Edina Public Schools Budget Feedback 2009-2010

The District accepted budget suggestions from staff, parents and community members from Feb. 10- 24. Listed below is a compilation of those suggestions. Information shared on this page meets the BRRRG assessment criteria, which is listed below.

The BRRRG criteria:

Complies with state and federal mandates and laws
Is legal and consistent with school district policy
Ensures that equal access to programs and services is provided
Is sustainable over time
Has no impact on the following
- Bus services to/from school
- Student calendar days
- EHS graduation requirements

Several suggestions did not meet the BRRRG criteria and, therefore, were not listed.
In addition, many suggestions were similar in nature. In an effort to avoid redundancies, feedback that resembled an existing post was not listed. Through this process, it was our intent to be as transparent as possible. However, in some cases lengthy responses were slimmed down. As we did this, we were mindful not to change the overall tone of the response.

All suggestions submitted via the Budget Suggestions Form were anonymous.
If you have concerns, please contact Doug Johnson.

Back to Budget page

Expense Reductions

Don’t use overhead lights in classrooms with natural light on sunny days.
Reduce paper as much as possible
Use double-sided copying—ALWAYS
Institute and carry out a district-wide recycling program that janitors adhere to in order to cut waste removal costs.
Don’t let school buses idle for more than 30 seconds and waste fuel.
Lower the thermostat in school buildings to 66 degrees.
Eliminate elementary Spanish program. Little knowledge is gained and much time is lost that could be spent on other tasks.
A small budget cut across all department budgets. A small cut for everyone splits some burden and might add up to something substantial.
Instead of eliminating Spanish, reduce instruction to once a week instead of twice; or begin Spanish instruction in 3rd grade instead of 2nd.
Keep class sizes small. (adding 1 or 2 students maximum)
Conduct an energy audit in order to maximize energy efficiency
Reduce music to once a week up to grade 3
Make greater use of volunteers
Offer more online classes for high school
Is a gifted program mandated in public schools? If not mandated, should we be dedicating staff and counselors to these students? Could we increase community partnerships or opportunities to partner with higher grades to serve these kids?
Reduce the amount of recess paras by using the contract allotted lunch for elementary teachers, and having them rotate recess duties for the extra 10-15 minutes currently received.
Put accountability on students to pay for what they break.
Have staff assume a larger portion of their health care benefits and/or pension. I wonder if teachers would rather help share the pain as opposed to having jobs and programs completely cut.
Cut the Community Front Page/Back Page Publication. The information is outdated by the time it comes to the house. The cost of printing and postage could be eliminated. I know this information could be routed through the Edina Sun Current or EPS website.
Eliminate the block schedule at the Middle Schools and return to a six period day. This schedule is confusing for Middle Schoolers as well as a waste of time/money. The children end up taking electives which serve no purpose other than filling time.
Streamline coursework; remove zero hour. Allow students in high school to be students; to prepare for college and life with the basics, not the exponentially growing numbers of courses, necessitating more money and time, thus zero. The centralized curriculum has grown way out of proportion and the offerings are too rich for the budget. Let us observe the tradition of excellence that has been the foundation of Edina Academics; BASICS. Remove the extraneous programs and excessive course offerings that are bogging down the system.
Eliminate the 6(!) coaching positions that were created to improve teaching performance and student learning, as well as for determining who qualifies for alt comp. This is one more thing (hoop) to schedule and make time for that takes teacher's time away from planning for and teaching students. In return, it offers little benefit for students and little that will lead to improved teaching. Use the 6 positions toward reduced class sizes.
The TARP package would be great. However, I assume there will still be a shortfall. Sacrificing education is not doable. Raise taxes, reduce funding for non-educational programs (i.e. music, art, sports, but don’t jeopardize the amazing reputation and scores Edina enjoys.
Cut at the administrative level. Have all licensed employees work with kids in some capacity during the school day.
Do an audit of all costs related to administration and possible duplicate administrative/administrator costs. If there are duplicate administrator positions or redundancies within the District, look at how to remedy this through attrition, downsizing and consolidating positions.
Small cuts across the board with a plege to return to previous levels of funding when things get better.
Make South View and ‘intermediate school’ and hold all 6th and 7th grade classes at South View. Make Valley View the school for all 8th and 9th graders and make Valley View schedule the same as the high school schedule so all kids at Valley View and the High School ride the same buses. This could save on bus costs as well as having other benefits to all Edina students.
Instead of paying employees to work at athletic events, ie: ticket sales, etc., as parent volunteers to serve in that capacity.
In areas where employees will have to be cut, paid staff could be supplemented temporarily by the enormous pool of very educated at-home parents or retire folk (though this is possibly problematic with the unions). Many of us are getting ready to return to paid work in the next few years, and could use the exposure to an office environment and recommendations to get back in the game. This could have a time limit on it to ensure that when the economy perks up, the skilled staff can have the opportunity to get their jobs back (if they haven’t found better employment in between).
Raise money while cutting back on programs that don’t apply towards SAT scores.
Fund raise in the community. Instead of raising funds for teachers to be innovative, let’s first make sure we can pay for our teachers to continue to teach our children.
Eliminate the general music class requirement for students in band or orchestra.
Eliminate phy. Ed. requirement at middle and high school level for those involved in extra-curricular sports.
Eliminate “success centers” programs and refer those students to Kumon or other private providers or institute a charge for these services.
In contrast to the suggestion that there be a "small across the board cut to all departments" I reviewed the budget from last year. In all, the district is to be commended for staying within budget overall. However, in looking at line items, it is apparent that some areas completely blew past their budget. I would suggest that these are the areas that should be scrutinized. Rather than equally cutting all areas, look at those that have historically not managed within their budgets. If they were held to their budgets, the school district could likely manage other expenses to come in under budget. Specifically, I would target the following areas that were over budget last year:

I am not intimately aware of why these areas were over budget. For Transportation and Maintenance, I would have to believe gas prices took them by surprise. But when looking into areas to save, I would suggest a deeper dive into these expenditure overruns and holding them accountable to stay within their budgets.

Finally, I would challenge the district's All Day Kindergarten option. It appears to be a negative impact to the budget. None of us want to see young children pay the price for today's economic situation, but it would seem that is a program that could go back to 1/2 days and still provide Edinans with a strong education program overall.=

I am thinking the district should go open source on it's Office software. It's a major savings.
I recommend using a lecture/small group format like those used in universities for appropriate classes in high school. Health and possibly 9th grade government are two that come to mind. The cost reduction would result If the class met three out of every four times in "lecture' format (say 100 students) and the fourth time in small groups of 15. If structured and scheduled properly (so that any one student would only have one or two classes taught like this over the course of their four high school years), the impact on learning might be negligible and there could even be benefits in terms of preparing students for college lecture classes.
Eliminate .50 assistant secretary for superintendent. The fulltime secretary for the superintendent should be sufficient. Other administrative secretaries could assist as needed. Savings of $28K.
If an employee is required to attend a meeting after normal work hours, employee must flex their time within the week to avoid paying overtime.
Work with teacher union to reduce extra curricular and service payment rates by 5%. This would save about $60K.
ReReRe - use recycled binders, file folders and other supplies.Keep office supply inventory low and order only as needed.
Discourage purchasing duplicate materials from department to department or from school to school if items can be shared without huge inconvenience. (Slight inconveniences are tolerated!) Encourage shared inventories toward this purpose.
Eliminate Chemical/Mental Health Coordinator position.
What are the state mandated hours for music, art, and gym? Reduce to 2 times per week for each.
Reduce field trip budgets by doing virtual field trips through distance learning.
Would it make sense to house 6th and 7th grade in one middle school and 8th and 9th in another??? isn't there a possibility of avoiding some overlap and save some money that way??? kids are bussed all over Edina anyway.
Put teacher and school "wish lists" on the website, so that parents who have access to overstocked office supplies and other items can identify the needs and supplement the budget.
Follow Senator Geoff Michael's lead at the state level and freeze all salaries once the teachers contracts expire. If this legislation passes, this will become Minnesota law and will not violate labor laws.
Freeze all non-contract employees salaries immediately.
Have the superintendent give up the take home car and use that money in the classroom.
Although my daughter is involved with Edina high school athletics (and she enjoys her experience very much), I believe that there are plenty of opportunities for kids to pursue athletic endeavors outside of the school environment.
As a student, I feel that our schools can use less energy by carefully manipulating heating, cooling, light usage, water usage, electricity usage, and so on. A bigger, more prolific problem I encountered as a student is the amount of paper each teacher uses for class work. I wish we can all use less paper, for example, at the copy center at the High School, which can help reduce operating costs.
Less field trips. These are all the trips we take with our families. Less computers at the elementary level where they need hands on experience in classroom, for the formative years.
I recommend using a lecture/small group format like those used in universities for appropriate classes in high school. Health, possibly 9th grade government are two that come to mind. The cost reduction would result If the class met three out of every four times in "lecture' format (say 100 students) and the fourth time in small groups of 15. If structured and scheduled properly (so that any one student would only have one or two classes taught like this over the course of their four high school years), the impact on learning might be negligible and there could even be benefits in terms of preparing students for college lecture classes.
I'll gladly give the district back TWO days of paid leave to save teachers! Let's also look at districts like Orono, who are growing and hiring staff, and explore how their "Education Alliance" has helped them with budget issues. Additionally, if Edina has more than SIX MILLION in the bank, this is the time to use a portion of this money to MAINTAIN excellent schools.
Reduce gifted/talented staffing with sharing of resources between schools.
Consolidation of middle school programs into single campuses. In other words put 8 & 9th at VV and 6 & 7 at SV. Align schedules at VV & HS. Savings through consolidating some course classes where there are fewer students, buses for VV and HS would be same (HS buses are not fully utilized). Allows students to accelerate and take classes early. This would also facilitate retakes between 9th & 10th grades as well thus saving costs of summer programs.
Do we need to continue the Continuous Progress program? The curriculum appears to be the same at all grade levels. They utilize a lot of extra staff in the form of Instructional assistants, and also seem to have more field trips that other students do not, like Camp St. Croix. It seems to be an expensive program to run. But are there enough benefits to make it worth the expense?
Make all extra curricular activities just that, self sustaining. this would include the cost of utilities and personnel that organize and run those activities.
Use a 4 day work week
Perhaps there are expenses for services currently being performed for the district that could be performed by students either in connection with classroom curricula or as community service projects. For instance, I recall that last Spring SVMS had Saturday student volunteers spread mulch in outdoor planted ares. I think that work would otherwise have been done by an outside company at a cost to the district. How much of this type of thing is being done at other schools? There may be regular contracted duties that could be performed by student and/or student/parent volunteer groups for the cost of a few donuts. Not only could this generate cost savings but could further enhance school community involvement.
Investigate home school or online learning options for offerings in the middle school like FACS, Health and 21st Century Literacy.
Use more volunteers from the community for office staffing in the school buildings and extra custodial help.
This may have to be done at the legislative level, but Special Ed. per pupil funding needs to have a cap amount that is reasonable.
Eliminate district paid cell phone except in absolutely necessary instances (for example, custodians who share phones in shifts because they need to respond to emergencies); this can be tax-deductible for employees when they use their personal cell phones. Administrators and coordinators and most other employees should use personal cell phones and take advantage of tax deductions for employees expenses.

If media specialists did not have to teach a 20 minute lesson to all classes k-5 each day you could cut the media clerk positions and the media specialists could work on supporting the teachers in their curricular areas. Most lessons could easily be incorporated into current curriculum and it would allow media specialists to have more time to work on the other areas of their jobs. They are highly overworked, but without the teaching wouldn't need the clerk to check out books. Students or teachers could take over the checking out of books. Volunteers can help shelve books.

Consider not providing beverages and/or food at district meetings. People could reasonably be expected to bring their own beverages.

No more unnecessary remodeling/renovations to offices/areas that do not need it.

Eliminate several of the unnecessary stipends that staff are being paid i.e. theatre managers, middle school athletic directors.

Eliminate "mileage" payments or travel stipends to employees who travel as part of their jobs. If it is work-related the employee may be able to use a tax deduction when filing federal taxes. This would save the district a substatial amount and may even benefit individual employees with taxes.

I know that many of the EPS's teachers attend seminars, curriculum enhancement programs, get additional certificates at UST etc. Could there be someway all this wonderful information be put together in a for fee EPS seminar that is offered to other districts/teachers for Continuing education credits? It seems like EPS might do more than other schools and could really offer some good ideas and tips to MN districts. If they become better we are all better. In addition could there be some sharing of info between districts in other areas of learning - Gifted Ed, Spec Ed, etc.

Is it possible to buy curriculum and share it with other districts?

Consider reopening open enrollment.

Increase size of same sex Phy. Ed. classes in 8th -12th grade. Students are older and much better able to work together. By having same sex classes it would allow for easier curriculum choices for the larger group of students.

Is Phy. Ed. required for graduation? Consider allowing extra curricular sports to satisfy Phy. Ed. credit.

Consider increasing class size by one to two students.

Please examine the goals of the elementary school Spanish program. If the program is to teach Spanish it really needs to be every day starting at a very young age. If the program is to teach cultural awareness this curriculum could be incorporated into the structure of the day and not require a separate class.

Examine all mandatory student tests by the state and district. Could any of these tests be combined to reduce time and money spent on testing?

Consider opening a success center for struggling students so that these students can be kept in the Edina District and not sent out to 287 or some other district/school.

Combine as many programs as possible at one school center i.e. special education, autism program etc.

Make sure teachers are not duplicating work/effort when teaching the same curriculum - share resources amongst staff.

Consider 1/2 day weekly furloughs for non essential personal. Although still a hardship on those individuals - much better than losing total income.

Can the district charge for parking for students and staff? In most other occupations people pay to park at work and even pay to park at home if they live in an apt or condo.

Can the district set up a for fee tutoring service staffed by Edina teachers? This service would run outside of normal media center hours and after school hours. Could this idea be expanded to have music teachers and coaches use time to offer private or small group lessons or tutorials?
I think we need to look into the energy savings of outside lighting with LED lights. There is a high energy cost savings per day burning these lights instead of sodium lamps et al.

If there needs to be a salary freeze, it needs to be for all personnel, not just teachers. For administrators and other personnel to have increases and not teachers, leads to huge moral issues among other things.

Ask parents across the district, if they are willing to be notified via email, rather than traditional mail, when correspondence is required by law, and if they are willing to sign a waiver that states their agreement to be notified electronically. This would save postage and paper costs, especially in special education. It would also save a considerable amount of staff time in paper work, time that can be spent with students.

The routinely overlooked elderly population of this community is a huge resevoir of knowledge and assistance. Recruit them, involve them. Some would love to attend one of the many interesting classes at the high school and gladly pay "tuition" (if space allows). Some would love to voluteer for events. People like to be asked - ask them. They are experts in ways we can't yet know or understand. They lived through the depression and WWII rationing...they probably have a lot of ideas about how to make do with what you have. Use other means of tapping their wisdom other than the internet (they don't all have access to it).
Eliminate band, orchestra and Spanish at the elementary level. These programs are more effectively carried out at the middle and high school level.

Expand the CP model at the elementary level to adding additional "families" - Consider creating a 6th -7th model where one teacher is delivering multi-subject instruction - math and science or reading and social studies -
Eliminate the 5 English-only teaching positions at French-immersion: the full time teachers assigned to each classroom should be able to teach English as well as their current curriculum. These 5 extra teaching positions are above and beyond what the other elementaries receive, creating unequal access to programming across the district.

Reduce levy on teachers Q-comp for District goal and increase levy in another area.

Eliminate overnight field trips.

Modify 8 block middle school

Cut all vacation pay for individuals who are not 12 month employees and are not allowed to take vacations during the school year anyway. It almost resembles a "bonus".

Cut one Teacher Workshop day from each School.
Do we really need "supervisors" that have only one person that they supposedly supervise? Seems to me it's just a way to get around the unions and a way to pay certain individuals a larger salary. Maybe supervisors aren't such a good idea.
Charge for parking at school events.
Eliminate person who does scheduling. Put this at each school under the school secretary.
Eliminate district office receptionist and or cut h.r. staff 1 employee.
Reduce clerical by 5%.

Raise class size by 1-2

Eliminate one district level administrator

Eliminate the district print shop.

Eliminate the district energy manager

Reduce grounds staff as much as possible and consider hiring City of Edina or contracting.

Do every other day cleaning of classrooms. Work on children to keep rooms neater. Reduce custodial staff.

Do buy outs for staff near retirement. Either don't replace or hire someone at lower salary.

Review memberships in professional associations paid by the district and cut as many as possible.

Consider eliminating all conferences for one year.

Eliminate paraprofessionals in the Music Dept. How many departments have their own paras.?

Disregard the M.M.E.A. guideline for number of students in a music class. This would allow the district to have music class-sizes comparable to other subject areas, resulting in a reduction of the music staff.

Put motion sensor light switches in all bathrooms.

Move District nurse into a building like the high school. Eliminate or reduce the health aide there.

No Sunday activities that cost the district.

No out of metro area travel for sports, arts programs like band, orchestra, choir. Don't give comp time to instructors for trips like band and orchestra trips. Eliminate.
In the DO, to pay bills: discontinue using Request for Payment (RFP)forms. Instead, stamp each invoice with a "box" with spaces for the expenditure code, approval signatures/dates and vendor number. Saved is the time employees spend to copy the name, address, description of expense, amount, invoice number and invoice date from one sheet of paper (the invoice) to another sheet of paper (the RFP form). Also saved is time checking each RFP. Accounts Payable data entry work would take some extra time and skill. Might be able to reduce staff.
1-1 laptop initiative should be delayed until better financial times.
Paperless meetings district-wide. Make electronic copies available on the server.
Eliminate extra duty of lunchroom supervision. Have staff rotate through.
End all school-sponsored extra-curricular sports. Continue community-sponsored teams.
Cut to bare bones the "out of school Workshops" per teacher paid by district. The fees, plus substitutes, plus travel expenses add up.
Reduce the length of the school day for middle/high schools students by requiring at least one or two online courses per term.
Return to the model of having a shared gifted and talented resource teacher for VV and SV. Use the same approach and have a shared reading specialist for both VV and SV. Reduce clerical staff at the middle and high school level by one at each site. Eliminate after school success centers/homework labs. Eliminate TOSA positions
Freeze wages for a minimum of 6 months across the board.
Increase class size in the secondary level, especially in the high school, by two to four students.
Consider enrollment minimum guidelines for elective classes in the high school. If class size is below a certain target range, then do not offer the class.
Cut out athletics.
Discontinue paying teachers to monitor study hall in the high school. Teachers could rotate on a volunteer basis, or use security monitors.
Eliminate TOSAs
The district appears to utilize a great deal of consultants, pollsters, and lobbyists. I don't know how much is spent, or how these expenditures are approved, but we need to closely scrutinize these expenditures and use community resources whenever possible.
Make elementary classroom parties more outdoor-less formal events and use those PTA funds to pay for things needed in the classroom.
Eliminate science paraprofessional position in elementary schools and let teachers organize/keep track of science materials.
I teach at Valley View and am raising my own children. I love teaching, and I love teaching in Edina, but I am finding that full time is too much for me. Half time, teaching on just an A day or a B day, would be heavenly for me, but is not an option, or not an easy one at this point. I attended the job-share meeting and found that there are many many mom/teachers out there who would like to work part time. What about making more full-time positions into 2 half-times? My family would have medical coverage through my husband's job, and this would save Edina quite a bit, if they didn't have to pay medical for as many teachers....
Get corporate sponsorship of extracurricular activities: sell naming rights to district athletic fields payable over 10-20 years; football halftime sponsored by Jerry's Hardware; hockey intermissions sponsored by General Sports; homecoming sponsored by the Westin; etc.
Have students preparing internal and external communication/marketing materials. You have graphics, Journalism, and Yearbook students at the high school level who are headed to prestigious colleges. They are fully capable of producing high-quality communications materials. Move as many of these school-district wide communications to the Web as possible to save paper and printing costs.
Does Edina teach Microsoft computer programming? If so, check out the Microsoft Developers Network Academic Alliance (MSDNAA). For a subscription fee, you get license-free programming applications for classroom use. If the subscription is less than the licenses would otherwise be, it would achieve permanent annual savings.
Get technology donations from the community. Many Edina residents may have old but functional technology to donate. Set up a wish list so that you're not overrun with junk instead of working goods.
Prepare cost-benefit analyses procedures for technology repair vs. upgrade vs. replacement. For example, if a computer is depreciated already and fixing it would cost more than replacement, replace it. If a fully depreciated computer was slated for replacement, perhaps upgrading it will get through a few more years (purchase memory in bulk, etc.).

For computer and related technology repair/service, can we tap into the technology students in the high school? Maybe we can form a computer hardware diagnostic and repair club/program (if one doesn't already exist). They would get practical experience working on district technology. We could get them A+ certified first or develop a district-certification for them.
Eliminate: HR Sec'y/Sub Scheduler, District Office Receptionist Reduce to PT or Eliminate position: HR Staffing Specialist Reduce to PT or Eliminate position: Manager of Human Resources Reduce to PT: Teacher Clerks
Why is Orchestra expected to make do with less than $6 per student, when the combined total of Band + Singers is over $200 per student? Band and Singers need to have this budget number reduced significantly.
Remove zero hour
Look at food services and see if we could reduce the amount of food thrown away, bought. Change the way we serve students. Make our own? Salad bar?
Discontinue using the services of vector and bring those services in-house. Or use transition plus. We send about 12 per year at $30k per students.
Eliminate costly professional development programs such as: Transforming School Counseling
Reduce copy expenses by managing account #’s at an individual level
Middle schools to six period day will be better for high school preparedness.
Replace math help teacher w/ paraprofessional
Re-evaluate TOSAs – instructional TOSAs, tech TOSAs
Have kids provide tissues rather than buy the “bad” school types
One Valley View Rd school with shared administration: 8-9 at VV and 10-12 at high school. This would reduce admin costs and 8-9 could be on 6 period day (further reducing costs)
Energy costs can be reduced by shutting off lights when not in use – TV monitors, signs, etc are on 24/7.
Increase AP and enriched class sizes. Do NOT increase class sizes for regular courses.
Pay freezes ONLY for those making over $100,000.
Don’t print Q1 and Q3 report cards – send online.
Dept printers/copy budget: track individual teachers.
Track lost textbooks & don’t replace them, or follow through!!
Reduce staff development budget.
Open source technologies (Moodle) instead of Edline that we need to pay for.
No administrative travel paid for by school district if unnecessary – 1 admin per trip.
Replace in-service days with unpaid days off for staff.
Should layoffs be necessary, do 0.8 days spread among existing staff instead (union role necessary?)
Eliminate the barrier between $ for capital projects and $ for ongoing operations.
Printer software to monitor/limit student printing.
Mailing to homes – is there any room to cut more? Can we better consolidate all information that families would need and deliver electronically?
TIES – is this the most cost-effective way to get these services?
Electrical use – reduce lights in hallways.
No more treats at staff meetings (coffee, cookies, etc.).
No paras in AP classes.
Paraprofessional no more glorified note takers (archaic); instead use them less often with more disabled students. Use a TA or a model student’s notes.
Submit student work electronic.
Study packet online.
ALL handbooks online.
Special education copying costs -- communicate electronically instead.
Reduce admin pay – go back to 07-08 levels.
School board should forego stipend until budget crisis is over.
Cut on-line subscriptions.
Replace AP with dean.
Restructure district admin positions.
Eliminate NUA literacy/numeracy position.
Review the numbers of registrants for courses versus the number of students who remain in the class. Are we running sections of courses that look viable at registration but are really not viable in actuality?
Check the accountability of school clubs. Some barely meet, yet the advisor collects a stipend.
Q Comp: Find a way to keep the system but eliminate coaches
Use existing edline accounts to access email addresses to email the 7 absence attendance letter. We would have to mail letters to families who do not have an existing edline account or email. Via the news letter, we could continue to remind parents to sign up for edline. Letter would need to be re-formatted in a manner suitable for edline. The current format does not make a good transition to edline. Contracts cannot be emailed. This will save postage, the toner cartridge in the printer, envelopes and eventually time.
Limit the General Office Supply budget to testing materials, i.e. Bluebooks, scan forms, scan machine cartridges.
Supplies ordered would be for the Main Office only. Departments would have to either purchase supplies out of their budget, or request that students bring in supplies such as pencils, pens, white board markers and paper supplies, etc. This is done at our elementary schools and should be implemented here.
PE would have to purchase or students would need to supply pens for the weight room!
Find a more cost-effective graduation site than Northrop Auditorium.
Decrease fund balance.
Evaluate cost trade-offs (for good or bad) associated with in-house online learning.
4 day work week.
In-house Transition Program for higher functioning IEP students
Have high school students contribute their services to the school by doing extra custodial work - they can count them as service hours for community service. Can reduce custodial staff if it is done well.
With all of the new technology and administrative staff using more technology (no dictation, no having secretaries type out everything, etc.), suggest you cut a secretary in each district office department. No impact on kids. If you don't already have pool secretarial stuff, going to that would probably make up for much of the staff loss.
Go to more online text books for core courses. Only need two sets of math books instead of enough for everyone. Have a couple of extras that can be checked out. Else, all information available online. Bonus - no more forgotten textbooks we have to race back to school to get from the locker!
Eliminate or significantly scale back the French immersion program.
There are reports that there are disparities between the middle schools performance levels for High School. Perhaps this is a time to be bold and combine the middle schools (they are less than a mile apart), increase the class sizes (Edina has a preponderance of good students whose academic performance would not be impacted by larger classes), and adjust the bus schedules to accommodate, junior high, middle school, and high school. Cut the extra classes that don't directly contribute to college prep.Combine and eliminate administrative staff positions. If you have a child who is lacking in social skills have the parents pay for counseling, not the tax payer.
Audit expenditures versus budget for every department by an outside group (from a neighboring school district). Enforce the budget.
Eliminate perks, stipends, and transportation for employees.
Eliminate extra money (e.g. stipends, differentials, extra assignments monies, concert participation monies, participation in conferences monies) and compensatory time employees receive for doing their job duties.
If it comes down to affecting the students, administrators should go.
I believe it would save money and time if the counselors at the high school submitted college counselor recommendations on-line.
Is it necessary to have three people registering and providing information for AP exams, especially when payment and materials are on line. Why doesn't the gifted and talented person handle AP exams. On the test dates, could there be volunteers to help with duties other than the test administration.
Is it necessary to have all of the coaches for one sport. For example, do you really need a coach specifically for punting?? and this is only for the varsity team. The athletic dept. needs to distribute money more evenly. Hockey and football are more expensive sports than cross country, why are the fees similar.
Reduce or eliminate giving overload assignments to more senior teachers and give them to new or less senior teachers. Could save as much as $100K per year.
Eliminate the District retirement event. Buildings can have their own. Seems like very few employees go anyway.
Why not merge some of your administration with the city of Edina? Can't you do some business related functions with them and save a lot of money. What about personnel department too? What about having them plow the school parking lots instead of you doing that. Work together and save some tax dollars!
Since this can be viewed in full on our website, WHY would anyone waste the money to print it in color on quality paper and distribute it into staff mailboxes.
Could one or more of the assistant principal positions become year long paid internships at a teacher contract level capped at for example $45,000/year? Compared to the annual salaries of AP’s who earn approximately $100,000/year this is a significant cost savings. A principal or other on site administrator in addition to adjunct professor advisors could work as mentors with the individual(s). We would be able to keep our current level of building administrators but at a significantly lower cost. Such a program would likely be able to feed itself with licensed Edina Public Schools staff seeking administrative licensure. As a result, we would have interns working in our buildings who already have an understanding of the Edina culture and learner needs. I would consider this indirect revenue generation since it represents a savings in revenue via reduced operating expenses without a loss in staffing positions. I believe other districts e.g. Anoka Hennepin and St. Paul Public Schools offer year long administrative internships.

Revenue Enhancements

Is there a way to use contributions of the community for daily operations? What I mean is that contributions for example to the Ed. Fund are for certain particular projects, no necessarily for daily operations affected by the budget.
Increase the admission price for athletic, choir, and band events.
Promote gym rental to local churches for a gym night once every month or two for kids
Institute transportation fees
Increase supply fees for those who can afford it.
Increase grant writing activities.
Pledge drive for District employees where interested staff can volunteer to give back one day (or more) of pay prorated over the year. If the average person is $300/day, that would be a savings of approximately $360,000 based on 1200 employees.
For Edina High School, have some “fund raisers” with students selling items or food items.
I am not in favor of cutting back any curriculum. Music, Physical Education, and Art all all important subjects that increase student academic achievement. I think you can only make small cuts across the board. As a parent, even though money is tight, I would rather be asked to pay a fee for something than watch it get cut. Working together maybe we can figure out how to raise the money.
Create and strongly advertise some fundraising ideas.
Sell items from the Website,etc. Sell advertising... the Creek Valley carnival is just one example of what can be done with organizing.
Increase fee &/or initiate a busing fee for children that attend private schools in Edina.
Similar to the bussing option for those Edina residents living in the Hopkins school district (where families can pay an amount of $$ to have their kids bussed to Edina Schools), do the same with the areas of Edina that are in the Richfield school district near Southdale.
Start selling naming rights to buildings/stadiums, sell advertisements on website or paper schools use.
Increase all sport fees and student parking fees by 50% or more.
Increase all rental rates for facility use.
Has there been any consideration given to asking the nine parent organizations to fund something needed? If the organizations do not fund smaller mini grants (for one year) and if the teachers agree to do without the hospitality also for one year the district could have quite a some of money to put to good use. I realize this would need parent approval but I think it is worth pitching to the PLC.
Consider creating a for profit summer success center for struggling students from the twin cities. Edina has many highly qualified/gifted educators who could really make a difference in a student's life. In addition to academics this center could have counseling, social work, and mentoring services offered as well.
Maintaining a 9% fund balance is nice, but in analyzing the current economy, shouldn't we use some of those funds to keep from making cuts? Most districts around the state maintain a 5%-6% fund balance. I believe if the district would spend down that reserve to 6% rather than 9% we would have the $2.5 million in funds to get us through the next two years without making cuts.
Allow advertising in football stadium. Advertising is all over the place already. Provides opportunity for local businesses as well. May small towns have baseball parks, etc. that do it. Doubt it would impact the kids.
Solar and wind power!
Fees for clubs.
Put ads on school buses.
School store to sell basic supplies.
Ask the DECA class at the high school to create and run fundraising businesses. I suggest more in-school dances or all school functions. The high school kids are spending a lot on dances - how could the high school/district capture more of the money kids are prepared to spend for things like Sweethearts Dance?
Charge a little bit more for plays. They are definitely worth it & could bring in some extra revenue.
Work with local restaurants, retailers, etc. to increase promotions, were a portion of money spent is kicked back to the local schools. Work together across schools, to ensure that this money is distributed equitably. Make sure it's marketed, so families make it part of their routine. Finally, provide information on how much money comes in each month and how it benefits the schools and local businesses.
Remove the thousands of square feet of copper sheeting recently installed on EHS and VVMSm and sell them to a scrap metal dealer.
Make sure all school offices have postage meters or scales and current postal rates to reduce excessive postage.
Allow advertising on outside electronic signs at the ECC and EHS. Many groups already using our facilities would love the opportunity for a few extra dollars to advertise their event and the amount of manpower spent to achieve this would be next to nothing.
Allow real estate companies (for a fee) to advertise on the website. As families continue to move to Edina, just for the schools, they'd be provided with info to find a home near a particular school or neighborhood. Individual realtors could also pay a fee (or give a % of Edina sales) to be listed as "specializing" in homes in Edina.
Consider asking families or residents of the school district to make a gift/donation to the school district to either help ease the general budget shortfall or to maintain specific programming. Maybe if it was broken down (such as $xxx dollar per family/student to erase shortage) would help those who are able to make a contribution.
Find money from sources also outside the district, such as allowing advertising in stadiums etc. More major fundraising events such as bringing in a big name entertainer, selling tickets and using the proceeds.
Have an annual service auction. Students, parents, employees, and Edina residents offer services at a district fundraising event. All proceeds benefit the district. Items up for bid could include household chores (lawn mowing, raking, etc.); weekend getaways at residents' cabins; etc. These events are a lot of fun, bring the community together, and raise a lot of money without seeming desperate.
Get corporate sponsorship of extracurricular activities: sell naming rights to district athletic fields payable over 10-20 years; football halftime sponsored by Jerry's Hardware; hockey intermissions sponsored by General Sports; homecoming sponsored by the Westin; etc.
Create incentives for students to spend lunch money at EHS by charging them for off-campus lunch passes. If they want to go off-campus, we you raise revenue by selling passes. If they stay at EHS, they are more likely to buy food or drink, thereby raising revenue.
Instead of countless fundraisers (Sally Foster, etc.), we can do a cash-raising drive for Edina. Yes, we can do this every year. We raise money each year for American Heart Association (and should continue to do so), so why not for Edina public schools?
Institute realistic bussing fees. Follow Eden Prairie's example of $175 per student to a maximum of $295 per family (2008-09 fee structure). Apply two mile distance allowed by law for all grades.
Increase cost paid by students for AP exam.
Lab fees for science.
Extra charge for other schools to use Edina for AP testing site.
Rental fees for textbooks put into high interest savings account.
Increase fees for schedule changes.
Increase boots on cars.
Students purchase more materials.
Increase the cost of transcripts by $1.00 (from $4 to $5).
Charge students who are caught vandalizing.
Golf tourney/fun run – yearly even, involve community.
Target “choose your school” campaign. Move your school as kids grow up.
Community skate w/hockey team – hockey team just gave lots of $ to diabetes.
Selling unused equipment/books (used book company).
Copy fee collected from students.
Have fundraisers involving teachers, students – everybody. Non-profit organizations could donate money to us for our work. Clubs could compete for those who raises more money.
Reduce the budget reserve and set a consistent percentage.
Increase/create fees for participation in athletic programs.
Find a more cost-effective graduation site than Northrop Auditorium.
Hold bake sales.
Surcharge on tickets for performances to off-set equipment expenses.
Charge for pencils, binders that we give to kids.
Paper & pencil vending machines or school store.
In-house Transition Program for higher functioning IEP students.
Membership fees for fitness center.
Add activity fee for middle and high schools music classes to cover cost of concerts and music. Eliminate ticket fees at events and charge more upfront.
Turn the SV Winterfest into a fundraising event. Many of the students love to attend and we are missing a revenue generating opportunity.
Can we get more Perkins funding by integrating more workplace and academic subjects? 2006 Perkins allows more technology subjects into the mix, such as certification prep. Edina used to do Cisco training. Time to revisit?
Raise the rent for facilities and start actively renting out our turf field, filed house, and performing arts center. See if some of the major performing arts groups (St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, VocalEssence, etc.) would do show in EPAC.
Take out ads for all school publications. Should work towards having anything printed paying for iteself. Nice to have good communication but get creative. What about ads on school and district websites as well. Kids are seeing ads all over the place on the internet so why not there.

Edina Public Schools Budget Feedback 2009-2010

Expense Reductions

Revenue Enhancements

EDINA SCHOOL
DISTRICT

CONTACT US

Edina Public Schools Budget Feedback 2009-2010

Expense Reductions

Revenue Enhancements

EDINA SCHOOL DISTRICT

CONTACT US

EDINA SCHOOL
DISTRICT