by administrators, teachers, other staff and students except for the 2 situations mentioned above.
The same sources informed me that they are trying to mainstream these kids into English much faster than previously, with the old MO being one reason so many were not proficient in English.
Whiston has only be on board for less than a year and since it took a long time to dumb down the schools due to the previous administration, it may take a long time to bring it back. I believe Whiston is making the right choices in this area from what I’ve been told and therefore let’s cut him some slack and give him some time to see where he goes with this.
As the saying goes, one gets what they expect, so perhaps let’s hope for the best rather than the worst and see where it leads us. That’s just my opinion and I’m sure some will disagree.
January 27th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Its very simple Donna. The people from Dearborn won’t put up with phony little mind games. They are more responsible for their kids.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Jamal, I have to disagree with you the people from Dearborn have been putting up with phony little mind games for years.
January 28th, 2009 at 1:17 am
WALLAH-CONTINUE SPEAKING ARABIC, CONTINUE TO PATRONIZE, AND CONTINUE TO WATCH D.P.S. CRASH AND BURN. UNFORTUNATELY THE CITY IS HEAVILY IMPACTED BY THE SCHOOL DISTRICT. NOT EVEN SULLY SULLENBERGER CAN SAVE THIS TRAGICALLY, DOOMED FLIGHT!
January 28th, 2009 at 10:23 am
The fact that our once top-rated school system was one big reason many chose to stay in Dearborn or move to Dearborn and now the fact that many will not move in and others are moving out of Dearborn due to our poorly performing school system speaks volumes about the state of DPS.
Although I was no fan of Artis, let’s hope that Whiston and the direction he is leading the board into will be the direction required to bring back our schools. Perhaps our schools will never be as great as they once were due to so many limited or non-English speaking students and a high resistance to English by some of them, but at the least we should expect DPS to start moving up from the bottom to the middle within the next 5 years.
Even though I am as digusted with this issue as many are, I am going to have hope that things change for the better rather than giving up because one tends to get what they wish for. I will continue to get involved by contacting school leaders and in other ways as many more of us should, since it takes community involvement to effect change or to bring about something positive.
If many of us don’t inform our leaders with a large voice which direction we want our leaders to head, then the school board will just head in the direction they think it should go and since we know this has resulted in declining schools in the past, we might have the same poor results in the future. So let’s get involved. Next year, I believe there is another election for 2 or 3 seats and some of you on here should consider running as candidates for change.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Michael,
With all due respect don’t you think that “hope” has gotten our entire country into the mess it is currently in? We can’t all sit back and “hope.” Our country, our reputation, our very foundation has been made a mockery of on the international stage. Decades of “hope” has left us where we currently are. Change is effected out of ACTION, not “hope.” There is no more time to be “politically correct.” We have all been abused by race and culture baiting.
The AMERICAN citizens need to stand tall and demand that the “catering to” be discontinued. An END to pandering, catering, political correctness will be the beginning of our recreation. Our forefathers had NONE of the spoils the recent immigrants have. Why do we accept billion dollar bonuses these days. Why aren’t more and more people crying foul? I almost feel that everyone is complacent and thinks our elected officials will take care of us.
As a whole, we cannot, MUST NOT, rely merely upon “hope.” ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! The City of Dearborn MUST discontinue printing extra copies of many items in Arabic. Leave the translation for the good people at ACCESS. After all, isn’t that what the Italian-American, German-American, Irish-American, Maltese-American, and many other clubs and organizations were partially founded for? DPS MUST discontinue catering to the Arabic population. No favors are being done for them and the cost is astronomical. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
January 29th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
As for Whitson and our Board of Ed, I have been told my Miss Cleo that their first choice for Superintendent was Matt Millen, but he said that after working for the Lions he wanted a promotion, not a demotion
January 29th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Vires,
Well stated and I can’t find any disagreement with you in that we also need ACTION. It’s just another top requirement that I failed to mention earlier.
Russ, LMAO about your Millen comment. Very witty.
February 1st, 2009 at 2:40 am
Remember when Plante Moran was an accounting firm and not a “consulting” firm?
Well, it seems that these days “consulting” is really just “accounting”. The only difference is that you count things like buses, miles, and students instead of dollars and cents…with no analysis whatsoever about why the numbers are what they are (long live Arthur Anderson and Enron, right?). I hope that the District and the Board are prepared to shell out even more money to investigate the raw data that they received; otherwise, the money spent on this report will have been wasted.
And to begin with, this wasn’t a well-researched report. Now class, can anyone guess why P&M/R-S was selected to prepare this report? Anyone? Anyone? (I just love a good Ferris reference). Probably because they have prepared similar reports. And would you like to guess for which districts they have prepared those reports? Of course! Those described as
– “selected districts”
– “benchmarked districts” and
– “Michigan school districts”
on page 4 of the report. The authors of the report probably also had information in their possession from
– “national databases” and
– “national sources”
to use as reference. So this report came down to simple number-crunching.
It is a bit bothersome that the report compares our District to the likes of Walled Lake Consolidated, Farmington, and Troy. I think that in many respects, we have little in common with such districts. But in fairness to the authors of the report, I don’t know where you go in southeast Michigan to find a district like Dearborn. The geographic size, the distribution of population, the physical plants all make this a fairly unique subject to study and difficult to compare against other districts.
After reading the report twice, it seems that was no investigation beyond the areas identified before the research began. The previously-cited natural gas costs is a great example. Thorough research would have noted the large disparity in gas cost per square foot a bit more critically and looked into the cause for that disparity. For example, is Dearborn paying significantly more per BTU for gas? Probably not. Are we keeping our classrooms warmer? Doubtful. How about the buildings? Any chance that our pre-WWII buildings are less insulated than the post 1980 school buildings in Troy or Waterford??! As our local scholars would say, “DUH”! Alas, there was no follow-up on this – or any other – area of great difference.
Finally, this report smells like a justification for a pre-established conslusion. And that conclusion is there on page 6 under “Recommendations”:
Reduce Staffing Levels
It doesn’t take a 2nd grader to see where they want to reduce staff: non-classroom teachers (art, music, special education) along with custodians and bus drivers. Sounds like outsourcing along with yet more reductions in the arts curriculum.
Now I’m not a proponent of the Union nor am I against improving the efficiency of the district operations. I’m sure our Administration and Board will furrow their brows and wring their hands over the numbers presented in the report. They will publicly agonize over what to do though I suspect they already know. And that’s okay. But if you want to cut staff or outsource, come out and say so. Don’t hide behind a poorly prepared collection of data.
February 1st, 2009 at 1:54 pm
(1) On the operational side of the report, Dearborn Public Schools was compared to Oakland County schools. Of the 6 schools districts, 5 use Plante Moran for their auditing services.
(2) The contract was for Plante Moran to conduct the benchmarking study. Why is Ramhberg Stover and Associates involved? The board approved the request on 08/26/08. There were 3 companies that provided bids. Plante Moran, KPMG and MGT of America. Plante Moran was low bid.
(3) No one knows what information DPS provided to the Plante Moran/ Rahmberg Stover and Associates. Using numbers only, this report makes some sense. This is not a fair comparison. An example is Farmington schools oldest building is 55 years old.
(4) The comparison information that was utilized from American Schools and University and Michigan School Business Officials is available on the internet.
(5) Why were school districts of comparable size and age not used. Specifically, Warren Consolidated Schools, Grand Rapids Schools, Plymouth Canton Schools and Livonia Public Schools?
(6) Natural Gas Costs are higher in Dearborn than in all the other districts? According to the numbers provided using square footage, this may be true. The question that should be asked is what types of infrastructure do the other districts have?
(7) Does anyone find it curious that Brian Whiston wants to spend another 75 thousand dollars more to have the same company come it and assist them with developing the strategies to improve the services of the school district?
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Ah, once a corrupt lobbyist, always a corrupt lobbyist. Whiston will run circles around everyone in Dearborn just as Artis did. Let it go, this district is not the district where anyone that values their child’s education would send their kids to school.
February 2nd, 2009 at 5:36 pm
It is a shame because I would venture to guess that most people with children have no other choice.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:17 pm
It is sad but true that many desirable residents are either choosing not to move into Dearborn and many other existing residents are choosing to move out of Dearborn due to the poor quality of Dearborn Public Schools.
The ones that choose to stay are not seeing their children get a decent education and others that are staying are simply sending their children to parochial schools like Divine Child.
That leaves the ones that are moving in, many who refuse to mainstream and speak English, which is continuing to destroy education in our public schools.
There is no easy solution, but they need to find some that work quickly.