U-CF plans to spend some, save some

Posted by Rich Schwartzman on March 19, 2014

The Unionville-Chadds Ford School District will be spending some money and looking for ways to save some money during the next few years.

On the spending side is an update to the district’s educational technology plan that could increase spending by more than $200,000 during the next three years.

A BYD — Bring Your own Device — policy, which took over for a plan to buy iPads for all students, will be coupled with another concept, LMS, or Learning Management System.

Both will enable students to access information from the Internet, information to which teachers can add.

Devices such as iPads will be provided for students who don’t have their own.

The move brings with it the need to revamp the district’s digital infrastructure to make accessing the Net and generating local intranets easier and more robust.

Changing that infrastructure comes with a cost. According to Director Kathy Do, the change will cost an additional $35,000 in the 2014-2015 school year, but more than $100,000 in each of the next two academic years. The increase for next year will be included in the upcoming budget deliberations, Do added during the March 17 School Board meeting at Chadds Ford Elementary School.

Other business

• Do was the lone “no” vote when the board voted 7-1 to work with School Operations Services Group Inc. to outsource custodial help on a test basis.

The pilot program runs through the end of this school year and will be evaluated at that time. Board President Vic Dupuis said members might not have enough information to properly judge the program by the end of June.

The board capped outsourcing to 10 percent of the affected departments. For the custodial department, that means four positions could be outsourced. That cap already exists for Personal Care Assistants.

While only one board member voted against the decision, others are taking a wait and see approach.

Carolyn Daniels voted yes, but added that she thinks it will show the importance of keeping the custodial staff in-house. She referred to custodians as the “first line of defense” when there are problems at a school.

Do cited talks with members of law enforcement who say that custodians are the first to respond to a crisis and their knowledge of the school building and the students and staff can be critical.

“I don’t like using outsourced custodians only to save money,” Do said.

Dupuis added that the idea behind the pilot program is to determine whether custodial service can be improved, not just to see if money can be saved. It’s a matter of understanding options, he added.

• The board voted 8-0 to award a contract bid for one 72-passenger bus and four nine-passenger vans to Wolfington Body Co. The net cost is $218,808.

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.