When I began covering Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools in 2012, I often heard then-superintendent Brian Smith talk about his visits to other school districts. He sometimes commented on the number of central office administrators he found in other school corporations, much smaller then HSE. His point was this – HSE has always worked to keep central office administrative staff as small as possible.
HSE swore-in a new school board in January of 2023 and that board has hired a new superintendent. Several administrators have left HSE and last Monday the board approved some new administrative staff.
Michelle Fullhart served 2 terms on the HSE School Board and chose not to seek a third term in the 2022 election cycle. She had several comments to make before the board during Monday’s meeting, about how the central office staff is organized.
Her comments were focused on the consent agenda, which added an assistant superintendent for operations. The district has moved from one superintendent and 2 assistant superintendents previously, to a situation now that features one superintendent, a deputy superintendent and 4 assistant superintendents. Fullhart expressed concerns about how the changes have been communicated, or not communicated, by current Superintendent Patrick Mapes.
“I would love to know (Mapes’) assessment of our administrative system,” Fullhart said. “We have always been lean in administrators, despite what some people in the community had said, and what some people said during (the most recent school board) campaign.”
Fullhart did say she is not commenting on whether the new positions are now needed, but “it would be nice to know why they have been added.”
She made clear she does not consider an attachment to the board consent agenda as transparent.
She closed her remarks by saying the next HSE Schools funding referendum will likely happen after Superintendent Mapes retires. These extra central office administrators were not part of the explanation to the community of how the recent referendum money would be spent. Fullhart is concerned these administrative staffing changes could be used to oppose a future referendum.
Neither Superintendent Mapes nor the school board responded to Ms. Fullhart’s comments.