Payroll leak shatters Denver Schools claims on resources, budget

Denver Teachers' Strike – Why Denver Can't Pay Teachers

In the days preceding a likely strike from the teachers in Denver Public Schools, a spreadsheet featuring payroll data leaked to Denver education activist Brandon Pryor has made rounds among school staff and community. That leak undercuts recent claims made by Denver Superintendent Susana Cordova.

The school district has long faced criticism that it spends too much on administration and not enough on teaching kids. An analysis of the payroll data buttresses that argument strongly.

Close to $6 million are spent on payroll for district's top leadership, aphoristically called the Superintendent's cabinet. Those 46 personnel lack clear roles in the minds of many.

"While the immediate issue is teacher pay, the takeaway for me, is that this top-heavy structure does not show an institution concerned with education, or equity, but with propaganda," said Margaret Bobb, a retired DPS teacher who has seen the data. "These positions represent the army of highly-paid spin doctors it takes to concoct and manage the SPF (School Performance Framework, a way DPS rates schools and rewards teachers), to concoct and manage LEAP, and to promote and manage the "Portfolio Model of Choice" that shows no evidence of serving students better than a traditional neighborhood feeder system."

It's not just top brass in question. The DPS communications department has grown by leaps and bounds under past Superintendents. When Boasberg's first communications director Mike Vaughn met with the North Denver News in early 2008, there were only three people handling press relations for the district. There are now eleven–making $700,000 a year. The full communications shop numbers thirty-seven, with a payroll of nearly $2 million.

The District's scandals and legal problems are run through a group of six lawyers, staffed up at a cost of $700,000. Denver Public Schools spent $7 million in 2017 on "Analysts"; $1 million on "Assessment Coordinator" positions with another $288,000 going to data assessment partners; $1.5 million on a series of associate directors of instruction and operations; $8 million on Curriculum Coordinators, whose salaries average out to $72,000 each; $9.5 million on "Coordinators"; and $5.56 million on people classified as Executive Management.

The spreadsheet demonstrates where all the funding DPS can't find to pay its teachers goes. With $50 million going to people who do not have contact with students, the data belies the district's branding of "Students First" and "Team DPS."

Another take on publicly available school-level budgeting add a higher level of analysis. Approximately 5% of student dollars goes to "Central Office," according to school budgets from FY2017. Five percent of the district billion dollar budget equals some $46,000,000, which could pay for 700 more teachers, or a raise for existing teachers in a district where teacher turnover is high and teachers are ready to strike over their compensation. Administrative overhead is expected in a school district that educates 92,000 students. While district leadership is arguing poverty against a potential strike, that $50 million overhead comes at the cost of having enough teachers for classrooms, compensating teachers fairly, and having enough support staff for every building.

- Reporting by Camilla Green, Guerin Green