In either case, let's assume that the average take-home pay of the teachers is somewhere between $20 and $40 per hour. Remember, however, that what a teacher costs the district is more than what he or she receives. So the cost per teacher might run between $30 and $50 per hour.
A two-hour meeting, then, could have a base price of $8000, if we arbitrarily take $40 as an hourly cost. But additional costs quickly appear: additional school personnel at the meeting (secretaries, administrators, counselors), electricity and heating or air conditioning, and coffee if it is offered.
In addition, those presenting at the meeting will have spent time, and therefore money, preparing their materials. Photocopies of handouts will have a per-copy cost, and if shared electronically in an effort to reduce the amount of paper and ink used, then increased time spent sending and receiving emails, or reading through Google Docs.
Transition time into, and out of, the meeting may consume another 15 minutes on either end, adding another $2000 to the overall expense.
If one considers biweekly faculty meetings at Huron, Skyline, and Pioneer High Schools - on average, two per month - costing $10,000 each, then $180,000 is not an unreasonable estimate for the yearly cost of those gatherings.
But biweekly faculty meetings are merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Consider the Professional Development days, also known as 'inservice' or 'continuing education' days. A thousand teachers across the Ann Arbor Public Schools might spend eight hours in meetings, amounting to $320,000 for that one day, not counting the price of presenters, often paid consultants whose fees include airfare and lodging.
Add to this departmental meetings, meetings at smaller schools - elementary and middle schools - and 'icebreaker' and 'team building' sessions, and it's not beyond imagination to speculate that several million dollars per year are spent on meetings.
The question, then, to be posed is this: what do we get in return?
If millions of taxpayer dollars are spent on these conferences, can we then find measurable increases in student academic achievement resulting from these meetings? Are SAT and ACT scores going up? Or is student behavior and discipline better?
Meetings are expensive. What are we getting for our money?
[Andrew Smith is a German teacher at both Huron High School and Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor. During the 2015/2016 academic year, Andrew Smith teaches two hours of German daily at Pioneer High School and three hours daily at Huron High School, in Ann Arbor.]
