Times are tight. MOST of us find ourselves scrimping where we can. Cutting things flat out of our household budgets...less eating out (or none at all)....using coupons...
The bottom line is that we are making do with less.
Our school district administration, however, sees things differently. Despite TALK of cuts, it appears that it's business as usual.
Administration, and school board members like Jim (Seabass) McCourt will shake their head ans say...we're taking about a few (or ten...or twenty) dollars here. And expect you'll stop right there an d agree with them.
What we want you to do is to consider the principle.
The reality is that these dollars...or tens...or hundreds DO add up.
More importantly, every dollar we "waste" is one less dollar we have to spend where it counts...the kids.
Teachers and parents are complaining that administration lowered building thermostats 2 degrees as a cost-cutting measure. Well? Trim more of the fat from the budget, and the temperature might only need to be lowered 1 degree...or none at all.
It has to end here, folks. And the only way it ends is if enough community residents attend meetings of the school board Finance committee...or the full school board meeting and TELL THEM WHAT you think.
You see...your silence has long been viewed as acceptance/ agreement with whatever votes the school board takes. Sure...after the vote, you read about it in the paper and grumble amongst friends and coworkers. But what are you DOING about it.
The simple reality is that this school district has to be run as a business and the community needs to tell the board to stop viewing our tax dollars as Other Peoples' Money.
You've heard about the infamous $436 hammers purchased by the federal government? Or the $600 toilet seats. We can't point to anything as grandiose. But we do have one recent purchase that underscores a whole host of others. Again...get past this as an isolated issue, and see it as the problem that it is: the principle seems to be that the district administration spends frivolously because its just Other Peoples' Money.
Recently the school district purchased a date stamper for $69.49.
The district indicates that " The stamp is a specialty item that stamps "Received", "the date" and "Staff Development"."The purchase was questioned at the Finance Committee meeting, but...as usual...there's never enough time allotted for those meetings to really explore these issues. And that's not a coincidence.
A follow-up question was asked why we used the vendor we did. A question was asked as to whether we had a discounted purchasing contract with an office supply store.
The answer we got was this:
" We are currently participating in the US Communities program with Office Depot. This is a national bid program that a lot of school districts participate in or piggy back on. It is an overall savings with a price plan and contract that varies in pricing from 40% to 80% off of suggested list price.
The program is supported by the Association of School Business Officials and offers a broad span of school and office products for next day delivery. There is also a rebate each year based on Internet ordering and volume rebate for larger accounts. "
A 30-second Google search yielded dozens of less expensive options.
Perhaps more importantly, we spent 5 minutes on Office Depot's website and identified an option that was available for
less than half the price paid from an non-standard vendor. Even with a salary of over $36/hour, a 5 -minute Google search costs only $3.00 of staff time.
Remember: It's NOT just about $25-$40 savings on this one item.
It's about two very basic principles:
1. Is the district serving as good stewards of the taxpayers' money?
2. Is the district doing ENOUGH to minimize costs such that the spending can be focused on the end result: education of the kids?
3 Very Simple Questions
- Do we even NEED this? (How is a date stamper for a small group of Administrators helping our kids achieve? And hey...it's not like we employ 1000 staff development people)
- Couldn't we get a viable solution for less? (It sure seems that way...or were they just being "particular" because , after all, it's just Other Peoples' Money)
- And even at 50 cents less from Office Depot, shouldn't we have purchased it from there to secure a larger volume rebate?
This is NOT an isolated issueLast but not least, we need to focus on the principles at hand because this is NOT just an isolated issue. Over the past several years, we've encountered dozens of questionable expenses...and we're just beginning to scratch the surface. Sure. some save small amounts of money, but others cost us substantial sums. And with respect to small amounts, there's an old adage that it's difficult to find solutions that save 10%...but 100 savings that each save 1% result in 100% savings.
It won't stop until the school board is forced to make it stop.
How do they spend Other Peoples' Money...let us count the ways- Not one but TWO district office newspaper subscriptions.
- Kit Kat bars for employee birthdays (recently discontinued after being exposed)
- Memorial flowers when any employee's family member passes
- Pizza! Subs! ad nauseam
- "Thank You" Coffee mugs for bus drivers at one school, but not the others, despite the fact that ALL bus drivers receive something from the district at the end of the year. Ahhh...that "Principal's fund"!
- Let us not forget Jim McCourt's infamous seabass (and shrimp!) dinners on the taxpayers dime
- The $425/month we pay Dr. Culver for "miscellaneous expenses" and "travel within Dane county"...for which NO receipts are required.
- The $1500 travel "stipends" paid to other administrators.
- What are we REALLY getting for the $7300/month paid to our "construction manager"?
- We paid $9,000 per month for FOUR years to an "energy management" consultant firm who basically told us we could save money by turning lights off and lowering thermostats. Genius!
- We didn't even bid out the architects for recent school construction! (Creekside, Horizon, the new high school). For the high school alone, the architects fees, at 5% cost $5M.
- ...and that is but a mere sampling
It adds up, folks. Believe it.And to those that say it doesn't...methinks thou dost protest too much!
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