The Impact of New Consolidation Legislation School Advisor, 2007 Issue No. 3

Intermediate school districts are required to evaluate consolidating non-instructional areas within six months.

Consolidating, or sharing, services is nothing new for Michigan school districts. They’ve been working together for years to cost-effectively provide the highest quality services in a number of areas, from shared purchasing programs and administrative systems to bus maintenance and distance learning classes. House Bill 4592, however, may raise the bar for many school districts regarding shared services. Effective September 19, 2007, intermediate school districts (ISDs) have six months to study and prepare a report on sharing non-instructional services.

How Should You Respond?

Each ISD is required to conduct a planning activity for its constituent districts to identify if and how they can share services with other providers of similar services (ISDs, other districts, other local governments, or other programs). The following non-instructional areas should be considered: transportation, human resources, technology, professional development, accounting/financial services, purchasing, legal services, food services, event management, printing, shipping and receiving, and other non-instructional services. The study must include a cost analysis identifying the current average cost for each service by constituent district. This is a consolidation of services, not districts; the aim is for districts to find additional ways of working together to achieve quality, cost-effective outcomes.

We recommend that districts begin with the end in mind. Develop a plan for the study. If appropriate, identify other ISDs to collaborate with. Establish a steering committee with representatives from each constituent district as well as the ISD. Given the nature of the services, it is very likely that superintendents and business officials will be involved in the steering committee. Discuss goals for shared services and communicate with key stakeholders. Brainstorm with ISD and constituent district leadership to identify potential areas for shared services. Those existing shared services may just need to be documented in a report rather than require extensive study.

Develop a detailed work plan with milestone dates. Identify key champions to lead the efforts in each study area. For example, include human resources representatives in the study of HR administration services. Determine, up front, how you will communicate with your potential collaborators as well as the public.

Once you have identified your key committee members, developed the approach and timelines, and determined your communication plan, begin the data collection. Using existing documents where available, develop a detailed analysis of the current cost of each of these services. Survey districts to better understand the costs, the service delivery model, and service levels. For example, what are each district’s expectations regarding technology support? Is there someone at the building level serving as the first point of contact for questions? This is a good thing to discuss if you are considering sharing services with districts that do not have a similar support structure. Prepare an inventory of existing collaborations. Since many districts are already collaborating (e.g., administrative software), identify which services need additional study and which services are already shared. 

Hold meetings with the administration of the various areas (e.g., transportation supervisors) to identify potential areas for collaboration and the biggest obstacles. Meet with the steering committee throughout the process to review what has been identified to date and, based on the findings for all of the non-instructional services, identify potential opportunities to share services.

Finally, it’s important to develop high level transition and implementation plans. When would you begin sharing these services? How will you communicate this plan with staff, students, and the community? How will you deal with issues that will inevitably arise? We recommend that you involve your legal counsel in discussions prior to implementing new shared services. Establish an evaluation process to assess the success of the collaboration.

The shared services report is due around mid-March of 2008 to the Michigan Department of Education.