Specific Initiatives to Save Money or Reduce Costs

By Lisa Wolland

We need to look at a variety of areas to make a long-term impact in reducing spending.

We should examine how we disseminate information and try to become as paperless as possible. We should upgrade our website, so parents and community members can access it daily for current and accurate information.

We need to examine how we maintain our buildings after school hours, and explore whether the night custodians need to remain in the buildings, daily, until 11 p.m.

We have to continue to look to the Village and our neighboring districts to see if there are more areas where we can share services and purchases. However, we need to keep in mind that there are parameters beyond our control in doing this (e.g., mandates and contracts), and that the community will still need to pay for these services because our Village taxes could increase if the Village assumes more responsibilities for the District.

We should be more selective about the field trips that our children take. While these trips are educational, and enrich the curriculum, in these tough economic times, we may need to reduce, or temporarily suspend, one or more of these trips to save some money.

We need to continue to persuade Albany to revoke or modify some of the requirements that stifle our District's ability to be more cost effective -- e.g., the Wicks Law, which often creates more expenses, than it saves. This is a long-term effort that has been started by our current Board, and needs to continue.

And, finally, we have to investigate ways to cut costs that will have a long-term impact. We need to economize and consolidate our programs to enhance the education of our children, without sacrificing the quality of that education.