Money-Saving Plans for Local School Districts Discussed at West Hempstead Meeting

Representatives from Nassau County, local school districts and BOCES gathered at West Hempstead Middle School on Wednesday evening to present a shared services plan during the West Hempstead Community Support and Civic Organization meeting.

Martin Kaye, a board member of Nassau BOCES, said that this idea came out of the notion that there was a way for school districts and other municipalities to work together to save tax dollars.

“Starting in 2007, Nassau BOCES, as well as the school districts and municipalities…were thinking and talking about ways that they could collaboratively find methods of saving money,” he said, “...bringing together efforts that would reduce the cost of doing things and perhaps share the different purchasing and different items that we all use in educating our students and running the county.”

This group of municipalities applied for the 21st Century Demonstration Grant program. They were awarded the grant - $1 million - in July 2009, which enabled them to fund the investigation process for committees and exploration of cost saving initiatives.

They have until March 2012 to spend the rest of the grant money, according to Deputy Superintendent of Nassau BOCES Dr. Robert Hanna. All municipalities that rely on tax dollars to support their services are welcome to participate in the program, he added.

The group identified four areas for this project, including transportation for out-of-district students, information technology, district actuarial and auditing services, and purchasing. Steering committees were set up for each area. Members of the steering committee are comprised of all the working units – school boards, school districts, business officials and county representatives, Kaye added.

Richard Cunningham, deputy superintendent for the West Hempstead School District, is part of the transportation steering committee.

“The whole idea was to create a transportation consortium that was efficient for the school districts in terms of price and efficiency in routing because we look to share buses going to the same school with surrounding school districts,” he said.

Cunningham explained that West Hempstead has spent “a quarter of a million dollars less last school year than when you compare it from the year before” due to adopting best practices from other entities. He also said that West Hempstead found savings in internal auditing pricing thanks to the county.

“That isn’t all due to this initiative, but this initiative is certainly a part,” he continued. "Having different governmental entities working together and sharing best practices really helps save in many different areas.”

Hanna said that he believes the state gave them this grant to serve as a model for other public municipalities in the state.

“The bottom line is that we don’t always get the chance to talk to each other all of the time,” he said. “Unless you make an effort to do that, it is not going to happen. The fact that we put this group together and we add new people all of the time to the group, we are going to continue this beyond the grant.”