Wow! When does your school year start? We start the day after Labor Day and this year we run until the last week of June. I'm in NY. Our last few days here are fluff as well, pretty much once the report cards have been handed in to the office and formal teaching is done. We usually have what are called 'field days' or extra curricular days where all the teachers run activities, relays etc indoors and outdoors and the classes cycle through the activities, then there's a picnic for lunch. While it's not formal academics it does focus a lot on team building and school spirit.

When I was a kid though, I remembered how the last few days of school DRAAAAAAAAGGGGEEEED on forever...while it was fun in high school, it was horrible in elementary school. I can remember our teacher 'letting' us clean her room for her.

Jen
http://parents2parents.org
http://furoreandfrenzy.com

We are in TN. Our public schools open during the second week of August, when it is still 120 (I exaggerate slightly) degrees outside.
Ah, yes, I remember being in elementary and scrubbing down desks and chairs with Comet during the last week of school.

I agree with you Jenni and it would be nice to see an administrator in tough budgetary times say to the community "I really can't see myself taking a raise this year." But it doesn't usually happen that way ;)

To be fair though...really administrators don't have the power people think they do. Most of those people you listed, including the administrative assistants probably are required positions, and probably not required by the school administrator, but probably required at the state or federal levels. Perhaps they're guidance secretaries, or responsible for student data...I have no idea what their title would actually be, but it probably has a slash in the title because they do double duty as something else.

The administrators actually aren't that high on the totem pole. Students, then teachers, principals, superintendents (in some smalls schools this is the same person), Board of Education, State Education Department, and then US Education Department & No Child Left Behind. The US government actually gets to set a lot of the mandates, but doesn't actually put the funding in place to support them, they brush it off as not their problem. The State Education Department freaks out about the US mandates and adds their own interpretation of it and sets forth their own set of mandates. Administrators are looking at both sets of mandates, trying to figure out how on earth both are supposed to jive. Many of the mandates call for the creation of new programs and positions but the same amount of money is supplied as before, or the increase from last year to this year is just enough to make up for the cost of living increase. Keep in mind that every current employee will see a raise and increase in health insurance premiums each year, and that districts aren't given any extra money to compensate for gas that's more than $4 a gallon. And if food is expensive for the average person currently multiply that cost by what it would take feed a school full of children every day all year...even if it is sub-par cafeteria food.

Am I condoning the behavior of these administrators? A little bit. But I also agree with you as well. No one seems to remember that there' still pens and paper and supplies that need to be purchased. You're right, I think a lot of administrators right now could take a stand and refuse their raises to try to help the cause. I also know that in my local region right now a lot of teachers and staff workers are losing their jobs and budgets are pared down to the bare minimum because schools can't afford the current economy. Let's face it...many of us are having trouble in the current economy with more trouble projected.

I think things look bleak. But I think the problem is MUCH larger.

Jen
http://parents2parents.org
http//furoreandfrenzy.com

Jennifer, I can understand why you think some of these positions are mandatory, but let me tell you my experience:

I work for a state funded agency for child care. We recieve the exact same money that school districts do. Of course, our contract is different, but any time we add a new position, it is not mandatory. We must have one site supervisor at each site (this is equal to a principal and it can be a teacher as well), only if we have more than one site, we must have a program director (someone to head up all the centers that are run).

Each teacher must be permited (similar to credentialled, just in child development rather than elementary or higher). We must run a lower ratio (1:8 adult to preschooler, 1:4 adult to toddler, I forget the infants as we don't have them but it's either 1:2 or 1:3)

Our enrollment coordinators (let's call them the secretaries) are extra and we know are a luxury; our assistant to the program director is also a luxury.

Our Executive Director (superintendant) is, I believe, mandated as is our board of directors.

Now, I can't imagine the mandate being much different for the schools. We get the same amount (around $30 a child) per day of enrollment as the schools. Because we have some fundraising sources and a food bank that helps support us, we are able to have these extra people. Most of our state funding goes into salaries; it doesn't matter how good your supplies are if you don't have a good teacher. As a matter of fact, the better the teacher the less supplies she will actually use/need in my experience.