Town And School District Collaboration Talks Continue

By Eliza Hallabeck

More than a month after the school board heard a presentation on a report prepared by the consulting firm Blum Shapiro on merging town and school district functions, First Selectmen Pat Llodra and Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson spoke about the progress so far at the school board’s special meeting on Monday, August 20.

“We have had numerous conversations,” said Dr Robinson, “and very productive ones at that.”

Mrs Llodra would not say whether merging town and school functions could be completed in two years, but rather said the effort would be started soon and expressed a willingness to evaluate the process to make sure it suits the needs of both the town and the school district.

Outlined in the Operations Feasibility Study created by Blum Shapiro is a four-phase implementation plan. As previously reported by The Bee, the Blum Shapiro team recommends the town and school district implement a “Shared Services Model” using “a transitional approach to phasing into a new organizational structure” as follows:

Phase 1: Merge school district human resources and payroll with town;

Phase 2: Merge town maintainers with school district;

Phase 3: Merge town information technology with school district;

Phase 4: Merge school district financial operations with town potential savings outlined.

The consultants say that “utilizing current employees in new structure provides institutional knowledge of both organizations, provides stabilization, and enables existing employees ability to ensure new organization is a good fit.”

When Jeff Ziplow of Blum Shapiro appeared before the school board on July 10, he estimated the entire process could save between $400,000 and $500,000 over the five years of the plan. That amount included costs associated with purchasing electronic systems, but, as Dr Robinson told the school board on Monday, the estimated cost of purchasing computer software licenses needed for the town in Phase 1 is more than anticipated.

“So the cost benefit is not as we initially thought,” said Dr Robinson. “So at this point we are looking to see if we can maybe look at this a little broader. Maybe [we can] look at how those phases are laid out, and have a discussion so that we can outline what the essential functions that we are looking for on each side.”

Mrs Llodra said the next four to five months will be spent researching the first phase of the study more closely before a vendor is sought to purchase computer software that will solve both the district’s and the town’s needs.