Letter to the Editor: Dover-Sherborn Schools Effective and Efficient

Public schools need to effectively and efficiently use the money they receive from taxpayers in the towns they serve. Taxpayers are investors who expect returns: quality education for their children, increased home values and schools that make the most of the tax dollars they receive.

Dover Sherborn schools receive accolades on the quality of the education they provide and this certainly contributes to what are consistently steady home values.

So what about making the most of the money they receive from taxpayers? This has been part of their strategic goal of efficiency and effectiveness for the past five years.

As a result, the schools have made surprising and innovative changes you might not be aware of.

Arguably one of the changes with the greatest financial impact has been change to the healthcare plan.

As part of their recent move to the Rate Saver program, all school personnel are now more responsible for their own healthcare management with respect to co-pays and deductibles.

Moreover, despite an increase in student enrollment at the middle and high schools, there has been no corresponding increase in personnel due to the optimum deployment of existing personnel. Specifically, the Region continuously reviews scheduling and elective participation, does not run under-subscribed courses and consolidates course sections whenever possible.

Instead of communicating with printed matter, the schools have focused on expanding their use of the Aspen Family Portal, an online resource for teachers, students and parents.

The portal replaces paper report cards, warehouses student information, and tracks employee training and attendance.

Expanded use of Aspen will continue to evolve and provide more real-time information. Consistent with an enhanced online focus, the school systems’ website provides an ever-increasing volume of information and documents for the student, parent/guardian and community.

The schools have also focused efforts on collaborative purchasing, making things like utilities, supplies, and athletic equipment more cost effective.

As a result, each school has reduced costs and in some cases has joined forces with other town entities (such as the library) in order to take advantage of bulk purchasing.

Energy audits of the buildings have lead to the acquisition of rebates and utility cost reduction on electricity, gas, and oil.

The schools’ physical plant managers are currently looking into a software program to monitor energy use and report on areas where more savings could be realized.

Paper usage has also been substantially reduced, textbooks are purchased directly from publishers instead of through a distributor, and all emergency notifications go through the schools systems’ Connect-Ed/reverse 911 system.

Administration and staff will continue addressing cost management in several key areas, such as students’ transition from one school to another, special education services across all schools, and continued simplification and transparency in budget creation and publication.

The intent of all of these changes is to make the schools throughout the system more consistent, more communicative, and more cohesive in the interest of heightened accountability to taxpayers.