Accurate Facts and Information

regarding the May 17th Referendum

What BSD Employees Need to Know

Over the weekend of May 7th, an employee sent an email to District staff with the subject line read
this BEFORE the Referendom. The email contained a two-page pdf document containing
inaccurate and misleading information urging District employees to vote no on May 17th.
It is disheartening that such a document would be disseminated when so much is at stake for our
students, staff, and District programming. This reckless action directly places the welfare and
livelihood of numerous staff members in jeopardy and encourages others to help impose the most
significant cuts to programming the District has ever faced. The cavalier attitude evidenced in
presenting inaccurate and misleading information in such a critical, high-stakes vote is both
irresponsible and unethical.
All Voters, employees included, must know the facts, the real facts, in order to make an informed
decision on May 17th.

The information presented on the following pages address specific inaccuracies and misinformation
contained in the anti-referendum email, and where appropriate, provides links to data sources.

* the typos contained in this document are not our own; they are taken directly from the employees original document

Point #1:
Freezing this years budget in March is a bullying tactic

The failed March 23rd Referendum meant the $8.0 million deficit moved from the realm of
possibility to reality. Failure to immediately freeze budgets and limit expenses to only critical
spending was and remains a responsible and prudent action for the District could take.
In freezing these budgets and deferring costs, the District believes it can save approximately $1.1
million. That $1.1 million could be used to lessen the number of staff and budget cuts.

Point #2:
the District is financially solvent ended the 2014.15 school year with $10.7
million surplus
The correct term should be carry forward, not surplus. Surplus implies that this money is
extra, without a designated purpose.

A. Three years ago, the District had the second lowest carry forward dollar amount of all
districts, except for Delmar. Having a carry forward less than 1% of your total budget
places the District at great risk should a major system failure occur.

As an example, the boiler at Mt. Pleasant High costs $450,000.00.

Couple this with the information on the next slide.

Point #2:
the District is financially solvent ended the 2014.15 school year with $10.7
million surplus

B. Remember that this is a year end balance and that the fiscal year ends June 30th. The
following years funding does not come in until October. The District still needs to make
July through September payroll and pay for beginning of the year start-up costs. This year is
exceptionally challenging as there are three September payrolls to meet instead of the typical
two.
Without the $10 million carry forward, the District would not be able to meet payroll
expenses before next years funds are loaded. Even with the $10 million carry forward, it will be
nip and tuck and some expenditures may need to be deferred until Fall 2016.
Projected Sept. 30, 2016, Balance: -$1,700,000.00

Point #2:
the District is financially solvent ended the 2014.15 school year with $10.7
million surplus
C. Comparison of Northern New Castle County Year End Balances (carry forward)
Brandywine Christina

Red Clay

Colonial

2010-11

2.8%

14.4%

13.5%

21.9%

2011-12

1.2%

13.7%

11.8%

16.7%

2012-13

4.0%

11.8%

8.2%

12.2%

2013-14

6.3%

7.6%

7.1%

12.2%

2014-15

6.7%

5.3%*

6.0%*

12.9%

2015-16

3.0%*

* indicates when the district went out for Referendum

Point #3:
The financial outlook was so positive the school board approved raises for all
administrators and distributed nearly $100,000 in raises to office secretaries
Local Pay Raise History FY10 FY 16
FY10
Administrators

Educators

FY11

FY12

FY13

FY14

FY15

FY16

Avg.

-1.00%

1.00%

.05%

.80%

.70%

6.0%

.90%

1.21%

4.0%

0.0%

2.0%

2.0%

2.0%

2.0%

1.5%

1.93%

Note: The percentages listed are the pay increases of the local portion that the the District is
responsible for. Educators are also eligible for steps and lanes increases, Administrators are not.

Point #4:
He (Dr. Holodick) is the highest paid employee of the state of Delaware his
salary is almost double that of any superintendent in the state of Delaware
A.

The link provided goes to a Delaware State News story that does not appear to contain all State of Delaware
employees. Compare this list to that of the News Journals list of State employees (click here).

B.

The Delaware News Story link shows total compensation packages. This means the figure includes: 1)
salary; 2) health insurance; 3) pension.; 4) FICA; 5) workmans comp; 6) Medicare; 7) unemployment
insurance (#4-7 are 30.48% of the reported total compensation package as it is for all state employees this
year).
For comparison:
- Last payrolls Average Teacher Salary:
- Total Compensation Package equals:

$ 72,138.00
$ 107,856.00 (10 month employee)
$ 129,427.00 ( if 12 month employee)

Note: On the News Journal list mentioned above, you will see the salary for the former Superintendent of
Christina School District shows a total compensation package of $192,088. This demonstrates just how far off
the almost double claim is from truth.

Point #5:
We should expect the same surplus even after the proposed capital
improvements.
Just a little Common Sense here
If the Referendum fails, the $49 million in capital requests doesnt happen
The work still needs to be done (via piecemeal) and will have to be done from the only
allowable pot of money local. The same local pot from which the $8.0 million in
cuts will need to be made AND the same local pot that will need to have enough in its
Year End Balance (carry forward) to make summer payroll the following year.
The only place to get the dollars needed to complete the necessary capital work is from
the local dollars available for personal and budgets resulting in more employee
reduction and greater cuts to already depleted budgets.

Point #6:
less quality education. There is lots of data available to compare Brandywine School
Districts performance with that of other districts on the states own school profile website
If you look at our performance on Smarter from last year, Brandywine consistently scores above the
state average and does very well when compared to our sister New Castle County districts.

Our overall performance on state-wide assessments, SATs, IB exams, and any and all other
assessments, is very impressive considering the incredibly diverse student population that we serve.
As our traditional practice, Brandywine does not define student success based on a single item, but
instead relies on an incredible portfolio of multiple data points and indicators that provide greater
insight into the depth and breadth of student achievement including items such as graduation rates,
SAT scores, percentage of students going to and graduating from college.
Considering the quality programming we are offering, it is no surprise we are making headway into
closing the achievement gap and helping to provide ALL students with a well-rounded quality
education.

Point #7:
Brandywine School District funds its school with a whopping 49.68% from
local funds
Brandywine, by far, has the greatest percentage of Educators with Masters
degrees. The higher the employees salary, the greater the cost of the
Districts 40% cost share with State.
Appoquinimink

Brandywine

Christina

Colonial

Red Clay

Bachelors

41.0%

33.0%

40.0%

42.0%

39.0%

Masters

58.8%

65.0%

58.0%

57.0%

59.0%

In addition, Brandywine has made conscientious decisions regarding staffing and

programming that also influence this number, such as the Strings Program,
retaining elementary and middle school Reading Specialists after state funding
was eliminated, and providing Interventionists across all levels K-12.

Point #10:
The cost per student is the highest in the state at $14,458.00 per student.
Below is the rank order of districts for per pupil spending
NCCVT
PolyTech
Cape
Brandywine
Sussex Tech
Capital
Christina
Woodbridge
Seaford

Data Source: School Profiles

$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$

16,559.00
15,629.00
15,254.00
14,961.00
14,845.00
14,286.00
14,000.00
13,877.00
13,441.00

Point #11:
Enrollment is high yet the district continues to reduce the number of teachers across the
district. The three high school have lost 16 teaching position in the past 4 years while class
size have increased dramatically.

A. True.
A review of the staff being allocated at the Secondary level vs the Elementary level showed that
a significant inequity existed. Over the course of the past four years, the District Allocations
Team has identified the equivalent of approximately 20 units that have either been eliminated or
reallocated based on identified need. The majority of the identified units were at the high school
level.

Point #11:
Enrollment is high yet the district continues to reduce the number of teachers across the
district. The three high school have lost 16 teaching position in the past 4 years while class
size have increased dramatically.

High School

Student/Teacher Ratio

High School

Student/Teacher Ratio

Concord

16

Newark

17

Brandywine

13

AI duPont

17

Mt. Pleasant

15

Dickenson

14

William Penn

16

Christiana

16

McKean

14

Glasgow

18

Appo

18

Middletown

18

Data Source: School Profiles

Point #12:
The number of administrator is growing District office staffing numbers have
grown to the highest they have eve been.
District Office Administrators by Fiscal Year
FY10

FY16

FY10

FY16

Superintendent

Manager

Asst .Superintendent

Specialist

22

19

CFO

Coordinator

12

Director

Secretary

26

14

Supervisor

10

Mid-Level Professional

11

Total Staff FY10: 83

Total Salary FY10: $6,168,838

Total Staff FY16: 72

Total Salary FY16: $6,206,231

Net: -11
Net: $37,393

Point #13:
BSD has more administrators per students than that any other district.

District Salaries Allocated for Instructional Services vs Administrative

Brandywine

Christina

Red Clay

Colonial

Appo

Instructional

84.2%

84.0%

82.3%

82.2%

82.3%

Administrative

15.8%

15.9%

17.7%

17.6%

17.8%

Data Source: School Profiles

In Closing:
Last but not least, we must express our strong conviction regarding the outstanding work
ethic and performance of our staff members. For anyone to suggest that our employees
are not doing amazing work while going above and beyond the call of duty to meet the
needs of an incredibly diverse group of students is intolerable. This is exactly what the
author of that document is insinuating. The commitment of our staff (teachers, paras,
administrators, and ALL employee groups in this District) to serving the children,
families, and community of the Brandywine School District should never be questioned.