Batavia school board cool to hiring consultant

Batavia school officials decided Tuesday they are not interested in hiring a Boston-based firm to analyze scheduling at its elementary and middle schools and examine how they could be more efficient.

Instead, many of the members said a more "holistic" approach - including studying administrative staffing - needs to be taken to find efficiencies, as the district addresses a projected, preliminary $1.2 million deficit in its 2018 budget. And several said studying just scheduling wasn't worth the cost.

Who will do the looking - staff members, the board or outside experts - was not settled.

The discussion came as the board considered pursuing a three-year contract, which could total as much as $195,000, with District Management Council Inc.

DMC co-founder and chief executive officer John J-H Kim presented a proposal to the board to analyze the school schedules, using the firm's proprietary software. They would also help develop staff schedules based on their recommendations.

Kim is a professor in Harvard University's business school. He was a founder and CEO of the Chancellor Beacon Academies charter-schools company in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Board President Cathy Dremel favored having consultants review the district's practices, because outsiders would not have the biases board members and staff have, she said.

Board member John Dryden questioned Kim about his claim DMC had done "deep, deep research" about scheduling, saying he couldn't find any studies. Kim said their studies were not published in academic journals, only in its own journal.

Dryden also pointed to reports he had found that the efficiencies DMC had found for other clients included putting more special-education students back in to mainstream classrooms, thus using fewer special-education teachers and aides.

Board members and administrators noted the biggest cost in the district is employees, and therefore the biggest savings would be found in the personnel budget.

"Even in the holistic approach, somebody is going to lose a job. And taking away a (paraprofessional) or taking away an administrator is going to hurt our (programming for) students," board member Tina Bleakley said.