Differentiated+Staffing

Differentiated staffing will definitely have an impact on a school campus. The term differentiated staffing means to specialize the use of campus personnel. This type of approach to staffing may produce greater efficiency on a campus by assigning different instructional and campus responsibilities to teachers and staff. The educational responsibilities would change for teachers and staff by having each group take over specific responsibilities. Many of the procedural tasks teachers do such as checking roll, issuing books, developing seating charts, making copies, and duty stations could be removed from the teachers and assigned to aides. This in theory should provide increased instructional time between teachers and students over the entire school year. More specifically differentiated staffing could reduce operational costs by hiring aides on a part time basis thus saving on health care costs and increase in the flexibility of the times the aides would be on campus. As a campus principal the loss of personnel on the campus always creates additional stresses on the operation of the school. Increased staff flexibility would help to ease some of the constraints placed on the overall operation of the campus. With the imposing budget crisis the state and all school districts are facing and having salaries making the majority of a school district's budget, the loss of staff is becoming inevitable. My campus and district are trying to be proactive in dealing with the potential financial problems we may be facing in the future. We are examining our districts overall personnel and will utilize the people we have currently to fill voids as people retire, move, and leave the school district. The need to have and use differentiated staffing is something we are examining to help streamline our operational costs.

Please add additional information for our paper. James

I can see where the use of differentiated staffing could be beneficial in the areas of making copies, duty stations and other areas that take from the educational process. I have asked for a secretary for years to take some of the data input part of my job off of me to allow me the freedom to be in the classrooms and interact with students and teachers more often along with doing a better job of meeting their needs. I am not sure that I completely understand what the term means and how it can help small school districts. All of our teachers have 4 or 5 preps and most are coaches also, along with sponsoring student counsel, NHS etc. As you cut your budget as we do also, it is hard to determine how we can use the concept of differentiated staffing with less personnel than we have now. I can see that it would be beneficial in a large school district.-Mark

Differentiated staffing could help districts by improving efficiency and reducing operating costs. It would meet with opposition, however, because most teachers do not want any organizational change that could decrease the number of teaching jobs. Also, many teachers are very particular about the way procedural tasks are done in their classrooms and may hesitate to turn those tasks over to someone else. If barriers are overcome, differentiated staffing is an excellent option for cutting costs. Our district does use some differentiated staffing such as utilizing aides for morning and afternoon duties in order to allow teachers time for tutorials.--Kristy

__**Group Paper **__:

The term differentiated staffing refers to the specialized use of campus personnel. This type of approach to staffing may produce greater efficiency on a campus by assigning different instructional and campus responsibilities to teachers and staff. The educational responsibilities would change for teachers and staff by having each group take over specific responsibilities. Many of the procedural tasks teachers do such as checking roll, issuing books, developing seating charts, making copies, and duty stations could be removed from the teachers and assigned to aides. This, in theory, should provide increased instructional time for teachers and students over the entire school year, and teachers would have more time to prepare lessons, participate in professional development activities, and study to improve their knowledge of their subject and best practices. This would result in a more qualified instructional staff, and, in turn, should result in more quality instruction. More specifically, differentiated staffing could reduce operational costs by hiring aides on a part time basis to reduce the number of full-time teachers, thus saving on salary and health care costs and increase in the flexibility of the times the aides would be on campus. For campus principals, the loss of personnel on the campus always creates additional stresses on the operation of the school. Increased staff flexibility would help to ease some of the constraints placed on the overall operation of the campus. With the imposing budget crisis the state and all school districts are facing and having salaries making the majority of a school district's budget, the loss of staff is becoming inevitable. With differentiated staffing, shifting procedural tasks to aides would help alleviate some of the stress felt by teachers who are having to teach additional preps and more students to make up for the reduced teaching staff. Port Neches-Groves ISD is trying to be proactive in dealing with the potential financial problems they may be facing in the future. They are examining the district's overall personnel and will utilize the people they have currently to fill voids as people retire, move, and leave the school district. The need to have and use differentiated staffing is something they are examining to help streamline operational costs.

The downside of differentiated staffing is that it could be met with opposition by teaching staff. Many teachers are against organizational changes that they fear might further reduce the number of teaching positions. Also, many teachers are very particular about the way procedural tasks are done in their classrooms and may hesitate to turn those tasks over to someone else. In these tough economic times, teacher morale is often waning in the face of increased workloads, lower salaries, and fear of layoffs. Supporting teachers and increasing morale is an integral part in providing a quality educational program.

Differentiated staffing, if approached wisely, could benefit districts by improving efficiency and reducing operating costs. An effective superintendent would work with hesitant staff to produce a solution that would benefit students, teachers, staff and the district. When handled appropriately, differentiated staffing could lead to a higher morale as workloads are decreased and teacher quality increases.