Given the current fiscal problems our schools are having, I thought I'd make a few suggestions:
1) Put transportation services out to bid as individual routes, as was done prior to the consolidation of the routes into bidding packages. If a large company can undercut smaller companies, so be it, but increased competition usually reduces costs.
2) Allow (and encourage) parents to enroll their children in schools based upon where they work, if they choose, with the understanding that transportation would not be provided. In many cases that would be at least as convenient for parents, it would allow more integration in our schools (since our workplaces are more integrated than our neighborhoods), and it could reduce transportation costs considerably.
3) Install motion-detecting switches for lighting, especially in restrooms.
4) Replace labor-intensive grass with low-growing ground cover where appropriate.
5) Allow parents the option of receiving information via email.
6) Eliminate the community education program mailings. Use other promotion methods such as CraigsList, brochures at the public libraries, and community bulletin boards.
7) Reduce the cost of textbooks by staggering teaching schedules and using specialized books. For example, a high school English class could have copies of Shakespeare's plays one semester, and the Greek tragedies the next, alternating with another class. With modern on-demand textbook printing services, only the portions of texts that would actually be used would be printed, the curriculum could be divided into units, and books for each unit shuffled from class to class each semester.
8) Provide transportation for interested high school students to go to nearby elementary schools and tutor at-risk students for an hour or two a week.
If you have any interest in pursuing any of these possibilities, I would be willing to help research them.
Dave Baldwin
Concerned Parent and Citizen
I know the savings wouldn't be enough to make up for the cuts in the state budget, but every penny helps! (And yes, I know there are places they could cut if they would, like administrator's salaries. They know that, too.)
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