"I would wager that there are not in fact 5% of a budget's worth in valueless support positions, but I await your detailed information on them."

There may be value (although possibly marginal) in the support positions but the question is:  Is it CRITICAL that those support positions are maintained in the school budget?   If those positions aren't critical to the mission, they need to be pared down.   These are CRITICAL times.  'Nice to have' needs to be separated from the 'must have' needs.