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When drops in district enrollment require a reorganization, know it can be carried out with humanity and sensitivity

In public schools, personnel costs are the main driver of the expenditure side of the budget. During challenging economic times, the dilemma for superintendents and school boards is finding the balance between managing the budget and preserving the programming that the community expects.

Typical budget management strategies include scrutinizing class size at the elementary level and elective offerings at the secondary level. In an era of declining enrollment, striking that balance becomes even more challenging.

The Northport-East Northport Union Free School District on Long Island, like many school districts across the country, is experiencing this. In the last 10 years, our district has lost 25.7 percent of its enrollment, a total of 1,437 students.

Despite the fact that some administrative costs are fixed (buildings need a principal, districts need a superintendent, etc.), these costs are typically a small portion of the operating budget. And despite the reality that a weak administration compromises the ability of teachers to maximize their effectiveness in times of austerity, communities cry out for administrative reductions.

While the ability to find true relative savings by reducing administration is typically overestimated, all employee groups must be scrutinized when deliberating personnel reductions, and operational efficiencies should be exhausted before touching programs.

In Northport-East Northport, the need to reduce administration was necessary and prudent, and, in December 2024, I presented an administrative reorganization plan to the board of education.

The Plan鈥檚 Rationale

Northport-East Northport had an administrative structure common to Long Island: a superintendent鈥檚 cabinet, principals, assistant principals and K-12 department chairs overseeing specific content areas. Director positions existed in student services. This structure may have evolved due to the longstanding New York State Board of Regents testing system.

While the capacity of the teachers and leadership team is the driver of quality instruction and student growth in any district, structure obviously supports the work, and all structures have pros and cons.

The upside of the prevailing structure was the subject-area expertise of the department chairs and the direct support for content-area teachers at the secondary grade level. Downsides included a reduced focus on building teacher leadership, the fact that a majority of our central-office administrators had no building principal experience blurred the lines for principal ownership for the learning in their buildings and an arguably dated conception of post-graduation readiness for success in life (i.e., interdisciplinary learning, interpersonal and workplace skills, critical thinking and future-ready competencies such as media literacy).

Northport-East Northport needed to reduce administration, and the practical reality was that there was no way to accomplish this and maintain the same structure.

The reorganization approved by the board of education included abolishing K-12 department chairs; establishing a director of humanities, a director of STEM and a director of instructional services; and moving oversight for the English as a new language program to student services. The net reduction of four administrative positions is expected to save the district approximately $750,000 per year.

Process Considerations

Each school community鈥檚 needs leading into an administrative reorganization plan will differ, but here are some considerations when moving through the process.

Tap into your innate humanity.

Educators tend to view situations through a humanistic lens. What makes sense in the business world may not make sense in the social sciences, whether certain segments of the community understand this or not. What looks good on paper may be right in terms of where you want to get, but you must be strategic about how you get there.

Prior to my arrival to the district, in anticipation of the need to reduce administration, the administrators were offered an early-retirement incentive similar to the teachers. However, not all retirements are created equal. The first two retirement notices we received were from principals who would need to be replaced. While we had solid internal candidates, the domino effect of this, a subsequent resignation and a decision on my part required a total of seven administrators being reassigned to different positions for the 2025-26 school year.

In New York, administrators are unionized. My administrative union president was a key partner in this process. I did not make arbitrary decisions without communicating with him. Because I wanted to remove a position from their unit as a part of the reorganization, I had to negotiate, and everyone affected by the reorganization maintained their tenure status in their new position.

Had the circumstances been different, I might not have agreed to the latter provision. However, at my earliest opportunity in the fall, I told every administrator that if they wanted a position in our district, they would have one, and I committed to keeping everybody whole with their salary. I would have done that regardless. I did not think that it was right that they should be adversely impacted by factors that were outside of their control.

In the end, one administrator left the district for a promotion in title and salary in a school district closer to her home. She came out better, but if she had wanted to stay, I would have had a place for her.

Create a transition strategy team.

Immediately after the school board approved the reorganization, I created a transition strategy team. The affected people became involved in identifying what factors must be considered to ensure success and how to implement the change.

During change, the psychological and physiological impact for the people affected by the change is real. This must be acknowledged. The primary issue is a perceived threat to one鈥檚 identity. Identity turned out to be a major factor in our particular situation because our new directors initially thought they were being asked to do more and were struggling to conceptualize how that could be possible. In reality, they were not being asked to do more. They were being asked to do things differently. They had to come to grips with the need to redefine their identity.

The department chairs were hired for certain purposes. They did the job they were hired for well, and it is understandable they would feel devalued. Giving the affected people in the change process a new identity helps them take ownership of the change and move through the loss.

Reduce anxiety.

Communication is critical. Emotion plays a big part for the employees affected by the change. The same is true for the community at large. Nearly everything associated with public schools has the potential to create hysteria, and the vast majority of it is unnecessary.

The first thing I did when I arrived in the school district in January 2024 was to reduce the temperature. As it related to our fiscal situation, I think I succeeded.

Austerity is relative. Our district is fortunate and provides unparalleled opportunities for students. But regardless of one鈥檚 particular situation, it is all relative to some extent. People expect what they are used to. So any reduction to anything has the potential to cause a reaction more extreme than is warranted.

Provide appropriate support.

In Northport-East Northport, all of our administrative meetings are professional learning workshops, structured around our learning and leadership priorities. Some of our topics this year included implementing professional learning communities and building high-functioning teams.

We will continue focusing on the work of Robert Eaker and his colleagues on PLCs, Patrick Lencioni on team building and using the RACI system (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) for establishing roles and responsibilities to support the work. One priority is establishing a common definition of some key concepts such as innovation.

We have initiated leadership development at our learning sessions in the areas of future-ready learning, innovation and change management, including establishing clear definitions of what we mean by these concepts.

In addition, each director who has been assigned to a new position has been offered the opportunity to work with an executive coach to support their transition.

We also created teacher leader positions at the high school to help compensate for the potential, perceived or actual loss of content area support in each academic area.

Recognize what is winnable and what is not.

In Northport-East Northport, it is not tenable to run class sizes up to 28-30 students. I have never advocated for that, nor would I ever want to be in that position. However, according to research by John Hattie, the effect of class size is .21. Likewise, the effect size of co-teaching is .19. Both are well below the cut for influences that impact student growth.

In New York state, each community must pass its school district operating budget, and it is a highly litigious state. Sometimes, one must compromise what they know is right for the greater good. Winning the class-size battle with elementary parents or the co-teaching battle with special education parents can be untenable in many districts, regardless of right and wrong.

One must balance decision making with inherent sensitivities. Regardless of what鈥檚 the best decision, sometimes superintendents have to swallow their ego for the greater good.

You can鈥檛 do this by yourself.

We have availed ourselves of the expertise of various support partners to advance the work. It is too complex for anyone to think she or he can do it all alone.

We have used Creative Leadership Solutions to support our PLCs and will transition to the New York State PLC network through Solution Tree. We have plugged into the Successful Practices Network to help with our board development, leadership development and future-focused learning and have consulted with experts on leadership theory and change leadership, innovation, personalized learning and community engagement. (See resource list, right.)

Final Judgment

In an age of fiscal uncertainty and declining enrollment in public schools, reducing or reorganizing administration may become a necessity. The difficult balancing act is to be fiscally responsible and to preserve educational programming.

Ultimately, you will not be judged as a superintendent by the extent to which you achieved the ultimate outcome of reducing administrative staff, but rather by the extent to which you treated those affected with compassion throughout the process. 

David Moyer is superintendent of the Northport-East Northport Union Free School District in Northport, N.Y.