Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard plans a 20-percent staff reduction in the Rochester school district's downtown administrative offices.

In an interview last week, Brizard said that he hopes to see reductions by July 1, and that he'll make the cuts throughout the building. "The first goal," he said, "is not to reduce payroll" but to create a more effective organization. "We have too many people in central administration," he said.

Not all of the reduction will be through layoffs, he said. Some staff will be reassigned to school positions as part of a plan to reduce the bureaucracy and to push decision-making down closer to the instructional level.

Brizard's plan continues the reorganization begun by former Interim Superintendent Bill Cala. It's likely to get support from the school board, which had urged Cala to begin a restructuring.

Staffing at the district's central administration offices has been discussed for years. The teachers union, business leaders, and others have charged that the district is top-heavy with administrators, particularly in Central Office, and that it has been common practice to take poorly performing teachers or school administrators and create a place for them downtown.

The problem is both too many people and the wrong people in the wrong job, Brizard said. Some administrators "have too much on their plate," he said, and others don't have enough to do.

When former Superintendent Manny Rivera tried to reduce Central Office staffing late in his tenure, there were protests. Brizard said he knows his move won't be popular. "It's not going to be a pretty scene," he acknowledged.