Imagine boarding a plane and the pilot comes on the intercom and says, “Quick update: we’ve decided to cut costs. So there’s no air traffic control today. Turns out it’s expensive, and we’re trying to be more efficient. The pilots are very capable. We’ll just… coordinate.”

At first, that sounds kind of appealing. Less bureaucracy. Fewer people telling professionals how to do their jobs. Probably saves a lot of money. And for a few minutes, everything seems fine. The plane takes off. Everyone relaxes. You start thinking maybe air traffic control was overkill.

And then you remember that there are hundreds of other planes in the sky. You see them out the window while you’re flying. You think about changing planes at O’Hare, where roughly 2,500 planes land every day on eight runways, which works out to about 200 planes per hour. Then you remember the weather systems. And the federal regulations. And suddenly it clicks that the job of air traffic control isn’t to fly the plane—it’s to make sure all the planes don’t accidentally meet each other at 30,000 feet, or on the runway.

Not that we’ve seen that happen recently. And not that those accidents had anything to do with administrative-related problems.

Except that it actually did. (Read this article to see: https://www.aviationtoday.com/2023/09/12/alarming-rise-in-near-misses-among-u-s-airlines/)

Administration Is Expensive—Until the Toilet Is Dripping Through the Dining Room Ceiling

That’s usually how administration works. When it’s doing its job, you barely notice it. When it’s gone, you notice very quickly—and you usually end up on the news. Sometimes people are harmed. Sometimes worse.

One of the most common things I hear when people talk about school funding is this: “Why don’t they just cut administrators?” It sounds reasonable. In a season where everything feels expensive and bloated, it makes sense to look at the top and assume that’s where the excess must be hiding.

But once you actually look at the numbers—and the work—this argument falls apart pretty quickly. The issue isn’t that Battle Ground has too many administrators or that they’re wildly overpaid. The issue is that administration is invisible until it fails, and when it fails, it’s expensive, disruptive, and often irreversible.

Administration is like plumbing (No offense admins!). No one thanks you for it. Everyone notices when it breaks. And it has an uncanny way of showing up at the dinner table.

This Is the Job Where Mistakes Cost Millions (When This Goes Wrong, It Ends Up in Court)

Administrators carry the heaviest responsibility in the system. They are legally and ethically accountable for district operations, thousands of students, hundreds of employees, and compliance with multiple layers of state and federal law.

That responsibility includes:

  • Managing a $150+ million annual budget, contracts, and long-range financial planning
  • Legal compliance with IDEA (Special Education) — the highest litigation-risk area in K–12 education
  • Administration and reporting for Title I, IX and other federal programs
  • Employment law, labor contracts, and due-process requirements
  • Student safety protocols, crisis response, and threat assessment
  • Mandatory financial, staffing, and performance reporting to the state

Key data point: Failures in special education compliance alone routinely cost districts hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in settlements, legal fees, corrective action plans, or lost funding.

Paying for experienced, competent leadership at the top isn’t indulgence.

It’s risk management.

You Can’t Hire Top-Tier Leadership at Flea Market Prices

This part is often misunderstood.

At the very top, the data is clear: Battle Ground pays $65,000–$100,000 less than surrounding districts for superintendent-level leadership. And they get rewarded with heavier workloads and more responsibility.

That’s like choosing to buy your sheets at the flea market. (“You gotta loosen up the purse strings.” Phoebe Buffay, Friends.)

Looking more broadly, using conservative estimates based on public salary schedules for superintendents, assistant superintendents, and directors (excluding principals), Battle Ground administrators earn roughly $25,000–$35,000 less on average than their counterparts in Evergreen and Vancouver.

Administrative labor markets are regional, not local. Paying well below nearby districts shrinks the applicant pool and increases turnover.

You don’t get top-tier leadership by hoping people will accept less money for more responsibility indefinitely.

Unless your goal is exhaustion, burnout, and plane crashes.

Fewer Administrators Doesn’t Mean Less Work

This is the part that almost never makes it into the conversation.

Using NCES staffing data, Battle Ground has fewer administrators per student than surrounding districts:

  • Battle Ground: ~1 administrator per 287 students
  • Evergreen: ~1 per 254 students
  • Vancouver: ~1 per 265 students

That means Battle Ground administrators are responsible for more students per admin, not fewer.

Which is impressive—unless you’re the administrator.

Despite similar staffing percentages, Battle Ground has fewer administrators overall, which means:

  • Broader job scopes
  • More programs per administrator
  • More compliance responsibility per person

Lower pay + higher workload = burnout, turnover, or errors, none of which save money long-term.

There is no spreadsheet from any financial advisors where “exhausted people making high-risk decisions” shows up as a cost savings.

What People Usually Mean When They Say ‘Cut Admin’

When people say “cut administrators,” what they’re really saying—often without realizing it—is:

  • Don’t do the compliance work
  • Increase our legal exposure
  • Risk losing state or federal funds
  • Push more work onto fewer people
  • Increase the odds of state oversight or intervention

The work doesn’t disappear. It just breaks somewhere else, and the bill usually shows up later with interest. And that interest isn’t just dollars. It’s reputation, oversight, law-suits, and students put at risk of harm with life-long impacts.

The repercussions cost far more than whatever we thought we were saving.

I know the price tag looks high. But it’s not when you understand the responsibilities. For the administrators I know, they carry a far heavier load than I would ever want to carry. And the money they make doesn’t make up for the time away from families, stress and strain, and years lost from their lives.

Appendix: What District Administrators Actually Do

(District-level roles; not principals)

  • Superintendent — Ultimately responsible for legal compliance, financial stability, and all state and federal reporting for the district.
  • Assistant / Deputy Superintendent — Oversees daily district operations and ensures required programs, departments, and compliance timelines stay on track.
  • Director of Special Education — Manages IDEA compliance, IEP oversight, disability law requirements, and high-risk legal exposure.
  • Director of Federal Programs — Administers Title I, II, III, ESSA, and other federal funds, ensuring money is spent legally and reported correctly.
  • Director of Finance (CFO) — Builds the district budget, manages levy and bond compliance, oversees audits, and ensures solvency.
  • Director of Human Resources — Handles hiring, certification, labor contracts, investigations, and employment law compliance.
  • Director of Curriculum & Instruction — Aligns teaching materials and professional development with state learning standards.
  • Director of Student Services — Oversees discipline systems, attendance compliance, crisis response, and student safety.
  • Director of Assessment & Accountability — Manages state testing, graduation requirements, and mandatory performance reporting.
  • Director of Technology — Maintains student data systems, cybersecurity, and state-required reporting infrastructure.
  • Director of Facilities & Operations — Ensures buildings, transportation, and operations meet safety and compliance standards.
  • Director of Transportation — Oversees routing, driver certification, safety compliance, and state reimbursement reporting.
  • Director of Communications — Manages required public notices, parent engagement compliance, and public records responses.
  • Program Coordinators / Executive Assistants — Support state and federal reporting, grant documentation, audits, and compliance deadlines.

These are the people that keep things from falling apart. They are our air traffic controllers.