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Overcast School districts and BOCES work together
Groups look to share services to save taxpayer money
On March 1, representatives from Nassau BOCES and many school districts in the county gathered to announce progress made — and hopes for the future — for sharing services and saving money.
In July 2009, BOCES and 35 of Nassau’s 56 school districts were awarded the $1 million New York State 21st Century Demonstration Grant, which was used to study ways that BOCES and the school districts could work together to save taxpayer money. In the 18 months since the grant was awarded, Nassau County has also joined the initiative, working with the schools towards a common goal.
“This, tonight, is one of the most important things we’re doing,” said Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, who spoke at the meeting. “Coming together to save taxpayer dollars.”
The meeting was held to discuss what has been done so far, about halfway through the life of the grant. The results of four initiatives were presented: IT/telecommunications (headed by Dr. John Bierwirth, superintendent of the Herricks School District), internal auditing (headed by Dr. Herb Brown, superintendent of the Oceanside School District), purchasing (headed by Terry Hood, business administrator of the Great Neck School District) and transportation (headed by Dr. William Johnson, superintendent of the Rockville Centre School District).
Within five years, BOCES hopes to have all the school districts in Nassau County on one consolidated telephone and internet network. This would help keep costs down for districts, and also provide backups in case one district’s services went down. The group also worked with the county to identify and remove redundant, unused phone lines in all of its member buildings, saving about $240,000.
One of the biggest areas the group hopes to create savings is in cooperative purchasing. If all the school districts bid for goods together, their collective buying power would help to get things much cheaper than each individual district could.
Also considered was something that many districts have actually been doing for years: shared transportation. By working together to transport students to specialty schools, districts can save thousands.
