Can we work together?
A reminder came to light when reviewing salaries of school superintendents in Marion County this past week at a special education cooperative meeting.
I don't know all of the legalities and funding issues associated with this idea but consider this food for thought.
Currently, each school district is paying a significant amount of money for superintendents, office staff, and supplies.
What would happen if there was one central office for the entire county. (Please set down your bag of rocks and hear me out.)
Each school district, of sorts, would remain as is with the same educational facilities kept intact.
Instead of each district paying for its own staff and building, there would be one superintendent in one office with a staff.
Right now, county taxpayers are spending more than $400,000 per year just for superintendents' salaries. This does not include support staff and district office facilities.
Consolidation of school districts is a painful and unpopular proposition but this wouldn't really be consolidation but more of a modification.
OK, OK. Maybe tax distributions and state legislators won't allow us to modify the county school districts to one central office but could there be some sort of centralized ordering program? Imagine the cost savings for the districts if all purchased paper at the same time or got a deal on computers or desks.
Group or cooperative purchasing could provide significant cost savings on numerous levels, not necessarily just school districts.
How about cities and counties purchasing items as a group and maybe rotating the purchases among businesses within the cities or county?
Elected and appointed government officials are obligated to their constituents to make the best use of resources. Wouldn't this be worth checking into?
— SUSAN BERG
