Waste of the Day: Redundant Baltimore School Jobs

Topline: Baltimore City Public Schools are consistently among the worst-performing in the nation, but that hasn’t stopped the district from beefing up its payroll with scores of administrators, executives and directors making six-figure salaries.

Baltimore Schools top-heavy with administrators

Key facts: In 2019, Baltimore schools had 7,053 employees earning a total of $562.3 million, according to records obtained by OpenTheBooks.com. By 2024, there were 13,023 employees earning $949.2 million.

The list of job titles is dizzying. Less than half of employees are listed as teachers or principals. 

The other half includes 67 Directors and Assistant Directors, and 18 Executive Directors. There are 285 people with Manager in their job title; 58 Supervisors; 63 Analysts; 80 Coordinators; and 46 Administrators. Positions include the Manager of Energy Efficiency and the Systems Administrator of Customer Care.

Many of the jobs are seemingly redundant. The school district’s Senior Executive Director of Equity makes $213,550, but there is also a Director of Equity, a Director of Equity-Centered Principal Development, five Educational Specialists of Equity, and a Staff Associate of Equity.

The school district has two Directors of Environmental Health each earning over $160,000, a Senior Project Manager of Environmental Compliance, and a Supervisor of Environmental Compliance.

Baltimore employs a Chief Communications Officer making $232,721, a Staff Specialist of Communications earning $154,456, an Executive Director of Communications making $170,796, and a Manager of Communications earning $92,868.

The Executive Director of Strategic Resourcing and Financial Management makes $213,291. Maybe it would be better financial management to not pay someone that much money.

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Loss of transparency

Background: As the Baltimore school payroll increases, the district’s transparency with taxpayers is decreasing.

The school’s website no longer allows visitors to download the payroll as an Excel spreadsheet, and the school’s open records office refused to provide OpenTheBooks’ auditors with a spreadsheet.

The district has denied or ignored seven other open records requests from OpenTheBooks in the past two years, an issue that plagues Baltimore’s city government as well.

Maryland is making historic investments in education through its 10-year, $30 billion Blueprint for Maryland’s Future plan, but student performance has not reflected that so far.

Last year Maryland schools spent an average of $19,427 per student, but eighth graders scored “significantly lower” than the national average on standardized math tests.

Fourth graders scored “not significantly different” than average on math and reading. There was only $12,255 of funding per student in 2013, when fourth and eighth graders scored “significantly higher” than average on the math and reading tests.

Baltimore City Public Schools did not return a request for comment on this article.

Summary: It only takes one person to do one job. If Baltimore’s school directors have forgotten that, perhaps they should retake math class for a refresher. 

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.