By Abi Wood

To increase community input and take advantage of the information and intellectual power of community members, the board created three stakeholder councils. The basis of these councils was for each group to protect a separate aspect of the school. An academic, athletic, and transportation committee was formed. These committees met at the beginning of the school year and put a lot of work and time into research and collaborative thinking to find better ways for the school to run. Some of the ideas were cost-saving, some were at no cost to the district and some did cost more money.

The complete presentations and documents created by the stakeholder councils can be found on the district website at http://www.galwaycsd.org/board_education.cfm?subpage=1413337

One of the things that most of the councils did to begin was to investigate the current structure of the school and the program. This data was then often compared to other schools and to companies that could be used for out-sourcing.

One of the things that the athletic stakeholder council investigated was the current salaries of the coaches as well as the transportation expenses. The salaries were compared between Galway coaches and the coaches of Burnt-Hills Ballston Lake School District. The suggestion of negotiating with the teachers’ union to reduce the number of chaperones at different events. The effect of this information currently is limited and the amount of money set aside for sports in the budget is approximately the amount it costs to run the current varsity program, although the actual programs that will be run next year are to be determined.

A major idea presented by the transportation stakeholders was a single run in the afternoon. The combination of the elementary and junior/senior high school into one run, theoretically is possible and would allow for a slightly longer high school day. This would save approximately $70,000 in fuel, tires and oil. However the three extra drivers needed to run extra bus runs, would cost the district approximately $66,000, so the savings are minimal. However, the board is considering this and the possibility of implementing this next year. Other ideas were also presented and can be seen in the group’s report.

The academic stakeholder council presented a multitude of ideas that ranged from basic levels to more complicated projects. Some of the basic cost-cutting ideas have yet to be responded to by the board. Cutting classes that have little attendance and reducing the number of study halls are incredibly simple plans that the council presented but the Board hasn’t given any comments regarding this, other than the general thank you to the different councils.

When the Board of Education creates councils to aid them they should be responding and interacting with these councils, as well as implementing simple plans and considering more complex plans in order to improve the education and the system in Galway.

Have you read the stakeholders’ reports? What ideas do you think could work for the district? Please leave a comment below…