School district could soon use students as janitors to cut costs

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School district could soon use students as janitors to cut costs

 Could Frisco ISD soon use students as janitors? 

It's just one cost-cutting idea under consideration

Soon, Frisco ISD students may not be cleaning just their bedrooms. 

They could be sprucing up their classrooms, too.

That's one of several suggestions from volunteers trying to help the nearly 60,000-student school district deal with a budget shortfall brought on by a loss of state funding combined with voters' rejection last August of a tax rate hike. 

Frisco ISD leaders and community members recently got their first look at the bevy of possible cost-saving strategies. 

In addition to having students empty trash cans to cut back on janitorial staff hours, recommendations included charging students — up to $200 in high school — to participate in athletics, establishing a minimum number of students per course and consolidating courses with small enrollments.

The recommendations came from several focus groups made up of district staff and community volunteers who have been poring over data and dollars for months.

"A process that involves the community, that involves stakeholder groups and different groups analyzing and scrubbing our budget, is a good thing," Superintendent Jeremy Lyon said Thursday when the ideas were presented publicly for the first time.

Pay to play

Some of the other ideas would call for the district to stop paying professional association dues for administrators, evaluate whether more library aides could be replaced by volunteers and look at job sharing with tech support. 

  
Another idea would put a halt to all busing between high schools except to the Career and Technical Education Center. 

The group studying busing also suggested adding an extra stop per route inside its two-mile limit and charging students in those areas to ride. 

Volunteer Steve Cone said his group studying extracurricular activities agreed that such programs are a core function of the district.

 "They play a critical role in student learning and student growth," he said. 

The group didn't recommend cutting any programs. 

But its members did say that if needed, the district could consider a pay-to-play scenario. Its presentation listed a $100 fee for middle school and $200 for high school. 

Another idea would add student fees to cover classroom or club-related extracurricular activities and student travel. 

The focus group studying central administration recommended $12.5 million in savings over the next five years by creating efficiencies, seeking partnerships and exploring cost-sharing opportunities. 

More cuts

Members also suggested re-evaluating the schedule for opening new schools and determining if more delays are feasible. 

The district currently has four schools under construction: Memorial High School, Lawler Middle School, and Talley and Liscano elementary schools. 

Those schools were supposed to open this fall, but the district has decided they will remain closed for the 2017-18 school year to save about $15 million in operating and staffing costs. 

Other ideas include trademarking school logos, charging parking fees for athletic events and increasing admission costs to athletic events. 

One group also recommended raising the fees for facility rentals for the variety of groups who use their campuses outside of the school day. 

"Our collective hope on this process was that we would design a process that would bring the community together, to identify our priorities as a school district, to recognize the strengths and weaknesses that we have and to arrive and land on our feet with a balanced budget," Lyon said. "That is exactly what has transpired."

Their ideas will now go to an internal working group, which will further examine them and weigh their effect on students. That group's work will be presented to the school board, which will ultimately decide which of the proposals, if any, they like. 

See the focus groups' recommendations in this presentation from the budget workshop
VIA THE LINK BELOW

Presentation on Frisco ISD priorities-based budget workshop Feb. 9, 2017 by The Dallas Morning News on Scribd

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/frisco/2017/02/13/frisco-isd-soon-use-students-janitors-just-one-cost-cutting-idea-consideration

 

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