Saturday, August 23, 2014
By Ed Runyan
BROOKFIELD
The Brookfield Local School District, which has been in fiscal emergency since May 2013, has implemented several suggestions made by the Ohio Auditor’s Office to reduce costs.
The school-district performance audit released Thursday suggested the elimination of six noncertified support positions in the district, such as teaching aides, to bring the district in line with the numbers at similar schools in Ohio.
During the process of completing the performance audit, the district eliminated four such positions in the past three months, Timothy Saxton, schools superintendent, and David Drawl, treasurer, wrote in a reply to the audit dated Wednesday.
The audit said reducing six positions would save the district about $106,900 annually.
The audit also suggested increasing the contribution paid by employees toward their health-care premiums, saying the 5 percent paid by employees is below the average of 12.4 percent for single plans and 13.5 percent for family plans.
The report noted that obtaining its health insurance through a consortium allowed Brookfield to obtain lower-than-average premium costs, but additional savings should be considered by increasing employees’ contribution. That would save $70,500 annually on health insurance, the report said.
Requiring employees to pay the average of 13.7 percent on dental insurance instead of no contribution would save $15,800.
The audit also suggested that the district develop a “strategic plan or long-range goals and objectives to guide administrators and other decision-makers.”
“Without a comprehensive, long-range strategic plan, the district does not have the tools to assess the long-term financial implications of current and proposed policies, programs and assumptions,” the report said.
The previous performance audit also recommended creation of such a plan, the report said, adding that the district’s failure to undertake one “may have aided” in putting the district into its current financial trouble.
The district followed the audit’s suggestion to improve its reporting to the Ohio Department of Education and its review of data regarding transportation because of findings that data that was reported was inaccurate.
The district now uses routing and maintenance software that “will enable the district to accurately report and track” transportation data, Saxton and Drawl said in the response letter.