Top 10 School Survival Strategies
Dec 1, 2011 12:00 PM, By Mike Kennedy (mkennedy@asumag.com)
10 areas for schools and universities to focus on as they try to provide high-quality education in a challenging economy.
Another calendar year is ending without any clear signs that the financial situation is likely to improve for schools and universities across the nation. Since economic conditions took a serious turn for the worse in 2008, administrators have had to endure sizable budget cuts that have hindered their efforts to provide students with a high-quality education.
Four years into this economic drought, education institutions of all sizes from coast to coast have been forced to close facilities, increase class sizes, eliminate programs, postpone building upgrades and defer maintenance.
As 2011 winds down, decisionmakers at schools and universities looking ahead to the new year must concentrate, as they have for the last four years, on setting priorities, aiming for greater efficiency, and managing wisely the resources they do have. Here are 10 key areas that administrators should be focusing on in their efforts to keep their institutions operating effectively:
1. Finance
The funding cutbacks that have beset schools and universities have become so commonplace that they barely qualify as news anymore. Still, administrators must cope with the budgets they are given and make difficult decisions about where money should be spent and where it can't.
Because personnel costs make up a huge part of a school budget, layoffs have been necessary at many schools and universities. Administrators strive to make cuts that don't affect classroom instruction, but when facing massive budget shortfalls, their options are limited. Teacher layoffs result in larger class sizes, and many school systems have had to exceed the size limits called for in district policy or state regulations.
More schools and universities are looking at outsourcing some of their operations — e.g., transportation services, custodial and maintenance work — in an effort to squeeze some savings out of their budgets; but some institutions have learned that contracting services to an outside company does not automatically lead to significant gain.
For a school system in crisis mode, drastic steps may be necessary. The Detroit district, which has seen student enrollment plummet from 168,000 to 66,000 since the turn of the century, has closed dozens of schools, cut operating costs and refinanced bonds to reduce its deficit from $327 million to $83.9 million.
2. Construction
Despite dismal economic conditions, many institutions have been able to secure the funding needed to pursue construction and renovation projects.
Just last month, several school systems in the Atlanta area won voter approval of a sales-tax extension that will provide more than $3 billion in funding for facilities. In Texas, each of five districts won approval of bond requests of more than $150 million.
But school districts should be cautious about moving forward with construction and make sure that operating funds will be available to open the school. In the Howell (Mich.) district, a $72 million high school was built to serve as a second high school. For 2007-08, the campus opened and served as the district's only high school while Howell High School was renovated; but in 2008, the district determined that it couldn't afford to open the second high school.
After sitting mostly vacant for most of three years, the Parker campus opened earlier this year as Parker Middle School. It replaces Three Fires Middle School, which was converted to an elementary school and replaced one of the district's older campuses.
3. Sustainability
Adopting sustainable approaches to construction and operations can help education institutions cut operating costs for utilities and provide a more healthful learning environment for students and staff.
Because education institutions are more cognizant that the costs for a facility don't end when construction is completed, more administrators have jumped aboard the bandwagon advocating the use of sustainable strategies in design, construction and operation of facilities. When they see an opportunity to build a structure that will ease the burden on their already hard-hit operating budgets, they become convinced that the green movement makes sense for financial as well as ecological reasons.
Organizations such as the U.S. Green Building Council and the Collaborative for High Performance Schools provide reams of information about how to plan, build and run an energy-efficient, environmentally friendly facility.
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