All About School

(School Administrator Series)

20 Ways to Save Money Without Sacrificing Students

(article)

By K. A. Kruse

Copyright 2011 K. A. Kruse

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Administrative Personnel * Teachers and Classroom Aides * Professional Development Activities * Copiers * Printing * Paper * Supplies * Textbooks * Technology * Buildings *

Buses * Bus Routes * Food Service * Combining Jobs * Custodial Supplies * Custodial Staffing * Working with Other Districts * Debt * Modernizing * Re-thinking the School Calendar

It was the night of the school board meeting in a small town in the Midwest. The district was facing hard times due to a decrease in the local tax base and a shortfall in state funding. After nearly an hour of discussion, the school board members voted and the president announced the results with a sigh, “Due to budget constraints, all junior high school sports have been cut. This move will save the district approximately $6800 in the coming year.”

Over the next two weeks, five students transferred from the public school to a private school across town. Publicly, their parents spoke of the specialized attention their students would receive in the smaller setting. Privately, everyone knew the kids wanted to play ball, and the

private school was the only game in town. With five fewer students, the public school district lost over $15,000 in potential revenue from the state.

That winter, the school’s Athletic Booster Club noticed an unsettling and substantial drop in their coffers. By the end of the year, their revenue had come in nearly $3500 below projections. As the group pondered the unexpected decline, one member noted that their big fundraiser was running the concession stand at ball games. With no junior high sports this year, members had worked fewer nights, but had made a lot less money.

At the end of the fiscal year, the school board tallied up the results of their cost-saving measures. One of the most unpopular decisions, cutting junior high school sports, had saved the district almost $7000 dollars. And it had cost only $18,500 to do so.

In these hard times, the scenario outlined above is playing out in school districts all across the country. When faced with budget shortfalls, it’s easy to come up with a few simple (and seemingly intelligent) ways to cut costs. Things like “cut all supply budgets by 25%”, or “cut some extracurricular activities” or “cut some administrators” come readily to mind. And sometimes, those things have to be done. It’s important to remember, though, why we have school and what it takes to provide kids with a great education and a positive school experience. Providing that kind of education is almost impossible if there’s not enough paper to provide each student with a copy, or if there aren’t extracurricular activities, or if the behavior of a few students bent on trouble can’t be controlled because the principal can’t be everywhere at once.

As you look for ways to control costs, keep the vision of a “great education” in mind. Many times, there are ways to save money without kids feeling the full impact of the cut. In this article, you’ll find 20 different ways to save money – big money – without having a direct impact on kids. In fact, many of the suggestions will have NO impact on kids, and may not even impact the operation of your school, except to make it more cost-effective.

Before we begin, we need to lay out a few principles that should shape not only WHERE you make cuts, but also HOW you make the cuts:

Principle #1: Make cuts by attrition whenever possible. If an employee voluntarily leaves the district, before hiring a replacement, look for any possible way to reassign the duties, reassign personnel to handle those duties, or get along without that work being done.

Principle #2: Keep your BEST employees (not necessarily your most senior employees.) It’s understood that union agreements or laws in your state may hinder your abilities in this area, but if at all possible, cut the LEAST EFFECTIVE employees first.

Principle #3: Don’t cut the tools people need to do their jobs. Teachers need school supplies, custodians need quality floor wax, and maintenance people need good tools. While we can require maximum efficiency, it’s not fair to ask people to do a quality job using junk.

Now, let’s get started.

Administrative Personnel

In lean times, schools (like most other businesses) have to cut costs. A very common suggestion (demand?) is to save money by cutting administration – principals, assistant principals, assistant superintendents and similar positions. The people making the suggestions believe that since these people aren’t in the classroom anyway, they can be cut without adversely affecting kids.

And…. They’re right.

At least, to a point.

In any discussion of cutting school budgets, you absolutely must look at the possibility of cutting administration. From a public relations point of view, it’s necessary. The fact is, the general perception is that teachers are heroic and underpaid, while administrators simply stay in their offices and draw high salaries. (The actual realities of the situation and the economics involved don’t usually bear that out… but that’s a discussion for another article.)

It’s also important to remember, however, that the average school administrator does cost between two and three times as much as a classroom teacher. While good administration is important and valuable, making just a few cuts in that area can result in dramatic savings.

At this point, we need to make a distinction between two types of administrative personnel. The first type are the building-level administrators. These people are in the actual school buildings, interacting with kids, on a daily basis. Typically, these are your principals, assistant principals, and even head teachers.

The second type of administrative personnel are best described as central office administrators. These people do not typically interact with kids on a daily basis, may be in charge of district-wide programs, and may deal with a specialized aspect of school administration, such as curriculum, transportation, or finance.

Building-level Administrators

Nearly every state has standards for how many kids one building-level administrator should be able to supervise. In my state, a single building-level administrator could be assigned to supervise approximately 400 students. Your state may differ.

When deciding whether or not to cut building-level administrators, start with the ratio of students to administrators that your state endorses (in my state, 400:1.)

Once you’ve determined how many (or few) building-level administrators the state believes your school needs, you can calculate the savings that might be found by cutting back to the minimum number of administrators. At this time, also consider any other options that are available. For example, is it possible to have one administrator supervise two smaller buildings? Can you name a “head teacher” to assist when necessary and pay that person a small administrative stipend instead of hiring a full-time assistant principal? Is there a teacher with a schedule that isn’t full and could be assigned an hour or two of administrative duties? If any of these are possible, they could result in substantial savings while still accomplishing the things that have to be done.

Let me offer one note of caution, however, about cutting building-level administrators. Consider the following thought:

Where there is no discipline, there can be no education.

Good building-level administrators are the ones ultimately responsible for creating an environment where appropriate behavior is required, rules are enforced, and kids can be taught effectively. In reality, discipline is the single deciding factor of whether or not a school can truly operate and be effective. There are many great schools in this nation where teachers are assigned too many kids, have too few supplies, or work in buildings that are literally falling down around them. I would challenge you, though, to find a single example of a successful school where there is a culture of chaos, where kids roam the hall indiscriminately, skip class at a whim, or engage in any number of inappropriate (even violent) behaviors. It doesn’t happen. It simply doesn’t.

Central Office Administrators

School districts in the United States are charged with teaching students effectively. Doing so requires a substantial number of related services. Schools are expected to have up-to-date curriculum, to participate in federal education programs, and to manage finances appropriately, while also providing transportation, food service, custodial and maintenance services and a host of other programs. Many times, these responsibilities fall to assistant superintendents, finance officers, curriculum directors, or other central office administrators.

During good economic times, school districts may have the ability to hire several central office administrators and assign these duties in a way that allows specialization and quick progress on several fronts simultaneously.

Tough economic times, however, require another look at what actually HAS to happen versus what a school district would like to do.

When facing an economy in recession, private businesses often put expansion projects on hold, delay revamping certain systems, and choose to wait instead of rolling out new initiatives.

School districts should also look at the possibility of delaying certain projects or combining certain positions. For example, does the scheduled curriculum revision have to happen immediately or can it wait? Can we delay beginning a new professional development initiative? Can the person in charge of transportation also handle food service? Can one of the central office administrators move to an open building-level position while still carrying out part of their former duties?

None of the situations described are ideal, but they may be manageable. More importantly, they may be manageable without having a direct impact on students. If that is the case, making cuts at central office is not only appropriate but it also sends an encouraging message throughout the district. Teachers and support staff appreciate knowing that everyone shares the burden of tough economic times.

Teachers and Classroom Aides

A majority of every school district budget is spent on personnel. Costs for salaries and associated benefits total 75% or more of many school district budgets. Sadly enough, the only way to make really big cuts to a school district budget is to cut personnel.

As with administrators, most states have standards about ratios of students to teachers (or students per classroom.) In my state, there is actually a sliding scale listing the “minimum” and “desirable” standards for the number of students per teacher. For example, the “minimum” standard is 25 kindergarten students in one class with one teacher. The “desirable” standard is 20 kindergarten students in one classroom with one teacher. When looking at the possibility of cutting personnel, begin with the standards for your state.

Making the decision to cut teaching positions is always hard. We all want our kids in a small class with a great teacher. We would all like our classrooms to meet the “desirable standard.” In tough economic times, however, small class sizes may simply not be feasible.

As you look at cutting teaching positions, two thoughts may make the process a little easier. First, even though everyone wants small class sizes, research shows that small class sizes typically have only a small effect on student achievement, and this effect is found mostly in the primary grades.

Second, ask yourself this question: “Would I rather have my kids in a large class with a great teacher, or in a small class with a mediocre teacher?” My answer (and I suspect yours) would be to put my kids with the great teacher.

A couple of conclusions can be drawn from this scenario. Knowing that the positive effects of small class sizes show up mostly in the primary grades, it would follow that most cuts should affect grades 4-12. And since our personal choice would be to put our kids in a large class with a great teacher, it only makes sense that we should keep our best and brightest teachers on staff and lay off the ones that are least effective. (In other words, seniority should NOT be the deciding factor in who stays and who goes.)

Another group of personnel that should be considered when making cuts are classroom aides. Many school districts have classroom aides that are not certified to be teachers, and do everything from tutoring individual students to running copies. These people are nice to have around and are usually greatly appreciated. In tough times, however, these positions must also be considered for cuts.

In some school districts, there are aide positions that serve almost exclusively clerical functions. These people run copies, grade papers, monitor lunchrooms, do recess duty and often serve a hundred other functions. At the risk of sounding harsh, these positions should be the first ones cut. Even though the work being done is valuable, hiring someone just to do those tasks is a luxury that hard times don’t permit. Teachers (and administrators) are capable of running their own copies, grading their own papers, monitoring lunchrooms and doing recess duty. Their schedules will be tighter and it may take more after-school time to get the work done, but it IS possible to accomplish without having a dramatic effect on kids.

Other classroom aides spend their time working individually with students. These positions will vary greatly in how expendable (or not) their services may be and should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. There are, however, a few things that should be considered when deciding which of these positions to cut and which to keep.

First, any classroom aides that are kept on staff should have the credentials necessary to serve as a substitute teacher. In my state substitute teachers must have at least 60 college credit hours (although they may be in any subject area.) Classroom aides that have such certification can be reassigned on occasion to fill in for a teacher that is sick or out of the building for one reason or another. Doing so saves the district the cost of hiring a substitute teacher, since the aide is already being paid.

Second, it may be possible to use a classroom aide to meet the standards for the number of kids allowed in one classroom with one teacher. In my state, adding an aide to a classroom allows you to assign 10 more students to a teacher without violating the standard. A classroom aide is usually about half the cost of a teacher. In cases where dividing the class would result in two under-populated classrooms, it may make more sense to assign an aide to help out.

Professional Development Activities

In my experience, there are two types of professional development activities. Effective professional development activities are those that focus on an area in which improvement is needed and that actually improve what happens in a classroom. Ineffective professional development activities are anything else, and probably should be eliminated from a school district budget – especially in times of economic hardship.

I’m sure that sounds like a very “black or white with no shades of grey” standard, and truth be told, it is. However, when you consider why we have professional development, and all the factors involved in such activities, it really does make sense.

To the question, “why do we have professional development activities?”, I would argue that any answer besides “So we can educate students better” doesn’t hold up.

Professional development activities generally take place in one of three different scenarios. In the first scenario, teachers go off-site to take part in a workshop or conference. Naturally, this involves expenses for the workshop, for mileage, for meals, and often for lodging as well. There is also the cost for a substitute teacher. Most importantly, however, is the fact that students have lost at least one full day of instruction from their regular teacher. However well qualified a substitute teacher may be, that person is not likely to teach students as effectively as their regular teacher.

In the second scenario, school is dismissed early or may even be out for the entire day so teachers can participate in professional development activities. Conducting professional development activities this way still incurs the cost of a guest speaker or presenter and his/her travel expenses. The other costs associated with this scenario are the costs to parents (they have to arrange child care), the loss of a day or partial day of instruction for students, and tragically enough, the potential cost of unsupervised students getting themselves in trouble (or hurt!) running around town during what would usually be school hours.

In the third scenario, teachers attend professional development activities before or after the regular school day. In this scenario, there are still the costs of a guest speaker or other training materials. More importantly, however, you may be saddled with the cost of an ineffective professional development session. It’s difficult for a teacher to concentrate on professional development before school when they still have a full day’s lessons to teach, and it’s difficult to concentrate at an evening activity after working all day.

None of these scenarios necessarily are bad, but none of them necessarily hit the mark for effective professional development, either. Research shows that the best professional development activities share some common traits. They are scheduled to occur on a regular basis, they are focused on the area of emphasis, they give teachers assignments and time to practice, and there is ongoing follow-up. Not surprisingly, these traits fit what we know about how people form new habits. For simple habits, like drinking more water each day, new habits can be formed in as little as three weeks. For more difficult habits, like exercising each morning,

to become automatic could take anywhere from 60 days to nearly a year in order to become automatic. Adopting a new teaching technique is very much like adopting a new habit, and it makes sense that ongoing, regular action is necessary to make the new “habit” stick.

At this point, it may seem that we’re advocating major changes to a school’s professional development program. Actually, we’re advocating a very simple change. We’re merely suggesting that schools do away with INEFFECTIVE professional development activities – the ones that don’t directly improve what happens in the classroom. If professional development activities are truly focused and effective, they are worth the time and costs involved.

Copiers

In a modern school district, copiers are a basic requirement to do business. Despite the supposedly imminent “paperless” society, schools today use more paper and run more copies than ever. This fact has added expense to the bottom line of nearly every school district. Fortunately, getting control of copier costs can be a relatively simple procedure.

When looking to save money on copiers, begin with your copier service contract. Due to the high cost of purchasing new copiers outright and the rapid advancement of copier technology, many school districts simply lease copiers. Most of the contracts stipulate a certain number of “images” per month, provide for service if the copier breaks down and may (should!) even provide all toner necessary.

If your district is not currently leasing copiers, you should compare the costs of continuing your copier program as it operates currently versus the terms of a lease situation. You may be surprised at what you find. It’s very possible you could get new machines, save some hassle, and still save money.

If you already lease your copiers, begin by checking your current contract. Compare the number of images allowed against the actual number of images being run. Overages are often very expensive and can drive costs up substantially. If your school consistently goes over the number of images allotted, you need to either find a way to reduce the number of images run, or check with your provider about updating your contract.

You may also be able to find savings if you’re near the end of your current copier service contract. Most companies that lease copiers are wiling to write you a new contract before the old one expires. They want to lock you in as customers, and are often able to provide new machines and/or increase your images limit for the same (or even less!) money. In my school district, we were able to write a new contract, get new machines, keep our same image allotment and save several hundred dollars per month.

If, however, your copy expenses are spiraling upward due to an explosion in the number of copies made, other strategies may be necessary. The trick is to find ways that change behaviors without resorting to mandates or draconian measures that can actually make teachers afraid to run the copies they need.

The first option to change behavior is probably the simplest. Simply make the copiers less accessible. If you have copiers located in areas throughout the building, consider centralizing them in one area. If the copiers are not located in the office area where they can be monitored easily, put them in such an area. You may even consider reducing the number of copy machines available. Strangely enough, it may actually be “too easy” to run copies, which leads to copies made “just in case,” additional sets of copies made because the previous run had a minor imperfection, or even a lot of copies made for personal use.

Another option to reduce the number of copies involves issuing each person a unique code that must be entered in order to use the machine. Your copier company can assist with setting up the codes, and may even be able to put limits on the number of copies that can be made with each code. This system will probably be seen by teachers as an extra burden, but it certainly adds accountability and is likely to reduce your image count.

The last option is very direct, but is also very cumbersome. Some school districts simply issue teachers a limited amount of paper and require them to bring paper to the machine each time they want to make copies. While this method has the virtue of being simple, it’s also a hassle for teachers and anyone else needing to make a copy.

Printing

The discussion on printing costs is very similar to the one on copiers, but involves a couple of additional factors. As with copiers, modern technology has made it extremely easy to print out multiple copies of a document. The difference is that using a printer to make an image may cost two to three times as much as using a copier. Additionally, many printers use color ink or toner, and color prints may cost 10 or 20 times more than a black /white copy. When you discuss this issue in terms of a color print costing a few cents, while a black/white copy costs ½ cent, it doesn’t sound like much. But when you multiply those figures times 100,000 images per month, it’s clear that a significant amount of money could be saved.

As with copiers, saving money on printing is relatively simple. First, figure out which printers cost the most to use and find ways to limit how many prints come out of those machines.

Usually, inkjet-style printers are the cheapest to purchase, but cost the most to use. Although it’s nice to have a printer on every teacher’s desk, the reality is that, with an inkjet printer, a single teacher could use well over a thousand dollars of ink in a single school year. There are several

ways to limit the use of such printers, from giving each teacher a set budget for ink, to issuing a set number of ink cartridges, to simply eliminating all inkjet printers from the district.

Although laser printers have a lower price per image than inkjets, they are still expensive to purchase, and still cost more per image than a regular copy. Color laser printers are especially expensive, as the toner units can run well over a hundred dollars each, and virtually anything printed from the internet is going to use a lot of color.

Even laser printers, limited to black/white, and tied into a schools’ network as the only printing option, cost two to three times more than regular copies on a per image basis.

Given today’s technology, the most cost-effective solution is to send as much of your printing as possible to copy machines that are tied to the school’s computer network. Companies that supply copiers are usually more than willing to network your copiers and build your printing images into your allotment of copier images. If done correctly, there should be almost no printing to any machines except the copiers, use of color should be minimal, and your district is likely to save thousands of dollars in printer and toner costs.

Paper

It’s possible for a school district to save substantial amounts of money on paper, but there are really only two ways to achieve those savings. First, the district has to purchase paper at the lowest possible price. Second, the district has to minimize the use (overuse) of that paper.

In order to purchase paper at the lowest price possible, a school district must be prepared to buy in bulk and be able to store the paper for an extended period of time. Many districts belong to groups that enable cooperative purchasing, and as a result may be offered prices on paper and other supplies that are below what is available in a catalog or online. It’s not enough, however, to just place an order for paper with a cooperative group. The person ordering paper for the district needs to do some basic research on the options available, making sure the product is of adequate quality and that any other expenses, such as shipping, are considered along with the actual price.

Once the order has arrived, the district must also be able to securely store and limit access to the paper. Paper that isn’t stored securely (locked) is likely to simply disappear, a ream or two at a time. As with making copies or printing out documents, it can actually be “too easy” to access paper, which leads to people taking a little extra “just in case.”

Ordering paper in bulk does save money, but minimizing the use of paper can also produce savings. Of course, the majority of paper use in a district involves the copiers and/or the printers. Happily enough, if you’ve made the changes described in the copier and printer sections of this article, you’ll also probably realize savings in the amount of paper that ends up being necessary.

Supplies

In many school districts, ordering supplies (pens, staples, paper clips, post-it notes and such) is a simple process where teachers fill out an order form with the products they want, and the order is placed.

As with paper, schools are advised to find the lowest-cost suppliers of these items. However, additional, significant, savings are possible. To achieve those savings, schools will need to standardize and minimize the number of products and choices available.

I’m sure each of us has a favorite type of ink pen. My favorite is a Precise V5 Rolling Ball Extra Fine Point pen made by Pilot. The pens are very nice, flow smoothly, and cost over $15 per dozen. By contrast, I could also work with Bic Round Stic ballpoint pens. They also write adequately and flow decently. And they cost only $5.99 per dozen.

The point here is that too often, school districts end up ordering supplies that are more expensive than they have to be. Although we would each prefer specific styles/types/brands of supplies, we can get the same work done with less expensive substitutes.

Putting this idea into practice is easy, but it’s important to think through HOW it will be done. Oddly enough, something as simple as ordering cheaper office supplies can have a negative effect on morale.

The simplest way to put this idea into effect would be to just put out a memo instructing everyone to order only generic and lowest-cost supplies. Be warned, however, there are two major problems with this method. First, not everyone will cooperate and follow instructions. In all likelihood, your best people will follow instructions to the letter and will probably even cut back their order a little. Your worst people, however, will still order the stuff they like, whether it’s generic and lowest-cost or not. The result is that your best people work with the lesser-quality supplies, while your worst people still get all the good stuff they like. Not great for morale.

You’re likely to get much better results by putting together a very simple order form and requiring all personnel to use it when placing orders. Here’s an example:

Your School District

Office Supply Order Form

Teacher Name

Building

Department

Item Description Quantity Requested

Pens 1 doz. Black

Pens 1 doz. Red

Pens 1 doz. Blue

Sticky Notes 3" x 3"

Sticky Notes 1.5" X 3"

Staples1/4"

Stapler Classroom style

Scissors Classroom style

Permanent Markers Black

Permanent Markers Red

Dry-Erase Markers Black

Dry-Erase Markers Multi-color

Pencils1 doz. #2

Highlighters (5) Assorted

Highlighters 1 doz. Yellow

Of course, your form will probably be much longer, but you get the idea. Notice that no brands are specified, and choices are limited. With fewer options and more items purchased in quantity, you can probably get more product for every dollar spent. If your order is big enough you may even be able to send your office supply order out for bid, which should produce the maximum savings possible.

Textbooks

Many school districts have a textbook adoption schedule. By following these schedules, every department gets new textbooks within a specified number of years. This is a nice way of purchasing textbooks and keeps everyone relatively happy. Unfortunately, it’s also a rather expensive way of purchasing textbooks and ignores some basic realities about those books.

The main purpose of textbooks is to make content knowledge available to students. In spite of the rapidly changing world we live in, much of the basic content of those textbooks is not going to change on a yearly basis. Math facts remain math facts, and parts of speech remain parts of speech. Even in the areas of science and social studies, it isn’t so much that things change, it’s that minor amounts of new content are added.

Given tough economic conditions, it makes sense for many school districts to temporarily discontinue their cycle of textbook adoption in favor of purchasing textbooks on an “as needed basis.” Since not every set of textbooks will wear out or become outdated in the same amount of time, it may be possible to get several “extra” years of use out of textbooks in certain areas. Life cycles of textbooks can be extended even longer if a district is willing to have texts re-bound and put back into service.

When it does become necessary to purchase textbooks, used textbooks usually provide the most value for the money. Districts that manage to stay on a tight cycle of textbook replacement often sell their old books to used textbook companies. Surprisingly enough, many of the “used” textbooks are in “like new” condition. Some were extra copies and may even still be in original packaging. Since much of the content will be the same, there is little harm in purchasing sets of textbooks that are three, four, or five years old, saving upwards of 50% in the process.

Even with the availability and value of used textbooks, it is still sometimes necessary to buy new textbooks. This is especially common in elementary school core subjects, as many manufacturers provide comprehensive “systems” that provide not only textbooks, but supplemental materials and extensive teacher resource kits. The major caution here involves consumable supplies. When purchasing a new textbook series, ask a lot of questions about the

consumable portions of the set (workbooks, student sheets, etc.) You may find that a great bargain on a new textbook series turns out to be the gift that keeps on costing.

Technology

Over the past two decades, technology in schools has gone from being a novelty that is “taught” to being more of a tool that is used for teaching subject matter. This is a positive development in many ways, but it has also required schools to spend millions of dollars annually on new hardware and software. While it is true that the same dollars purchase far more computing power today than just five years ago, we’re still spending a large number of dollars on technology. Finding savings in the area of technology can give a real boost to the school budget.

Saving money when purchasing hardware (actual computers, monitors, and equipment) can be extremely difficult. The competition is so fierce in this industry that it’s hard to find a large difference in price on similar pieces of equipment. Nevertheless, there are still a few ways to save money on hardware.

First, look into the options your school district may have to purchase hardware under some type of state contract. Many states take bids on equipment and receive prices that are substantially less than retail. Schools are often able to access those bids and get hardware at a discount.

Second, if you work with a local technology company for hardware purchases, software purchases, or technology support, you may be able to purchase equipment essentially at cost. Be sure to take bids for the hardware you require, and if a local company is in the mix, they may be willing to sell you the equipment at little or no profit, hoping to make money on supporting the new machines.

Third, there may be sources from which schools can get hardware at little or no cost. One state’s prison system has a program in which inmates are trained in computer hardware repair. As part of this program, the inmates completely test, repair, and refurbish computers. These machines are then available to schools for free. All you have to do is place an order for a specific number of machines with specific capabilities. Then in a few months, you are notified to come pick up your order. It’s been possible for some districts to acquire several hundred machines in this manner, which is a great help to overextended technology budgets. Similar programs may be available in your state – it’s certainly worth a few phone calls to find out.

In the area of software, schools can often save significant amounts of money by taking advantage of programs that are available for free. Although Microsoft Office has pretty much become the standard for word processing, spreadsheet, and database functions in schools, software that is available for free can fill many of the same functions, with a minimum of confusion and for much lower cost. Open Office is software that provides essentially the same suite of programs as

Microsoft Office, but is free. The programs have minor differences in format and naming conventions, but are very compatible (Open Office can save documents in Microsoft Office format.) Google also has a suite of Google Docs products available at little or no cost. These programs also perform very similarly to Microsoft Office, but have the added feature of being accessible online from any internet-capable machine. Anywhere you can log in to your Google account you will also be able to access Google Docs.

Buildings

The ability to save money on school buildings will vary widely from school to school and depends on a number of factors at each site. This section is devoted to looking at the spaces provided by each school building and whether those spaces are used efficiently. (Upgrading/modernizing buildings will be discussed later in this article.)

For the purpose of discussing buildings, it’s necessary to divide schools into two categories – those with increasing student populations, and those with decreasing student populations.

Schools with increasing student populations

Schools with student populations that are increasing generally have more pleasant options to consider when looking to save money on buildings. It’s certainly tough to find ways to serve more kids in the same amount of space, but dealing with this kind of problem actually makes your building use more efficient (at least from a “bean-counter” point of view.)

With a reasonably full building and a growing student population, it’s tempting to jump right to the idea of expanding the building or even constructing a new one to meet future needs. If you have money to do so, move right ahead. If, however, money is tight, it’s important to use every possible space in your building before asking the public to finance new spaces. Holding off allows you to both save money for a while and to build a solid and convincing case for voters to say YES when your project is finally placed before them.

As the student population in a building grows and space gets tight, take an inventory of all the spaces in your building, looking for rooms that could be reassigned to more directly serve kids. I’ve seen teacher workrooms, library areas, stage areas, large offices, cafeterias, and even some large closets turned into classrooms and areas for group work. In some cases, schools have resorted to “Art on a Cart” and “Mobile Music” (teachers have carts full of supplies and move from room to room) Although not ideal, these changes (solutions?) do allow kids to be taught effectively while waiting and/or preparing for either a drop in student population or an expansion of the building.

Once use of the building has been stretched to the limits, it may be wise to consider bringing in portable classroom units (trailers.) In my opinion, portable classrooms are ugly, cause extra

hassle, are generally unliked, and are extremely useful. Not only do they provide the necessary short-term classroom space, they can also serve as persuasive reasons for voters to approve new school construction.

Another possibility, while rather extreme, probably allows the most efficient use of a school building. In this scenario, the school runs “double shifts.” One set of students attend school during “first shift” from 7 AM till 1 PM. The other set of students arrive at 1 PM for “second shift” and go to school until about 7 PM. Putting such a schedule into place requires lots of compromise and understanding, but it can be accomplished, and allows a school to serve nearly twice the number of students.

Schools with decreasing student populations

Schools with decreasing student populations also experience challenges with buildings, but usually the challenges involve finding ways to reduce the cost of operating the building. A dwindling enrollment can cause real financial difficulty since funding for most schools is based (at least partly) on student enrollment and/or attendance.

When student enrollment declines, the easiest path is to simply do nothing. Few teachers will complain about having smaller class sizes, or being able to make use of additional space. The problem is that as class sizes go down and space use is allowed to stay the same, the actual expenditure on a per-student basis goes up.

From a school facility standpoint, declining enrollments should mean that the use of space is evaluated at least yearly. Many school buildings are broken up into several different wings. As enrollment goes down, look for ways to consolidate classrooms and school operations into the newest and/or most efficient spaces possible. Once that has occurred, look for ways to basically shut down all the unused spaces. There’s no point in continuing to heat, light, and provide daily custodial service to spaces that don’t have to be in use. If the areas aren’t truly shut down, however, you’ll be amazed at how teachers, classes and functions will continue to migrate into the now-open areas. I saw such a thing happen firsthand, and it was astonishing. A school had housed the entire K-12 operation in one building and space was tight. Then, a new high school was built and grades 9-12 moved out. Rather than shutting down part of the old (and VERY inefficient) high school space, however, the remaining elementary operations took over every single square foot of the old building. There were large classrooms used as offices, old shop areas used as oversized art rooms, and even a large cafeteria space kept open just in case two classes wanted to work together on a project. While the extra space was appreciated by teachers, from a school operations perspective what should have been an increase in efficiency (a new efficient facility replacing an old inefficient facility) ended up costing the district thousands of extra dollars per year.

For districts with multiple buildings and a substantial drop in enrollment, more severe measures may be necessary. The district may need to consider shutting down specific school buildings,

even though doing so is likely to be difficult and contentious. The details of any such decision will vary from community to community, but a few principles may be of help in guiding such a decision.

First, commissioning a demographic study of the district may be money well spent. Having a reasonable prediction of where students are likely to reside in the future can help in deciding which buildings (if any) should be considered for closing. Second, the buildings and grounds should be studied carefully. It may be that certain buildings are too inefficient to continue to use, or it may be that certain buildings and spaces offer advantages that can’t be replicated on other campuses. Last, some thought should be given to the value of each piece of property on the open market. It’s unusual, but sometimes a specific campus may have a surprisingly high value because of its proximity to business or industry. If so, perhaps it makes more sense to close and sell a somewhat modern property in favor of renovating a different campus that has other advantages for students. Whatever the case, realize that closing a school building is a drastic step and will probably cause great consternation in the community.

Buses

School districts usually acquire buses in one of three ways. Buses are purchased outright, are acquired through a lease-purchase arrangement, or are simply leased. Each has advantages depending on the school district’s financial situation, but they don’t all cost the same.

Purchasing school buses outright is the most cost-effective way to acquire buses, providing the school district has money on-hand to do so. The district ends up paying no interest and when the bus is no longer useful, the district can sell the bus to recoup a small percentage of the purchase price. Another advantage of purchasing buses outright is that you have much more flexibility to purchase used school buses. School buses are much like automobiles – as soon as they become “used”, their price drops dramatically. It’s common to find buses with only 50,000 to 60,000 miles for approximately half the price of a new bus. If your district doesn’t run long routes and rack up major miles, used buses can be extremely cost-effective. Also, as a school district, being able to write a check for the bus makes it much easier to negotiate favorable prices for used buses. The problem with purchasing buses outright, however, is that it does require a substantial amount of cash on hand, especially if the district needs to acquire several buses at once. School districts wishing to purchase buses in this manner will need to look several years ahead in their budgeting to make sure cash can be accumulated for the purpose.

Buying a school bus through a lease-purchase arrangement is probably the next most cost-effective way to acquire buses. Under a lease-purchase arrangement, schools can spread the cost of purchasing a bus over a multi-year period. In this way, it’s similar to the way most people buy cars – they put some money down and finance the rest over a three to six year period. The drawback to this arrangement is that the district does incur some expense for interest and the bus

ends up costing more than if it were purchased outright. Lease-purchasing buses does make sense from a couple of perspectives, though. First, it’s easy to budget and can be done quickly. Second, sometimes circumstances arise that make additional buses necessary, but without the advance notice that would allow a district to save up cash to buy the buses outright. In these instances, lease-purchasing school buses may be a great way to go.

Leasing school buses is the most expensive way to acquire school buses. When leasing a bus, the school district essentially pays for the bus and some interest over a period of years, but has nothing to show for it when the lease ends. While not especially cost- effective, leasing buses does offer a few advantages. Leasing buses may allow a school district to update the fleet of buses more frequently than the other methods, and eliminates the hassle of dealing with buses that are past their service life.

Many school districts have a planned cycle of bus replacement. These usually show a schedule of which buses will be replaced each year and works on the theory of budgeting a specific number of dollars for buses per year. Schedules of bus replacement are good and useful tools, but in tough times shouldn’t be considered mandatory. If school buses are maintained properly, they can often remain in service longer than most schedules project – especially if the older buses can be used for shorter routes or activity trips to nearby places. Although it’s not especially desirable to have older buses in service, students can still be transported safely and effectively. Putting the bus replacement schedule on hold temporarily may save substantial sums of money in just a few years.

Bus Routes

Depending on the school district, student transportation costs could be a very minor or a very major part of the school budget. School buses are expensive, both to purchase and to operate. In order to cut costs (or at least keep them under control) the use of school buses has to be as efficient as possible.

The most efficient use of a school bus is when it’s full. A school district that can organize bus routes in such a way that buses operate with full loads save money that otherwise would have to be spent on additional buses, additional drivers, additional fuel, and additional insurance. The tough part of the equation is when considerations of student comfort and convenience enter the picture.

There are two aspects of student comfort and convenience that must be considered when scheduling bus routes. The first issue is determining which students actually need and should be

provided with school bus service. The second is determining how long is too long for a student to ride the bus?

Determining which students need and should receive school bus service is a decision that will be affected by the guidelines set by your state and the unique features of your community. Many states set standards that require bus service to be provided if a student lives over a specific distance from school. Schools looking to reduce transportation costs should begin with those guidelines and design routes to pick up only the students that live far enough away. Once those routes have been determined (keeping in mind the goal of running as few, fully loaded, buses as possible) community-specific factors need to be considered. If there are areas in which student safety is a concern (crossing major highway, high-crime areas) you should probably add bus service for those students. If there are areas in which it’s believed that a lack of bus service will dramatically affect student attendance (low-income housing developments?) then consider adding service to those areas as well. Most schools receive funding based on student enrollment and attendance. Bus service to certain areas where attendance is a concern could pay for itself.

Deciding how long is too long for a student to ride the bus is largely a judgment call. If your district is very sparsely populated, it may be appropriate for students to ride the bus well in excess of an hour. If your district is densely populated, it’s unlikely students would or should be on the bus more than 45 minutes. Keep in mind, though, the goal of fully loaded buses – your decision about how long is too long should only be a guide - not a hard and fast rule. If having a few students ride the bus an extra 10 minutes saves the cost of adding a route, they can certainly handle being on the bus a little longer.

Food Service

Food service is a unique institution that operates largely on its own within the overall school district. No other entity in a school district establishes individual student accounts and provides items to purchase on a daily basis the way that food service does. In most school districts, the unstated (but very real) goal of a food service program is to provide students with nutritious meals while “breaking even” financially. Many school food service programs, however, routinely operate at a loss. This requires the school district to subsidize the operation with dollars that would normally be spent on teachers and supplies.

Designing a menu for school food service involves paying close attention to nutrition guidelines, usually provided by your state. Meeting the guidelines will necessarily affect what foods are on the menu, but shouldn’t be a major impediment to saving money.

Identifying savings in a food service program involves working with two basic costs – expenses for labor and expenses for food. Although the two could be considered separately, it may be more helpful to think of them as co-dependent, and (to a point) inversely related.

Menu items can be divided into foods that are “made from scratch” and foods that are of the “heat and eat” variety. “Made from scratch” foods use more basic ingredients that are generally less expensive, but require more time and labor to prepare. “Heat and eat” items usually come in processed form, cost more to purchase, and can be ready for use simply by heating them up (less labor.) Therefore, a cafeteria with more “made from scratch” should have less food cost and more labor costs, while a “heat and eat” operation should have more food cost and less labor. From this brief explanation, it may seem that there is no advantage to “made from scratch” over “heat and eat.” Actual practice, however, usually shows that good (and profitable) food service programs tend to favor “made from scratch.”

In order to really find cost savings in food service, it’s necessary to calculate the cost of each typical meal on a school lunch menu. By knowing your daily labor cost (including benefits), the cost of the foods used, and the number of meals served, it becomes possible to identify which meals have the lowest cost per meal served. While you’re calculating, also try to identify those meals that are low cost AND have high participation rates (more kids eat the meal.)

When working these calculations, you may find some interesting results. It may be (probably will be, in fact) that some “made from scratch” meals have low enough food costs that you could actually add additional labor and still come out ahead of a “heat and eat” menu. It works like this.

Consider a school in which 500 lunches are served per day. The food cost of a “made from scratch” meal is $1.25 per meal. The cost of a “heat and eat” meal is $1.50. That’s a difference of 25 cents per meal.

25 cents per meal X 500 meals = $125 saved

An extra cafeteria worker puts in 6 hours per day and is paid a total of $15/hour in wages and benefits.

6 hours X $15 = $90 extra expense

In this example, by moving to “made from scratch” the food service program has pocketed $35 in savings, provided more help for the kitchen, probably made everybody happier, and probably given students a tastier and more satisfying lunch. Everybody wins.

There is a word of caution, however. Even “made from scratch” won’t save money if the kids don’t like the meal. Meals that kids won’t buy are losers every single time. The good news is that most states provide recipe books for use in food service programs. It may sound strange, but I’d suggest actually sitting down with the food service director and going through the recipe book. Take along a pad of sticky notes, mark the recipes that sound good to you, and have those items placed on the menu, at least for a trial period. In my experience, if you like the meal, the kids probably will, too.

As an alternative to revamping your food service program from within, you may also want to consider out-sourcing food service. There are a number of companies that contract to provide food service to schools, and many of them are well-received. Since these companies specialize in food service, they should already know the costs of their menu items, have the ability to buy in bulk, and may not be bound by the same employment requirements that apply to school districts (thus their labor costs may be lower.)

If you’re considering out-sourcing food service, it’s highly suggested you visit several other schools that deal with your company of choice. In fact, I’d suggest arranging an opportunity to stop by and have lunch without the company knowing you’ll be there. You might even be able to talk with kids and teachers about the food service. Such conversations can be very enlightening. Kids are never afraid to share their opinion about school lunches. If the food is cold, doesn’t taste good, or is in short supply, rest assured, they WILL tell you.

Combining Jobs

In many school districts, there are some jobs that are difficult to fill. Positions such as school bus driver, custodian, and cook are especially tough because they are often not full time (40 hrs/wk.) and are usually low-wage jobs. Schools sometimes end up dealing with a “revolving door” of employees in these positions, which makes it hard to get all the work done properly. High employee turnover can also end up being very expensive, once you factor in costs for background checks, training, and unemployment, and perhaps even legal expenses if/when an employee is dismissed.

Some school districts have been able to hire and keep capable, reliable, personnel by combining one or more part-time jobs in order to create a more attractive position. It’s quite common to combine custodian and bus driver positions in order to create a full-time slot. In the quest to reduce costs, however, more unusual combinations should be considered.

When a school district has an open position (whether for cook, custodian, aide, secretary, teacher, etc.) instead of simply looking to hire for that job, it’s worthwhile to consider ways to modify the position or to combine it with another in order to use funds as efficiently as possible. It’s certainly possible to combine cook and custodian duties, custodian and bus driver duties, aide and bus driver duties, or even teacher and bus driver duties. In small schools, it’s not uncommon for classroom teachers to regularly drive bus routes. The benefits of such a combination are that the teacher is already well equipped to deal appropriately with students, and it gives the teacher a chance to supplement his/her salary modestly.

Combining jobs may give districts a way to stop the “revolving door” in certain positions, and cut costs at the same time.

Custodial Supplies

The amount spent on custodial supplies (wax, paper towels, cleaning materials, etc.) can add up to a significant portion of the school budget. Fortunately, you may be able to find significant cost savings in this area if you’re willing to do a thorough search for products that offer the best value, are willing to experiment a little, and will consider making changes that may not be especially popular.

Earlier in this article, we discussed purchasing office supplies. Specifically, it was noted that we all have favorite products, but those products may not be the most efficient use of funds. The same principle applies with custodial supplies.

As creatures of habit, it’s easy to simply order the products you’ve always ordered before, from the same suppliers. In times of economic distress, however, it’s important to routinely “shop around” and see if savings can be found. Here’s an example.

I’ve worked with many custodians over the years, and nearly all of them had very strong feelings about their preferences in floor wax. In one instance, the custodians were lamenting that several years ago, their favorite wax had gotten too expensive, so now they had to work with a lesser quality product and the condition of the floors was suffering. To address this problem, we did a thorough search for suppliers of the favorite wax. We were able to find one that could supply the wax a little more cheaply. More importantly, however, we found another floor wax, with the same general characteristics, from another manufacturer, and at a significantly lower cost than the inferior floor wax now being used. Not only did we manage to get the floor to shine once again, the district also saved money in the process.

In our technological world, it’s become easier than ever before to comparison shop, even for uncommon or hard-to-find items. Any purchase of significance (ice machine, floor scrubber, bulk custodial products) should always be preceded by a thorough online search. Many districts have saved thousands of dollars on a single purchase, simply by being persistent and using the technology at their fingertips.

Another way of saving money is to consider alternatives to accomplish the task at hand. One of the most common alternatives is to replace the use of paper towels with hot air hand dryers. Surprisingly enough, you can usually install hot air hand dryers throughout your district for the cost of approximately one year’s worth of paper towels. I suspect that you (like me) prefer paper towels to hot air hand dryers. However, saving the amount of money spent on paper towels year after year may be worth a little inconvenience. Other ways of using alternatives while saving money might include switching back to older style cheap soap dispensers instead of using the new foamy soap products, eliminating hand sanitizer stations when soap/water is available, and

using older, “standard” cleaning products even though supposedly “green” products are available.

Custodial Staffing

One of the hardest tasks in a school district is to figure out exactly how many custodians are needed in order to keep school buildings in good, clean, condition. At various times, I’ve joked that when you ask how many custodians are needed to keep the place spotless, the answer is always “just one more!”

Keeping buildings clean is important for more than just sanitary reasons. Schools that are clean and well-kept have a positive effect on the morale of students and staff. Clean school buildings are also appreciated by the community, who are very aware they have paid for the buildings, and like to see their investment protected.

There are several ways to calculate how many custodians are needed for your school building. Realize, however, that the results you find will be approximations and may require minor tweaking to fit unique situations or facilities.

One of the easiest methods of calculating custodial needs uses a formula from the California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO.) The formula goes as follows:

Number of teachers divided by 13 = _________

Number of students divided by 325 = _________

Number of classrooms divided by 13 = _________

Total Sq. Ft. divided by 18,000 = _________

Add the results up and divide by 4 = _________ custodians required

(Schools of less than 450 should add .30 custodians. Community use of the facility will increase the number of custodians needed)

If you need a more specific answer that is tailored to your unique buildings, you might consider purchasing the book Custodial Staffing Guidelines for Educational Facilities, available from APPA. This book explains how to categorize each area of your school facility and then calculate how many custodial hours are required to keep the facility at any of five different levels of cleanliness.

Excellent custodial service will still require personnel that are well trained and willing to work. Having verifiable information about how much labor is required, however, can make it much

easier to hold custodians to specific standards while being as efficient as possible with school funds.

Working With Other Districts

Cooperating with other school districts may be another way to find cost savings for your school. Although many school districts operate as if they are isolated enterprises, finding ways to share employees, equipment, or activities may allow schools to save substantial amounts of money.

In small school districts, it is quite common to share teachers, especially if traveling between the districts is quick and easy. Typically, one school district has the teacher under contract and bills the other district for the portion of time the teacher serves in that district. In situations like this, school districts can meet their needs for part-time teachers while still being able to offer a position that is full-time and thus more likely to draw good teaching candidates.

Schools may also want to look at sharing other services such as bus routes, food service, or even technology support services. Unless schools are centered geographically inside their borders, it’s quite possible that a neighboring district may already be running a bus with excess capacity close to the school. Finding a way to take advantage of those empty seats may improve efficiency and save money for both schools. In the area of food service it may be possible for two or more schools to share a food service director, to order supplies together, or to even contract jointly with an outside food service provider. Any of these options could save money for the districts involved. In the area of technology, similar steps may be possible, with districts sharing a single technology director and employing lower-wage personnel to carry out the necessary hands-on computer repair and maintenance.

Debt

The legal authority of school districts to carry debt varies somewhat from state to state. Regardless of the specific statutory guidelines, however, there are often ways to save money and/or improve cash flow by re-working debt.

School districts in many states pass bond issues in order to finance new facilities or other initiatives. The bonds issued to finance the project are generally at interest rates that would be considered low for the market conditions of the time. In this time of economic distress, however, interest rates are at historic lows and may offer school districts the chance to refinance the bonds, achieving even more favorable interest rates. More importantly from a cash flow basis, schools may be able to lower the annual payments on the bonds, or even shorten the length of the remaining debt. It’s not uncommon to save hundreds of thousands of dollars over time if bonds can be successfully refinanced. Doing so may also make it possible to reduce debt-service tax rates, and shift the pennies previously assigned to debt service into the general operations budget.

On a related note, if a district is issuing new bonds, it’s important to be sure there is a feature that makes them callable after a certain number of years. Some argue that including this feature makes the bonds less attractive to buyers. Objective analysis usually shows, however, that such a feature is not a big impediment to selling the bonds, and allows the school district an easy way to take advantage of interest rates that may be even lower at some point in the future.

It may also be possible to refinance other types of school district debt in order to take advantage of lower interest rates. Lease-purchase agreements are common in school districts, and in some states, schools may have other types of debt on the books. Refinancing these types of debt to achieve lower payments may be a way to free up dollars for other general expenses. Sometimes, it’s even possible to structure refinanced debt in a way that essentially gives the district a “year off” from making payments. Although taking such a step may cost more interest in the long run, it could be a huge benefit for the cash-flow of schools with limited reserves.

Modernizing

Many school districts across the country are operating buildings that are more than 30 years old, and have received few updates over the years. Although modernizing those buildings costs money, doing so may actually make it easier for schools to keep budgets intact while going through tough economic times.

When considering any modernization of school buildings, the process should begin by calculating the “payback” the changes will provide in terms of lower energy costs or other savings. BE CAREFUL though, of payback calculations provided by an outside firm, especially one that is proposing to carry out the modernization work. Many include supposed “savings” in cleaning times, or maintenance hours. The fact, is, however, the district is unlikely to cut the hours or lay off the personnel who should have less work to do, thanks to the modernization. There are too many things that need to be fixed or repaired in school buildings – any time “saved” by modernizations will likely be spent doing other tasks. The result is that no actual dollars are saved.

On a positive not, however, in most schools there is some “low-hanging fruit” available – projects that will pay back their expenses in energy saved relatively quickly. Updating lighting and windows are some of the most common updates that save substantial amounts of energy.

Once the projects with quick payback have been identified, it’s time to find ways to finance the improvements. Since saving money for the general operating budget is probably a priority, look for methods of finance that will allow the district to reap the savings from lower energy use, while paying for the improvements over time and/or via another revenue stream. In many states, low-interest loans are available for energy-efficient improvements. In some situations, the payments on these loans may be more than covered by the money saved on energy, resulting in a

net “win” for the district. Otherwise, a district could choose to use a standard bond issue, in which bonds are paid off by extra tax levies (new money) allocated specifically to pay back the bonds. In these situations, the district could pocket the general budget savings on energy while paying for the improvements out of the new revenue stream.

Be reminded again, however, that you must exercise EXTREME CAUTION when counting on energy savings to pay for modernization efforts. DO NOT trust the analysis provided by outside companies. Instead, do your own careful research and calculate as closely as possible how modernizing would affect your specific buildings. Without a clear understanding of how this process works, you could end up with a budget situation that is worse, not better, as a result of the improvements.

Rethinking the School Calendar

Across the nation, many school districts are looking at changes in the school calendar as a way of saving money and/or becoming more efficient. There are several variations on this theme, but the most common seems to be going to a four-day school week.

Many states have now adopted statutes that allow schools to move to a four-day school week. The specific guidelines vary by state and will need to be studied carefully before any school makes such a move.

Advocates of a four-day school week suggest that significant savings can be found in the areas of transportation, food service, custodial service, and energy use. Theoretically, schools should be able to save approximately 20% in each of these areas by going to a four-day week. Advocates also argue that schools should be able to save money on substitute teachers and achieve a higher attendance rate for students. Having one full day “off” each week should allow teachers and parents to schedule doctor visits, orthodontist visits, and other such appointments on the “off day” instead of having to miss school.

In actual practice, there are indeed savings to be had from a four-day school week. Specifically, savings on transportation costs and custodial costs can be easily realized. It is much harder to achieve savings on food service, as it is usually run as its own break-even entity anyway. Although you would use less food in a four-day school week, you would also bring in less revenue, making it difficult to realize a net gain. It’s also difficult to realize substantial savings on energy costs, as even with a four-day week, the buildings will still have to be heated/cooled ( at least to a point.) If student groups or extracurricular programs use the buildings during the off day each week, the savings in energy may be negligible or even non-existent.

As you research and consider whether a four-day school week would work for your district, there are a few additional factors that should be kept in mind. First, realize that most of the dollars

saved are going to come from the paychecks of the lowest-paid employees in the district – the cooks, custodians, and bus drivers. By cutting hours for those jobs by 20%, you could end up making it difficult to find employees willing to take the jobs and stay long-term. Second, it should be understood that parents in the district have to find ways to provide child care on the “off day” for students that would otherwise be in school. This essentially shifts a cost from the school to the parents. While it does achieve a savings in the school budget, it may crimp many household budgets. Third, a four-day school week is probably going to require longer school days. Seven or eight hour school days can be difficult, especially for younger children. Longer days will also affect any after-school extracurricular practices or competitions, requiring later starts, and adjustments to schedules both within the district and without.

Conclusion

In writing this article, we hope to help school districts find ways to save money while still carrying out their main purpose – teaching kids – with the most resources possible. Although not every suggestion will work for every district, the discussions in this article may spark an idea or provide a new direction to investigate. If even one suggestion proves useful to school administrators, this article will have served its purpose, kids will benefit (and the price of this article will have been repaid many times over!)

Good luck and thank you for helping our kids.

About the Author

K. A. Kruse is a practicing Superintendent of Schools and Adjunct Instructor teaching education courses at the graduate school level. Kruse was responsible for re-writing university curriculum on school finance and has also developed software to better manage school district budgets. He has served on State Commissioner of Education advisory committees, served as President of the regional school administrators’ organization and lobbied at the state capitol on education issues.

K. A. Kruse is the founder of the website www.SchoolExpertise.com and provides consultationservices to school districts. He may be contacted via email at kakruse@schoolexpertise.com.