School District May Reorganize Some Top Administrative Jobs

The Elk Grove Unified School District could create new positions, eliminate others, and add new responsibilities to some of its administrative jobs in a bid to save about $180,000 each year.

The district's board of education will discuss the proposal from Superintendent Steven Ladd at Tuesday's 7 p.m. board meeting.

"This plan provides increased administrative support for safety and security, increased student academic success through a focus on reducing exclusionary discipline including the currently existing disproportionality, the implementation of the new Mental Health Division, and increase and realigning areas of responsibility, which in one case (Chief of Police Services) results in the reduction in the scope of responsibility in the revised position," Ladd writes in a staff report.

The proposal includes creating an Associate Superintendent of Student Support, a job that would oversee district police and Student Support and Health Services; Ladd suggests moving current district Police Chief Thomas Jenkins to the job, which would give him a raise of about $20,000 when benefit costs are included.

Under this proposal, the existing police chief job would be narrowed and would see a $20,000 pay cut (including the cost of benefits), and the assistant chief of police job would be eliminated. Ladd suggests moving current Assistant Chief Rick Ewing to the chief position in the interim; he would see a raise of $7,000 when benefit costs are included.

Ladd's proposal also sees the creation of a Mental Health Division, which will seek to "support the needs of our special needs students, but also to provide support to general education students with the hope of implementing successful interventions that reduce or eliminate the need for special education placements," Ladd writes in a staff report.

The current Director of Special Education / Special Education Local Plan Area will be replaced by a Director of Special Education and a Director of Mental Health Services /  Special Education Local Plan Area.

The directors of transportation and maintenance would each see raises of about $13,500 (when benefits costs are included) under this proposal, which notes their departments "experienced reduced administrative support and increased additional responsibilities" recently.

It also suggests a raise and expansion of duties for the director of communications, who would go from a salary of about $124,000 (including benefits) to nearly $151,000 (including benefits). 

According to Ladd's summary, the proposal would:

Eliminate:

• Director of Special Education/SELPA
• Lead Program Specialist
• Assistant Chief of Police and Safety
• Director of Communications
• Manager of Budget
• Director of Fiscal Services
• Administrative Assistant III
• Administrative Assistant II

• Associate Superintendent of Student Support
• Director of Mental Health Services/SELPA
• Director of Special Education
• Director of Public Engagement, Communications and District Projects
• Senior Administrative Assistant
• Director of Budget
• Fiscal Compliance Specialist

• Chief of Police and Safety
• Director of Maintenance, Operations and Grounds
• Director of Transportation
• Native American Program Educator