The consolidation of services issue is not a new one to public schools in Michigan. The discussion has been heightened over the past year as the State looks for ways to encourage consolidation as a means to reduce costs. With the finalization of PA 63, effective September 19, 2007, each school district will be actively involved with this issue. This bill requires each school district in Michigan to participate in the consolidation of services study.
Each intermediate school district must conduct a study concerning opportunities for its constituent districts to share services with other providers of similar services. These services may be with the intermediate school district (ISD), 1 or more other school districts or ISDs, or with other units of local government. The ISD has six months from the effective date of the Bill, roughly until March 19, 2008, to file a report with the Michigan Department of Education. So how will this study be accomplished and what will the report look like?
The staff at MSBO is working with a committee of members and the Michigan Department of Education to develop a financial method for calculating the average cost per district for local schools districts for services specified in PA 63. The main purpose is to develop ideas that can be passed along to MDE and to schools for the calculations of the costs of listed services included in the Bill.
The committee’s goal is to develop this methodology and make it simple, use existing data, make it applicable to both large and small school districts and give meaningful information that can be used for good decision-making. This information, when available, will be passed on to districts to share information with their ISDs on a timely basis.
After all the financial information is shared, each ISD must prepare a report to be submitted to the MDE for additional analysis. The format of the ISD report is the subject of a workshop/meeting that is set to occur on Nov. 8, 2007. This meeting was established to help ISDs with the implementation of PA 63 to standardize the report to comply with the legislation in a consistent, uniform manner. There are several sights set for this meeting (as teleconference sights) in addition to the host sight. For more information, contact MAISA at 517-927-9260.
After the MDE receives the ISD reports, they will have 2 months to prepare summary of the information. This summary will then be shared with the standing committees of legislature responsible for education legislation.
There are several key factors that must be considered when this data is analyzed. First, the complexity of consolidating some services goes far beyond cost savings. For example, collective bargaining agreements in place for employee groups in each school district will need to be considered. Additionally, some services have already been consolidated between locals and ISDs such as transportation, special education, technology, vocational education, instructional staff development, and some payroll services to name a few.
If five districts were consolidated for payroll, this may seem simplistic as payroll seems relatively easy to calculate. When you combine this with potentially five different labor agreements for each of the five different school districts with different rules and timelines, the situation becomes more complex.
Now, compare the payroll situation to ninth grade algebra. Since high school requirements are the same in Michigan it makes you wonder why we are not consolidating instruction or curriculum where the tests, instructional materials or staff development could be much more uniform.
The consolidation of services issue isn’t going away, even if it’s ignored. We must consider the ability to save costs to support instructional programs. We must think broadly about consolidation and we may have to seriously look at other non-instructional areas, such as curriculum. At the same time, it may not make sense to consolidate when the savings will not be present.