As the Miami-Dade School Board Turns

I'm a salesperson, so I spend a LOT of time in my car. I listen to 91.3 on the radio all day long--home to NPR, PRI, and once a month, to the Miami-Dade County School Board meetings. These meetings can last for hours, and I used to switch the channel immediately when I heard the school board meetings begin--who wants to listen to several hours of a formal meeting? Then one day, I listened for a while, and found the meetings to be informative, and actually very entertaining--most of the board members have strong personalities, they argue, talk each other down, and present their points passionately. These days, the meetings are also full of important and disturbing information regarding our district.
This year, the state of Florida has made significant cuts in the budgets of our state's school districts, and the districts and school boards must attempt to bring their budgets in line. Here in Miami, this has been the cause of much drama, and as of yesterday's board meeting, over 2000 jobs have been cut for next school year. Teachers, counselors, specialists, assistant principals, PE teachers, and so on.
I read this article this morning on MiamiHerald.com, and all the followup comments from other readers.
What is going on here? All of these jobs cut, but no reduction in the salaries of the highest-paid administrators, including Superintendent Crew? A reduction in the salaries of the highest-paid administrators was proposed by board member Marta Perez, but was voted down. Here is a quote from an article on nb6.net: "Let the people who are in the trenches, doing the work, making the $8 an hour, know that we're standing in the trenches with them, that we're all willing to take the cut," Logan said.
District administrator Eric Parker spoke on behalf of his fellow employees.
"The true net effect of cost savings that you may have as a result of this item would not make a dent in terms of the $284 million deficit that you have," Parker said.
I tend to agree with board members Dr. Perez and Ana Rivas Logan--the fact that reducing salaries of higher paid administrators won't greatly affect the deficit isn't the POINT. The point is, if you are asking your staff to suffer, then suffer with them to show that you are all in it together--that one important way that leaders earn and keep the respect of those they are leading. Years ago, I worked for a national education organization that was geared to helping public schools succeed, and what I learned was that the biggest factor in turning a school around was the presence of a strong leader (school principal, at the school level.)
Miami is a great city in many ways, much beloved to me, but I have to admit that I have little faith in our city or county governments. Too much dirty stuff goes on and makes it into the papers, so who knows what is going on that we DON'T find out about?