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Collective Wisdom: Budget Solutions – School Administrators Share Cost-cutting Ideas
By Teachers.Net Community
When every nickel counts, what do school administrators do to make the money last? Let’s listen in on a conversation that took place recently on the School Administrators’ Chatboard:
Posted by lynne/ca
What are some of the “little things” you and your staff are
doing to save money? Many districts are looking for ways to
cut millions of dollars, but every nickel counts. Things
like turning off lights when rooms are left empty, making
two-sided or half-sheet copies, using email and electronic
forms rather than paper-based communication, etc… what
else? I know there are many areas in which we’re all
wasteful (even on a small scale, it adds up), without even
realizing the minor changes we could make to reduce costs.
Posted by Liz
We are in a textbook freeze this year and next, no field trips unless the kids pay all the bus fees, subs cut way back, and a few other things.
Posted by lynne/ca
Exactly! And with salary/benefits being such a large percentage, the assumption is that the little things won’t be enough to save jobs when cuts have to be made, but at some point the little things do make a difference – could someday be the difference between “we just barely have enough money to keep the staff we have” and “we don’t quite have enough money to keep the staff members we have.”
At the moment we’re past that point – by quite a lot – but
looking to the future I know that every way we can find to save
money, especially those things we can do that don’t have any
negative impact on students or staff, can help. Even if they’re
little things, a lot of people doing them over an extended
period of time can eventually make a big difference.
Posted by Aunt Kack
We are in deficit and have filed a deficit reduction plan with the
state. Besides the little things you mentioned, other little things
we’ve done for over a year now include: closing drapes/blinds at night
to keep heat in/out (depending on season); turning hallway lights off
at night time (no more night lights); reducing hallway lights by taking
out bulbs in every other light; eliminating paper copies of school
newsletters – only posting on line with a few paper copies available in
the school office; no longer mailing paychecks home over the summer
months – anyone who does not have direct deposit must pick their check
up at the board office; reduction in aide time by 30% except mandated programs; heat dialed down and AC (where it exists) dialed up.
Finally, some of our administrators have gone on independent contracts. They’ve officially retired, but continue working through an independent agency. It is said that the district saves about $40,000 per year per administrator who chooses to do this. I am not quite ready to go yet, but the buyout sure was tempting. I may consider the independent contract in a year or two if they’ll give me a three year contract. I’m not sure where our district is headed financially. It’s a very stressful time.
Posted by anonymous
8 years of budget cuts at our school
1) Start with a complete walk through of every single room in the
building. No more private refrigerators, microwaves, hot plates, coffee
makers, etc. Any and all electrical devices that are not needed need to
be turned off.
2) Raise fees to play sports and join activities, raise the cost of
tickets and the price of items at the concession stand.
3) Cut sports and activities. Combine activities with other schools. To
get around busing, have the coach meet with the members at one school two days a week and the other on the other two days. Maybe a joint practice once every week or two. Get rid of all assistant coaching positions.
4) Plan outdoor “winter activities” for all gym classes and then turn
down the heat drastically in the gym for those two or three weeks. Also
drain the pool and eliminate that portion of the gym curriculum. Either
that or look at opening up to the public for a fee and see if that will
at least pay for its upkeep.
5) Require that coaches of small clubs, such as speech or mock trial,
make arrangements with other schools for shared busing.
6) Start a grass roots resistance movement among HS administrators to
tell the high school sports league that you can no longer bus your
students half way across the state and that there are way too many games
in the season, especially basketball. Be willing to forfeit a few
games. Tell the coaches they can’t sign up for any extra tournaments
unless the players pay all of the fees.
7) Make uniforms and sports equipment last a lot longer than it is being
used now.
8} Cancel all bus contracts for the luxurious buses and use the old
fashioned yellow ones.
9) Put out school supply list and start having parents pay more for
school supplies. Be honest with the parents and let them know just how
little each teacher will be receiving for classroom supplies. Many of my
parents were totally and utterly shocked when they found out that we
would be receiving $18 for the classroom and $200 for the department.
Furthermore, support the teachers when they say or hint that they cannot
afford to buy supplies with their own money.
10) Get with your copier company and see if your copier allows you to
give each teacher a code and a set number of copies. If you do so you
need to watch the number of pages printed though.
11) Take all individual printers out of the classrooms. The ink for
these is horrendously expensive. Allow absolutely no color printing for
ANYTHING.
12) No longer serve any snacks or beverages at meetings. Talk to your
service organizations and see if one of them will sponsor the things like
welcome back teacher’s luncheon in September.
13) Talk to your bank, internet provider, insurance agent, and all other
service providers. Really look at your arrangements. Be willing to walk
away from long term providers for a better deal. Do you pay for
checking?? WHY?? Start asking hard questions like this.
14) Do you have a warehouse somewhere with things the district no longer
needs? Get rid of some of it on r-bay/craigslist etc. and then move the
leftovers to a smaller storage building. Donating is even better than
paying for storage.
15) Shut down some of the bathrooms in the buildings.
16) I know it is a controversial hot potato, but consider closing some
of the school buildings.
18) Use every drop of federal money that is available. If there is $400 sitting in a pot towards the end of the year, inform the entire staff of
the amount, turnaround time, and the restrictions that are attached to it. You’ll be amazed at the creative ideas they will come up with. Better to use it in an unusual (meeting restrictions of course) way than to send it back unused.
19) Cut or reduce busing. We have been informed by our school board
that busing is a privilege not a requirement. When this contract is up,
there are going to be some families in total shock.
20. Go to a four day school week. We have several schools in our area
that are doing that now.
21) If your school day/year is longer than the state requirements
demand, shorten your day or year.
22) Look at sharing teachers with other school districts. Also look at
sharing certain high cost programs that have few students in them. We
will take you “YYY” special ed students, if you take our “ZZZ”s. This
way each school only has to provide one program instead of two.
23) Do not offer every subject every year. Have an A and B year for
certain electives.
24) If you are paying for students to have internet accounts, cut them.
25) Have the students pay for parking.
26) Require the students to wear a school T-shirt for gym class and then
sell them. You have to allow them to buy them elsewhere of course, but
a lot of student/parents will take advantage of the convenience.
27) Cut the size of the year book.
28) Reduce copies made for the folders full of announcements that get
taken home once a week in elementary school. Have teachers put in
announcements and then have someone type them up neatly all on one page.
No more fliers announcing the carnival or any other activity. Just one
or two lines on the announcement. Then put out the word to your parents
that if at all possible the school needs to send it to them online.
Teachers should only get the number of copies for the kids who do not
have a computer at home. This will drastically reduce the cost of paper,
ink and time not to mention probably having a better chance of actually
getting home.
29) Improve your efficiency at collecting fees and lost book money.
30) Make sure every student who attends your school actually lives in
your district.
31) On the other hand if you get money for each body, send out a survey
to find out why the ones who live in your district but attend elsewhere or
homeschool decided not to send kids to your district.
32) Make sure your lunch program is paying for itself. If the kids are
not eating, survey them and find out why. Stock goodies such as cheese
sticks in the milk for the kids to buy. Have the cooks actually “MAKE”
more of the foods instead of using so much processed foods. Save any
food not used to be used for soup and other casseroles.
Posted by another idea
One of the local schools did this when they were forced to cut their GT
program. At the elementary school all math classes were held at the same
time (not sure about kindergarten). Then all of the advanced kids were
single subject accelerated up to the next grade. They had enough money for a very limited GT teacher. They used her to teach math to the advanced 6th graders. Two years later when even this one hour GT teacher got cut, they had the 6th grade students switch teachers for math. At this point one of the 6th grade teachers taught the advanced 6th math class.
No, it is not an all out GT program, but to be honest when every other GT
program in the entire district and virtually every school around them, were
cut. This school could still say they were definitely doing something for
their GT students, the old pat stand by “the classroom teacher is
differentiating his work to meet his needs.”
Posted by anon.
No food at staff meetings
Posted by Donna music/TN
How much can you ask parents to pay for/help with?
I teach in a university program where the kids pay about $50/student for
materials each semester for their music class, and I’m amazed at how
much it improves not only the class but the retention between classes,
because I CAN send home materials for the students to work on.
Similarly, my DD’s private school charges $300 year for classroom
materials-and again, they’re able to do the hands on projects, replace
textbooks when they start to seem dated (and replace worn out ones
before that point), and send materials home for the kids to extend the
learning and so parents can see what they do at school.
It’s nice-and I can’t help but feel that the expectation that the
“School provides everything” should be turned around, at least for those
parents who can pay-and that if it is, parents will like the results.
