Dive Brief:

• As personnel costs tend to increase when most school district budgets do not, administrators are looking for ways to reduce personnel without affecting educational quality, District Administration reports.

• It may be worth the investment of a personnel audit or analytics software to help find overlapping positions or ways in which some non-instructional jobs can be outsourced to save overall costs.

• In a school choice market, public schools may also need to market themselves more efficiently to attract more students and the dollars that follow them.

Dive Insight:

Education funding in many states is an increasing challenge as legislators are facing more demands on limited resources. School districts are often forced to make decisions about killing programs or eliminating staff in ways that won’t negatively affect the quality of education. Fortunately, a deeper analysis of staff responsibilities and district initiatives can make these decisions easier.

Increased education funding would be easiest solution to the problem. However, school districts now need to focus on whether the dollars they have are spent most effectively. Some school districts, such as the one in Fairfield, CT, are trimming central office staff positions. The central office is usually the first place to look as these positions are often attached to larger salaries and responsibilities tend to overlap as time goes on.

However, school districts can look at other cost-saving measures, as well. After the initial hoopla over conversion to technology over textbooks, school districts may need to reevaluate the overall costs and benefit comparison for their districts to see if savings can be found. Other resources may be found by connecting with community partners or businesses to see if they can offer school supplies, grant funding or volunteer services to help fill fiscal gaps.