When the school administration presented to the School Committee in 2023 for consideration of an assistant principal position to be established at the Bromfield School, the following educator: administrator comparison ratios were reported:
- Acton-Boxborough 26:1
- Littleton 18:1
- Ayer-Shirley 19:1
- Dover-Sherborn 14:1
- Lexington 26:1
- Lenox 25:1
These are a combination of Department of Elementary and Secondary Education-identified comparable districts, geographical peers, and ratings-comparable districts.
The ratio at Bromfield High School was 41:1, higher by far than any other comparison, and more than double half of them. This ratio is especially important when considering core responsibilities of administrators such as observation and evaluation of educators.
The Budget Subcommittee and then the full School Committee unanimously agreed that an assistant principal was warranted at Bromfield High School, and included one in its FY25 budget. When the Tier 2 override did not pass last spring, the School Committee did what it had openly said it would have to: It drew from other areas of the budget to support an assistant principal at Bromfield. This was not ideal, but it was necessary.
The schools have likewise been working to increase student support at the central office level. This is not padding. For many years the Harvard Public Schools have been administratively thin. Of the 10 districts DESE considers most comparable to us, 100% of them have either an assistant superintendent or a director of curriculum (2024 data). This role aims among other things to serve as a backup to the superintendent’s critical functions in case of absence and to ensure continuous review of pedagogy and curriculum.
However exciting it might have been if the Bromfield High School assistant principal and the Harvard Public Schools assistant superintendent had been nefariously magicked into existence by a sly School Committee, that isn’t what happened. The annual school budget is the product of hundreds of hours of work documented in recordings and meeting minutes. The data is there.
This year, we must vote “yes” on both the Tier 1 and Tier 2 overrides. Tier 1 is not level service for the schools.
Shannon Molloy
Stow Road
