Public school administration: Employing Thompson's structural contingency theory to explain public school administrative expenditures in Washington state

The purpose of this article is to explore the open systems characteristics of public schools by applying lames D. Thompson's contingency theory to the study of school district central ad ministration expenditures in Washingto n State. In this analysis, contingency theory appears to offer a fairly goo d explanation for central administrative expenditures. The model indicates that administrative expenditures are a function of the organizational envir onment and the stability of resource providers. Stable organizational envir onments and consistent resource providers are associated with smaller schoo l administration, due to the more limited need for substantial organization al buffering.