|
|||||
EASTERN PA 63 Narrative Report February 18, 2008 Pupil Transportation function 271; Cost per district: $293,975; Score: 4 Current Efforts
· ISD coordination of bus driver training
· U.P. bus bid · · DeTour, Les Cheneaux, Pickford cooperatively share expense of bus to · Mackinac Island and St. Ignace share ownership of bus for shared use – bus stored and maintained by · Transportation to Special Education Center: students from multiple districts on one bus · Les Cheneaux and Pickford sharing bus maintenance Key Opportunities · Reduce overlap in routes between neighboring districts and between PSA’s and local districts
· Centralize bus maintenance facilities · Regionalize transportation into one system that would eliminate overlap in routes Challenges/Barriers · Geography: 13 LEA’s and 2 PSA’s in three counties and part of a fourth covering nearly 4,000 square miles
· Ownership and Control: Local communities and schools see consolidation/ collaboration as a loss of control and a step toward losing the identity of their individual districts · Lack of an independent transportation agency willing to provide service in our rural region Human Resource Administration function 283; Cost per district: $21,795; Score: 2 Narrative We currently address consolidation of human resource administration in the following ways: · Fingerprinting of substitutes who work in the region · Coordination of substitute teacher permit process · Technical assistance on HR issues at EUPSBO meetings, as needed
Key Opportunities · Regional HR administration, e.g. job descriptions, postings, employee manuals, insurance administration, etc. · Regionalized substitute teacher calling · FMLA coordination Challenges/Barriers · We continue to operate as sixteen separate school districts, complicating any collaborations · We have not discussed any consolidation ideas in HR to this point in any depth · There are no dedicated HR directors in the region; HR issues are pieces of many peoples’ jobs Business Services function 252; Cost per district: $105,268; Score: 4 Activities concerned with the fiscal operations of the school system. This category includes budgeting, receiving and disbursing funds, financial accounting, payroll, purchasing, inventory control, and internal auditing. Includes the procurement of supplies and other purchasing, accounting and other financial services.
Current Efforts · ISD contracted by local districts to provide payroll, accounts payable, business manager and accounting functions · REMC purchasing, sharing of bid documents through MSBO · Periodic meetings of School Business Officials from local districts and ISD to discuss and keep current on topics such as: legislation, state and federal reporting, special education, accounting and audits, shared services and increased efficiencies · Central data collection and error check processing for reporting to CEPI · Partnership with two other ISDs for cost-effective purchasing of common financial software program and training. Use of common financial software among most local districts and ISD. In process of upgrading regional common software to a web-based version for all districts to allow greater accessibility. · Formed Shared Business Services committees of the School Business Officials and the Superintendents Key Opportunities · Complete upgrade and training for web-based financial software to allow for sharing of business services among staff in local districts and ISD. · Create a substitute teacher hiring consortium. · Central creation of state and federal reports. Challenges/Barriers · We continue to operate as 16 separate districts. Every business function has to be completed 16 times under the present system. A region of similar student count that operates as one district can provide business services in a more efficient manner.
· Geographic size of region, distance between districts. · Designing a plan to provide business services in a more efficient manner that is non-threatening to current business office personnel; a plan that is desirable and palatable to local boards of education and community members. · Internet access speed available at off-site locations. Administrative Technology Services function 284; Cost per district: $98,175; Score: 5 Activities concerned with supporting the school district’s information technology systems, including supporting administrative networks, maintaining administrative information systems, and processing data for administrative and managerial purposes. Includes costs associated with the administration and supervision of technology personnel, systems planning and analysis, systems application development, systems operations, network support services, hardware maintenance and support, etc. Current Efforts · Administrative networks are maintained by a regional staff · Administrative information systems such as Achieve are managed regionally · Technology staff is split between the local district and regional staff. More simple repetitive work is handled locally, with advanced work and support performed at a regional level · Systems planning and analysis is completed regionally · Applications are either purchased or created regionally · Regional help desk · More regional server support · Geography: 13 LEA’s and 2 PSA’s in three counties and part of a fourth covering nearly 4,000 square miles · Extended travel miles quickly eliminate savings from regionalization · Ownership and Control: Local communities and schools see consolidation/collaboration as a loss of control and a step toward losing the identity of their individual districts · Lack of affordable bandwidth between sites restricts some regional services · Differences in district size and complexity makes one size fits all less appealing Professional Development object code 32xx, 3120: Cost per district: $57,812; Score: 5 Current Efforts
· Support and sponsor extensive Fall Professional Development Conference each October. This event provides a broad range of sessions that are aligned to regional needs attended by all educational personnel from our three county region
· ISD hosts numerous state and national speakers, both in person and via IATV, that provide specific sessions relevant to local needs. Examples include: OEAA sponsored sessions, Marzano and his associates in series of trainings related to improvement of instruction, Stiggins’ protégés Tom Hierk and Nicole Vagle on Balanced Assessment series · Consortium for Safe and · ISD staff assigned to subject and content areas to assist the LEA’s with local PD per school improvement plans or as data suggests · Regionally developed and offered PD opportunities for administrators Key Opportunities · Provide services otherwise not available at small, rural school level
· Integrate PD with existing collaborative efforts in region such as Tri-County Superintendents group, Technology consortium, REMC · All efforts are linked directly to identified regional needs Challenges/Barriers · Geography: 13 LEA’s and 2 PSA’s in three counties and part of a fourth covering nearly 4,000 square miles
· Districts may have initiatives underway that are not aligned with regional efforts and so, less supported at ISD level. Example: · Funding specific to identified needs Improvement of Instruction function 221; Cost per district: $120,891; Score: 5
Current Efforts
· Curriculum Review Teams meet every 6-8 weeks to develop and refine curriculum, keep current with content specific changes at state and national level, explore research based instructional strategies that will address the needs of region and individual districts
· ISD staff are trained and often certified in specific content level programs that are then offered locally. Examples include: Reading Recovery, 6+1 Trait Writing, Reading First, TRA, MiBLSi, HSMASS, MMPI, Balanced Assessment, and Schoolwires. Each well researched prior to commitment and in response to need identified by individual district or regional data · Extensive support at regional and individual district level around school improvement, data collection and analysis, specific instructional strategies · ISD resources committed to staff who specialize in assisting LEA’s with school improvement plans and activities. Key Opportunities · Provide services otherwise not available at small, rural school level
· Integrate PD with existing collaborative efforts in region such as Tri-County Superintendents group, Technology consortium, REMC · All efforts are linked directly to identified regional needs. Challenges/Barriers · Geography: 13 LEA’s and 2 PSA’s in three counties and part of a fourth covering nearly 4,000 square miles
· Districts may have initiatives underway that are not aligned with regional efforts and so, less supported at ISD level. Example: · Funding specific to identified needs. Legal Services object Code 3170; Cost per district: $7,325; Score: 4 Services performed by persons or an organization qualified to practice law.
Current Efforts
Key Opportunities
Challenges/Barriers
Food and Child Nutritional Services function 297; Cost per district: $236,828; Score: 2 Consists of those activities concerned with providing food to pupils and staff in a school or school system. Includes all food service programs.
Current Efforts · Meals served to parochial school
· Joint postings for Hot Lunch notices Key Opportunities
· Create a Shared Food Service Director position. This person could prepare menus and other administrative duties that many business managers, cooks and kitchen helpers are doing with little or no training. Challenges/Barriers · Geographic distance between districts.
Event Management; Cost per district: $1,807; Score: 4 Current Efforts
· ISD planning and scheduling of regional professional development sessions both on and off site. This includes sessions for the entire region as well as for select groups.
· Local professional associations coordination of meetings, agenda, copying, etc. for Tri-County Administrators, EUPEPA, EUPSSPA, Special Education Directors, Curriculum Review Teams, EUPSBA, etc. Key Opportunities · LEA facilities management could be jointly coordinated by/between individual districts and their immediate neighbors. This sometimes occurs when one district offers a learning opportunity to another.
Challenges/Barriers: · Geography of area · Specific needs, desires, and programming of LEAs Production Printing and Graphics; Cost per district: $1,599; Score: 0
Current Efforts
None
Key Opportunities · Theoretically, our districts may occasionally have a large printing issue, but those opportunities are rare and typically do not involve large enough volume to warrant collaborative efforts. Most printing is and can be done with office printers and computers.
Challenges/Barriers None Internal Services (Shipping and Receiving) function 257; Cost per district: $1,244; Score: 0 Current Efforts
Other than distribution of REMC materials, which are often done by buses or individuals who happen to be coming by the office, there is no formal plan or activity relative to consolidation of this function in our region. Typically, an office person in individual districts is in charge of receiving and shipping whatever the district needs. Periodically, there are items that come to the ISD that are then distributed manually to the LEA’s. An example would be an advertisement flier from another ISD.
Technology Assisted Instruction function 225; Cost per District: $18,276; Score: 4
Consists of all technology activities and services for the purpose of supporting instruction. Specifically costs associated with the operation and support of computer learning labs, media center computer labs, instructional technology centers, instructional networks, and establishing technology services for distance learning Current Efforts · Instructional networks are maintained by a regional staff · Distance learning is managed regionally · REP creation for regional computer purchase · REMC bid pricing for technology equipment Key Opportunities · Regional help desk & trouble ticket system · More regional server support Challenges/Barriers · Geography: 13 LEA’s and 2 PSA’s in three counties and part of a fourth covering nearly 4,000 square miles · Ownership and Control: Local communities and schools see consolidation/ collaboration as a loss of control and a step toward losing · the identity of their individual districts · Lack of affordable bandwidth between sites restricts some regional services · Differences in district size and complexity makes one size fits all less appealing Any Other Area Under PA Section 627, Cost per district: $1,514; Score: 2 Class Scheduling: Five local districts report expenses in this category. Efforts revolve around scheduling ITV primarily, which are reported in the technology area. Barriers include multiple bell schedules, school days in session and collective bargaining agreements that vary the work days and work hours. |
|
|||||||
| Copyright ©2002-2008 Schoolwires, Inc. All rights reserved. | ||