by Luther Dorr 

Milaca has joined with the Braham, Foley, Mora and Ogilvie school districts in trying to figure out a way to share administrative services and thus save money.

The five districts hired Springsted, Inc., a consulting firm, to help the districts come up with ideas for cost-saving measures.

Springsted issued its report late last year and Superintendent Jerry Hansen shared the results with members of the Milaca School Board in December.

“It’s a way to look at saving money,”Hansen said in an interview Monday. “All five districts are in a similar situation.

“How can we spend more wisely? Maybe that is by sharing services.”

Springsted interviewed superintendents from the five districts (there are two other new ones besides Hansen), business mangers and most school board members from those districts.

And then two weeks ago Hansen met with the other four superintendents to talk about possibilities for saving money. The superintendents will meet again on Friday of this week.

For example, Hansen said, Milaca spends about $18,000 a year on a financial audit that is required by the state, an amount similar to what the Foley district spends.

Meanwhile, the other three districts spend just under $10,000 each.

“Maybe if we go together [in sending out proposals] we can save money,” Hansen said.

It’s possible, Hansen said, that the size of the district partially dictates what an audit can cost.

But Milaca (1,912 students in the 2007-08 school year) and Mora (1,854) are similar in size and yet had an $8,000 difference in audit costs.

Enrollments in the other districts for that school year are Foley – 1,645, Braham – 928, Ogilvie – 610.
In 2007-08 Milaca spent $7,865 per student from the general fund, well under the state average of $9,292.
Braham ($7,923), Foley ($7,936) and Mora (7,969) were close to Milaca in spending, while Ogilvie ($9,247) came in close to the state average.

For that school year Milaca, Braham, Foley and Mora were classified as low-spending school districts by state standards.

Costs per student from the general fund went up an average of 47 percent in the state from 1998 to 2008, while costs in the Milaca district went up about 39 percent, second-lowest among the five districts.

For the 2007-08 school year the Milaca district trailed average state spending in eight categories of 10. For example, administration costs per student were $495, compared to the state average of $778. Regular instruction costs were $3,456 per student, lower than the other four districts and well under the state average of $4,282

Other costs that might be shared by the five districts, Hansen said, are bids  for dairy products, insurance and fuel.

He also talked about the possibility of legal services being pooled and a cost saving realized in that area.

The Springsted report urged that cooperative purchasing agreements continue.

The Milaca district, for example, spends about $40,000 a year on copier paper and maybe that could be lowered, Hansen said.

Under the heading of procurement of services, the Springsted report listed the No. 1 area for saving money as the insurance area – property and liability, workers’ comp, life, dental and long-term disability among those.

Last year  the district paid $66,000 for workers’ comp insurance, $48,000 for property and liability, $23,300 for long-term disability and $16,800 for life insurance.

Ranked No. 2 as an area for possible savings was legal services, energy conservation was No. 3 and tied for No. 4 were the financial audit and health and safety consulting.

Each district paid Springsted $5,000 for the study.

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