ideasfortps.com

Recycle to save money

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 19:10

EagleEyes writes "Found this story at http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/Schools/WasteReduce/Models/Districts.htm

Use city county attorneys or hire one of their own.

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 19:09

Anonymous writes "Use city county attorneys or hire one of their own.

See story in Cleveland Plain Dealer
"

Partner with city to maintain schoolyards (on-going)

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 19:08

TPSInsider writes "The district could save money by partnering with the City of Toledo to maintain schoolyards. I bet the district could save $15,000 a year by doing this. "

Electronic IEPs

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 19:07

Tuscon is looking to save 1.3 million a year in creating an electronic Individual Educational Plan (IEP) for students.

http://www.tusd.k12.az.us/contents/biccompleted.html

TPS is twice as big as TPS, so estimated savings would be $600,000 dollars. District can save $40,000 in printing costs.

Let the community provide ideas to save money

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 19:06

The former Superintendent said community input is not valuable. Well Tucson Unified heralds their community idea program on their Web site at: http://www.tusd.k12.az.us/contents/brightideas.html

Tuscon has saved $2.1 million dollars through their BrightIdeas program listening to the community. TPS should begin by reading this site to get good community idea.

Estimated savings: $2.1 million dollars.

For the record, I just found this site, 5 days after I started populating ideas on the ideasfortps site.

Posting all public information online.

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 19:05

A school board member once complained about the amount of time the district spent filling sunshine law requests. If the district posts all public information online, it can save money and earn the trust of the community. Items may seem a little overwhelming, but a good search engine could go through and index all of the files and make locating information easy. Estimated savings: $5,000-$10,000.

Turn off lights in vending machines

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 19:05

Shutting off the lights in the district's 50 vending machines will save the Hartland Consolidated School District $5,000 this year. Read more about this at: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061004/METRO04/61004...

Quantity Textbook Purchases

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 19:04

citizen99 writes "
With state standards, it would seem that often districts within Lucas county and surrounding counties would be purchasing similar textbook materials. TPS could join forces with other districts to time those purchases together to get a better quantity material discount. This would require coordination but it could help more districts in general with large scale purchases.

"

Business Donated Classroom Supplies

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 19:04

citizen99 writes "TPS should open a centralized location, staffed by volunteers where they accept specific donations of classroom supplies or other office supplies that business may be discarding. Teachers looking for specific project materials could visit this centralized location to obtain additional classroom resources. An example, would be a business may be discarding particular reams of paper that a classroom could use.

Online Honor Classes

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 19:02

citizen99 writes "TPS has online courses for students struggling and the ratio of teacher per student is extremely high therefore making that arrangement cost effective. The district also charges access fees to participate in these classes. TPS should offer online courses for those students qualifying for honors courses. This would raise the student teacher ratio and would save operational dollars while increasing the opportunities for students to participate in honors courses.

Be polite

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 19:01

School districts embroiled in major lawsuits like to say their insurance covers legal expenses. But expensive lawsuits bring higher premiums, and those who've been through such suits say schools pay another cost as well -- in the time, attention, and energy drained away from everything else. Some lawsuits can't be avoided, but others can. Parents who take their school districts to court almost invariably say school officials ignored their complaints or insulted their families.

Change the light bulbs

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 19:01

"You can cut your lighting costs by 50 percent if you haven't done any retrofits in the past," says Harrigan. She recommends replacing incandescent bulbs and old fluorescents with the new compact fluorescent lights, known as T-8s, which are expensive but pay for themselves in reduced electric bills within one or two years. And, Harrigan says, the new fluorescents are easy on the eyes. "Energy efficiency is not about giving up anything," she insists.

School Bus Advertising

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 19:00

Advertisements on the inside or outside of bus.

Estimated earnings: $300,000-$900,000 a year.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-12-26-school-advertising_x.htm

Tuscon is considering saving 300k a year on advertising.

http://www.tusd.k12.az.us/contents/biccompleted.html

School Security

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 18:58

Anonymous writes "For the most part, TPS building and campus is 'an accident waiting to happen'. Most of the buildings were designed when shootings and/or hostages were NOT a security factor. I counted the number of ground level doors at Waite several years ago. Care to guess how many there are? Knock on a side door of an elementary building and chances are some unsuspecting student will open the door .

Community Information

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 18:57

Anonymous writes "It would be helpful if the members of the Board were highlighted on the TPS web page along with their educational backgrounds and their occupations.
"

Better School Board

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 18:53

Anonymous writes "Have a bunch of citizens support good school board candidates, like:"

http://thurbersthoughts.blogspot.com/2007/04/job-description-for-board-o... And Lisa Renee has one as well: Glass City Jungle - http://glasscityjungle.com/wordpress/?p=1129#comments

Get rid of uniforms

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 18:53

Anonymous writes "School uniforms seem to be more of a way to suspend students than anything else. Get rid of them.
"

Talk to an architect/contractor

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 18:52

Anonymous writes "I have been following this OSFC building process for several years. I personally know two people that work for firms that work on these school bidding projects . These guys tell me that the architects and construction guys like these building projects- they make money on them . But they tell me that they are wondering why good solid buildings are being demolished to build buildings that are new, but not contstructed as well , and will not last as long as the demolished buildings. Of course they will not admit this in public or in front of a school administrator.

Implement district school choice

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 18:51

If you remove district boundaries, schools would need to be much more efficient in their operation. Students would flock toward the good schools rather quickly, and bad schools would be forced to get better and become innovative. This competition will create efficiencies.

Teacher Buyout

Submitted by chrismyers on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 18:50

Anonymous writes "
Offer a buyout to teachers with over 30 years in the system and hire new teachers - two for the price of one!