William Marvel: The Good-Job Factory

Determining how many teachers, administrators and other people the Conway School District employs can be reminiscent of playing the shell game, especially in recent years. In the past, however, the public was at least given detailed summaries of the numerical total of staff, reduced to full-time equivalence. Since Kevin Richard retired as superintendent, those summary report forms have not been offered, and the precise number of staff has only been submitted orally, when specifically requested by the budget committee — and they haven't been consistent.

The value of those reports is illustrated by the present confusion over how many full-time positions are actually on the staff list. On Jan. 7, the superintendent told the budget committee she had already submitted a list of staff, by name or position, and she suggested that anyone could count them. She nevertheless agreed to supply the desired summaries for present and recent years.