NTF Worksheet. OPS43.doc.   11-04.
NEBRASKA TAXPAYERS FOR FREEDOM WORKSHEET:
SUGGESTIONS FOR “PRIME CUTS” TO THE BUDGETS OF NEBRASKA PUBLIC SCHOOLS..

1. end elementary school guidance counselor and student personnel assistant staffing.  Historically, teaching staff served as counselors. 
2. eliminate career counselors.
3. end the school psychologist program.  
4. school districts share personnel, like superintendents, librarians, or art teachers.
5. 2 schools share 1 principal.
6. trim the number of assistant principals.  
7. eliminate the job category of dean of students. 
8. eliminate K-12 curriculum specialists and allow teacher teams to deliberate and decide on teaching materials.
9. reduce the number of teacher aides.
10. find volunteers to replace paid teacher aides.
11. use paraprofessionals instead of teachers for cafeteria duty.
12. consolidate secretarial staff into fewer secretarial pools. 
13.  institute an annual performance assessment audit system of business operations and administrative functions to pinpoint insufficient accounting, waste, and excess spending.  Examine the cost, efficiency, productivity, service levels, output, and business practices of all non-educational support functions. Look for overly high costs because of overly generous labor contracts with benefits, excess use of supplies, underused assets, and poor management.  Each dept. should see performance measures reported and evaluated monthly to note if performance is improving. Hold accountable managers of programs or departments that do not show improvement.  An independent accounting firm could gauge how efficiently a district budgets its funds.
14. budgeting and accounting in conformity with accounting principles general accepted in the U.S. in addition to reporting requirements prescribed by the NE Commissioner of Education. 
15. examine budget trends to identify areas where expenditures have increased at higher than average rates.  Determine reason(s) for the increase and decide how to reverse the trend.
16. end Student Assignment Plans, thus resulting in decreased teacher and support staffing levels. 
17. delay expansion of elementary magnet school systems. 
18. curtail or end voluntary reassignment and magnet school busing to save on fuel and other transportation costs. 
19. end the practice of busing kids all over a district and use the savings to supply academy schools with books, supplies, and teachers. 
20. offer free transportation to only students who live further than 4 miles from school, the state mandate, instead of offering free transportation to students who live over 1.5 miles from their home attendance area.  This suggestion would cut district and contracted services transportation costs. 
21. sometimes, taxpayers see 1,2, or 3 kids on a bus.  Examine the efficiency of bus routing.
22. require bus drivers to do pre- and post-route inspections and report small repair and maintenance needs in advance.1
23. sign longer term contracts for fuel, like the City of Omaha.  
24.  lobby to end the state mandate that prevents school districts from expelling students in specific circumstances. 
25. eliminate time-out rooms.
26. bargain tougher on collective bargaining contracts to gain more authority to hire and fire teachers and staff.
27. limit extended-year teacher contracts.
28. bargain tougher on employee contracts and make employees pay for a greater percentage of their health care premiums (most government employees pay at least 30%) and other benefits. Health and dental care is free to all full-time OPS employees.  After 4 years of service, they pay only 40% of family coverage.2  Benefits FY 2002-2003 totaled 18.78% of the general fund budget (p.41) and rose 9.49% in 2003. 
29. increase the deductibles on low-risk insurance policies.
30. compare insurance coverage with the fixed asset and controlled asset inventories and set coverage based on actual need. 
31. cap school district contributions to employee health benefits.
32. investigate savings in managed health care insurance initiatives. 
33. institute performance and merit pay programs for teachers and staff to cut the inflationary rise in salaries and benefits. 
34. provide incentive for high teacher attendance to discourage absenteeism, e.g., bonuses, item on performance appraisal. 
35. pay substitute teachers less money; OPS payments are as high as those in California.
36. join a workers compensation coop with other districts to cut costs by reducing premiums.
37. lobby to terminate the Rule of 85, which allows teachers to retire sooner and take their pensions plus earn salaries and benefits from new jobs in the same field.
38.  end or trim travel for staff enrichment programs. 
39. pay staff development providers to come to the district to offer training, cheaper than paying employees to travel.
40. reduce teacher training days.
41. end or cut travel for board members to out of state meetings.
42. insist upon receipts for all reimbursements given staff and teachers.
43. compare administrator travel allocation with actual mileage.
44. offer superintendents new or revised contracts in accordance with state education regulations, e.g., no more than a 3 yr. contract.  OPS board gave Supt. Mackiel a 5 yr. contract. 
45. eliminate the KIOS Radio station. 
46. eliminate drivers education courses.
47. eliminate school-to-work programs.
48. expel violent and other students evidencing extreme discipline problems and save on instructional costs.
49. utilize a portion of the $40 million (it varies) in cash reserves, an amount more than sufficient for emergency funding.  OPS response: budgets this money for use until April (12 ½ % of general fund).  This solution would be temporary; OPS could lower the percentage. 
50. lobby to end Dept. of Ed rule prohibiting spending cash reserves from year to year.
51. invest reserve cash in higher-yield investments.
52. use restricted categorical funds to meet general fund requirements.
53. return to phonics and other basic instruction, cheaper and significantly better than whole language methods.  Fewer students would have to enter special education classes. 
54. accept private advertising in printed materials.
55. accept private advertising in buildings and on vehicles. 
56. allow private companies to sponsor school sports teams. 
57. contract with private companies for payroll processing services, if a vendor could accomplish this function cheaper.
58. outsource printing and other office work to private companies.   
59. accept used computers from companies that are updating computer systems.  OPS paid $3,000 apiece for new laptops, $1,350 per desktop computers.   
60. pay a stipend to people at each school to do computer troubleshooting before sending techies to make repairs.  Have staff who attend computer training train other teachers, saving training costs.
61. assign district web site development and maintenance to students, saving personnel costs. 
62. consult private business volunteers, like retired business people, to advise on budget efficiencies that control costs and expenditures.
63. issue special cards to senior citizens in the district, entitling them to free entrance to all sporting and other events, then buttonhole them to volunteer.
64. standardize purchases of office machines, like photocopiers, and thus keep a smaller supply of parts and train staff to repair only 1 kind of machine.3
65. lease instead of purchasing office equipment.
66. examine all records management procedures to eliminate paper storage.  Storage space is expensive.
67. share document managing equipment with other school districts.
68. distribute lists of special equipment needs to the PTA and community groups and businesses at beginning of each school year, asking for pledges of these items.
69. join other school districts to order textbooks, computers, and other higher-priced educational materials in large volume at discounted prices.   
70. textbooks represent a major investment for a district, so Internet ordering would allow for buying and delivering texts quicker while slashing shipping costs.
71. establish a computerized inventory system to identify the location of each textbook, using fewer employee hours.
72. joint purchasing with adjacent school districts for fuel and transportation equipment like tires.
73. join food-purchasing coops with neighboring districts to guarantee food purchases at lowest cost.
74. participate in state surplus property program to buy needed items at low cost.
75. establish a central warehouse for school districts as a depository for equipment and supplies. 
76. form inter-district agreements to purchase legal and security services, liability insurance, property insurance, trash removal service, and supplies and materials, as these costs have skyrocketed.
77. consolidate information technology services among smaller school districts.
78. close examining use of custodial supplies will show major differences in quantities used by schools of similar size, meaning some schools are better at utilizing supplies than others.  Manage better.
79. design a direct delivery process with vendors that reduces administrative time used to purchase supplies and cut delivery time to 1 day.  As employees will understand that they can get quick deliveries, districts will not have to buy supplies far in advance and maintain huge inventories.  In a typical district, ½ of supplies are directly used and ½ sit on shelves.  A managed inventory and supply system could reduce the amount of inventory, releasing monies for other uses.
80. lobby state senators to end unfunded state mandates and lobby the State Dept. of Education to end mandated regulations, e.g., budget, curriculum, staff training, and transportation requirements.
81. lobby for state law change in order to use lottery grant money for basic curriculum needs instead of for school museums, etc. 
82. budget monies to pay for classes that a district must legally teach, excluding some or all classes outside this scope and unnecessary services like positive peer culture programs. End Dept. of Ed Rule 10 that mandates some of these classes.
83. end unnecessary classes in sewing and crafts with accompanying teacher salaries and use this savings for core curriculum textbooks, supplies, and salaries. 
84. end pre-school and after-school programs like dance and study clubs, not mandated by state or federal law. 
85. end early childhood non-special education.
86. end talented and gifted programs.
87. end all-day kindergarten. 
88. end the summer music program and summer sports activities.
89. end some or all foreign language instruction classes.
90. end state legislature mandates for remedial summer classes.
91. eliminate classes with low student registration or hold such classes only in alternate years. 
92. end adult education classes.
93. increase class sizes to shrink the number of teachers and staff required.  OPS had a 15-1 student/teacher ratio in 2001.4  There is 1 staffer for each 7.6 students in OPS.5  Dr. Eric Hanuschek has authored several treatises showing that increasing class sizes does not hinder learning.   
94. discover ways to attract home-schooled children to public school.
95. cut or end advertising costs, like billboards and booklets, that boast of school district excellence. 
96. end outreach marketing programs that mobilize support for public education. 
97. lobby to end the employee assistance program, a state mandate.
98. end membership in national school board associations. 
99. sell for recycling old desks, chairs, equipment, and playground materials. 
100. conduct annual inventories to reduce loss of school property.  Investigate missing assets and prosecute those who steal school property.
101. require employees to sign accountability forms for equipment assigned them and hold them responsible for missing items.
102. send home parent newsletters via email or post them on the school Internet web site, with paper copies mailed only upon request.  Same with breakfast and lunch menus.
103. make sure only eligible children participate in federal school breakfast and lunch programs.  The USDA estimates that $1 billion in free lunches annually feeds children ineligible because of family income exceeding federal guidelines.6
104. conduct energy audits in every building and implement a comprehensive energy conservation plan. Turn off display lights in vending machines.  Buy energy efficient lighting and fixtures.
105. seek donated land from developers during the planning process for selection and purchase of sites for schools and facilities.
106. pay only fair market rates for renting properties and space.
107. clean classrooms every 3 days instead of every day.

108.  lobby for and allow implementation of charter schools, which are cheaper to operate with lower per pupil cost.7
109.consolidate school districts in which per-student spending is higher than the state average, saving    millions annually.
110. prioritize budget cutting, cutting student programs last. 

Research and documentation for this worksheet done by Doug Kagan and Lee Mimms.  This material copyrighted and notarized by Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, with express prior permission granted for its use by Taxwatchers, Inc., Citizens for Local Control, Cherry County Taxpayers, Dawes County Taxpayers, and other groups in the Tax Freedom Network.  11-04  C