Innovation Celebration

North Penn School District

Christine Liberaski-Manager of School and Community Engagement

Bob Schoch-Director of Business Administration

North Penn School District

• 12,700 students• 2,000+ employees• 42 square miles• Montgomery County, northwest of Philadelphia• Mixed commercial, industrial, residential• .1600 aid ratio• Diverse population

Context for this Initiative

• Six day teacher strike in April of prior year resulted in 4% salary increases for teachers

• Zero tax increase requirement after ten years at 3%

• 5% staffing reduction through attrition• 38 demotions of teachers• Strategic plan with many initiatives approved

prior to recession

“If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.”

- (A. Einstein)

Objectives• Provide a positive experience in a very difficult time• Develop community’s appreciation of staff (6-day teacher strike in prior April)• Balance the budget both short- and long-term• Encourage change from business as usual due to long-term financial

challenges • Energize and engage entire school community to envision new ways

to operate more effectively (cost effectively)• Obtain input on idea and its implementation• Begin to publicize ideas• Build teamwork• Build community support eventually needed for referendums

The Concept

• Engage stakeholders (students, staff, community members, volunteers) to be part of the solution

• Design an expo-like atmosphere that encourages dialogue and interaction

• No cost

The Process

• Announced to staff in October and November for May event

• Poster board format– Using 16 PowerPoint slides– Sample format provided– Examples developed and showcased beginning in

January

Encouraging Participation

• Budget meetings at all schools and department-wide events in October and November

• March event at Departmental Improvement Advisory Committee (DIAC)

• Supervisors introduced the presentation and format within their departments

Challenges• Encouraging participation– Sample presentations at • Administrative meeting• Support staff meeting• Board meeting

• Uniformity or creativity?– Provided templates-12 to 16 PowerPoint slides– Suggested topics and layout– Resistance to low-tech approach

Employee Engagement• Employee Suggestion Program

• Employee Challenges– Mid-year reductions in current year-$500,000 target for schools, $1 million

for central administration and support services– Improvement Challenge: 3-year program starting next year

• 50 ideas worth $500,000• New ideas each year• Sustainable improvements• Public presentation of ideas annually in May at School

Improvement Expo (science fair format)• Objective: prove cost effectiveness to community

• "Companies have to nurture [creativity and motivation]—and have to do it by building a compassionate yet performance-driven corporate culture. In the knowledge economy, the traditional soft people side of our business has become the new hard side."— Gay MitchellExecutive VP, HR, Royal Bank

DIAC Exercise-One Hour

• Purpose: To help refine presentations so that they convince public and school board that they are ready to use to balance 2011-2012 budget.

• Format:– Presenters rotate 8 times between groups in 5-minute sessions.– Groups will be mixed so that no more than 3 people in a group are

from same function/department in order to show various perspectives on a proposal.

– Audience members offer improvement suggestions, raise questions, then dot vote on readiness for implementation.

– Brief recap at end on lessons learned today.– Publicity for May 2 event.

Elementary Supplies Provided By Parents$60,000 Expenditure Reduction

ACCESS/Medicaid Revenue$150,000 to $800,000 in 6 years. Can we do better?

Recycling

School Nutrition Services

• “In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. Management cannot be expected to recognize a good idea unless it is presented to them by a good salesman.”

- (David Ogilvy)

Energy Management$1.5 million potential in 3 years? 2 years?

• “The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.” - (Rupert Murdoch)

Logistics• Monday, May 2, 2011-7 to 9 p.m. in Penndale MS gym• Easels and tables provided• No cost to taxpayers-all supplies donated, voluntary/no pay• Poster Boards available in business office

– Green-revenue– Yellow-expenditure reduction– Other colors-investments in productivity– Format-see story boarding prompt, 16 PowerPoint slides– Push pins to draft, eventually spray adhesive (with assistance caution)

• Ideas now-works in progress are welcome– Approval to participate in late April– If not ready, prepare in future

• Widely publicized-invitations to local officials, media• Assistance available by unpaid intern skilled in PowerPoint, Excel-charts/graphs,

Visio, MS Project Schedule• Several opportunities in advance to simulate event at other meetings

The Event

Innovations Presented

Innovations Presented

Innovations Presented

TOPIC: DATE: LOW MEDIUM HIGH

GREEN-

ready to go for next year, 2011-12, or

sooner

Good idea but needs refinement.

Good idea; pretty well developed; refine quickly.

Completely ready to go; all estimates are reliable;

all implementation challenges have been

addressed; the schedule is reliable; why wait?

YELLOW- be

cautious

Idea may be good if properly developed.

Idea good but cannot be ready for next year.

Idea is good but will take much work to implement

for next year.

RED- stop Never Not soon Only under extreme

financial circumstances

Dot-Voting the Readiness to ImplementEach Person Votes with a Colored Dot on Each Presentation

Innovation Celebration TopicsRevenue Enhancement

ACCESS/Medicaid-Health Services for Eligible Special Education Students

Community Partnerships

Donations to District

Purchasing Services With Other School Districts

Recycling

School Nutrition Services-Revenue Increase Due to Participation

Surplus Disposal-Textbooks, Computers, Etc.

User Fees-General

User Fees-Parents Supplying Instructional Supplies

Educational Foundation

Electricity Demand Response

Assessment Appeals

Child Accounting-Relationship to Revenue and Expenditures

Athletics and Student Activities-Internal Auditing

Innovation Celebration TopicsInvestments in Productivity

Bidding Expansion-Technology

Budget Planning Model

Copying Effectiveness-Offices

Copying Effectiveness-School, Instruction

Electronic Document Management

Financial Reporting, Monthly Routine Revenue Reports

Health Care Costs

Instructional Resource Sharing-Elementary Books

Instructional Resource Sharing-Science Kits

Labor Saving Equipment

Innovation Celebration TopicsInvestments in Productivity

Labor Saving Methods

Six Sigma-Copying and Computer Printing

Transportation-Shared Services

Transportation-Utilization of Time and Bus Capacity

Quality Management Initiative

Strategic Plan

Quality Management Training

Innovation Celebration TopicsExpenditure Reduction

Bidding Expansion-General

Bidding Expansion-Transportation

Contract Administration

Energy Management

Energy Procurement-Natural Gas

Energy Procurement-Electricity

Energy-Holiday Curtailment

Living with Vacancies-Process Management Requirements

Postage Cost Reduction and Courier

Procurement of Supplies

Professional Development

Records Retention/Storage-Iron Mountain

Innovation Celebration TopicsExpenditure Reduction (Cont)

Secretarial Substitute Use

Special Education Funding

Textbook Purchasing

Warehouse-3 Year Evaluation of Six Sigma Design

Radio System Upgrade

Electronic Payment Programs

Prescription Drug Program-Self Funding

Case Studies in School Green Initiatives

Fixed Assets

Accounts Payable-Electronic Payments?

Electronic Document Management-Business Office/On Base

Innovation Celebration TopicsFinancial Management

Generating Budget Balancing Ideas

Input Received

• Practical constructive advice• Community acceptance– User fees from facilities rental to pay-to-play– Dot voting

The Financial Potential of Today’s PresentationsHow Soon Can the Potential be Achieved?

Initiative Projected Actual

Access/Medicaid $600,000 $ 1 million

Energy Management $500,00 $500,000

Energy- Holiday Curtailment $50,000 $89,000

Special Education – process improvements

$80,0000 $80,000

User Fees $50,000 $50,000

Copying $50,000 $25,000

Bidding Expansion $280,000 $350,000

Recycling $50,000 $50,000

School Nutrition Services Revenue

$470,000 $400,000

School Nutrition Expenditures $400,000 $370,000

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14

$(2,000,000)

$-

$2,000,000

$4,000,000

$6,000,000

$8,000,000

$10,000,000

$12,000,000

$14,000,000

$16,000,000

North Penn School District-Planned Budget Balancing Efforts Feb-ruary 23, 2011

Less assessment appeals Referendum exception-retirement rateReferendum exception-special education Tax increase allowed by Act 1Employee Challenge-Current Year, becomes fund balance

Unfilled Positions

Use PSERS Rate Stabilization Fund Eliminate PSERS Rate Stabilization Fund Contribu-tion

Postpone Inglewood Renovations One Time Items-reduce budgetary reserveEnergy management Transportation-utilization of capacity and timeTransportation-shared nonpublic and special ed-ucation service

Copying cost reduction

Printing cost reduction-Six Sigma report Employee challenge-expenditure reductionsEmployee challenge-revenue items Enterprise Fund Contributions to General FundACCESS-Medicaid Healthcare, cost containment optionsHealthcare, self-fund

Best Case

Estimate of Governor's Proposal on March 8, 2011

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14

Healthcare, self-fund $ 400,000 $ 1,900,000 $ 1,900,000

Healthcare, cost containment options $ - $ 500,000 $ 300,000 $ 200,000

ACCESS-Medicaid $ 200,000 $ 250,000 $ 250,000 $ 250,000

Enterprise Fund Contributions to General Fund $ - $ 400,000 $ 50,000 $ 70,000

Employee challenge-revenue items $ - $ 500,000 $ 250,000 $ 250,000

Employee challenge-expenditure reductions $ - $ 500,000 $ 250,000 $ 250,000

Printing cost reduction-Six Sigma report $ 50,000 $ 100,000 $ 100,000 $ 100,000

Copying cost reduction $ 30,000 $ 30,000 $ 30,000 $ 30,000

Transportation-shared nonpublic and special education service $ - $ 650,000 $ 650,000 $ 100,000

Transportation-utilization of capacity and time $ - $ 500,000 $ 500,000 $ 500,000

Energy management $ 200,000 $ 500,000 $ 500,000 $ 500,000

One Time Items-reduce budgetary reserve $3,500,000

Postpone Inglewood Renovations $ - $ 560,000 $ -

Eliminate PSERS Rate Stabilization Fund Contribution $ 1,000,000 $ -

Use PSERS Rate Stabilization Fund $ 1,000,000 $ 1,000,000

Unfilled Positions $ 500,000

Employee Challenge-Current Year, becomes fund balance $ 1,500,000

Tax increase allowed by Act 1 $4,500,000 $ 2,000,000 $ 1,500,000 $ 1,000,000

Referendum exception-special education $ - $ 4,290,119 $ 1,000,000 $ 1,000,000

Referendum exception-retirement rate $ - $ 1,858,606 $ 1,950,000 $ 2,050,000

Less assessment appeals $ (750,000) $(1,000,000)

$ (1,000,000) $(1,000,000)

Publicity for May 2 Event

Logos Widely Publicized

http://nptv.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=2b7af69f004b25eac87c321319dab7f5

Lessons Learned

• Low tech-face to face collaboration and relationship building• People had difficulty understanding the concept, format• Time consuming to encourage, spent 6 months identifying

presentations in meetings and discussions with staff• Anyone can present in this format• Fear of job security• Different from other events (Tech Connect, Community Forums, etc.)• Press coverage is fickle• Live coverage by our staff during the event, later rebroadcast

extensively

Continuing Benefits

• All presentations posted on website• Content for educational television spotlighting great work

of staff• Appreciation of school board and community of work of

staff• Proving cost effectiveness across all functions (referendum

readiness)• Appreciation of complexity of organization and skills of staff• Collaboration• Cross functional teams

• “People who don’t take risks generally make about 2 big mistakes a year; people who do take risks generally make about 2 big mistakes a year.” - (Peter Drucker)

Next Steps

• Innovation Celebration is theme for the year.

• Innovation Celebration 2012 set for April 18th

2011-2012 Calendar

2011-2012 Calendar

2011-2012 Calendar

2011-2012 Calendar

2011-2012 Calendar

"Innovation— any new idea—by definition will not be accepted at first. It takes repeated attempts, endless demonstrations, monotonous rehearsals before innovation can be accepted and internalized by an organization. This requires courageous patience." - (Warren Bennis)

Year TwoInnovation

Celebration II

• April 18, 2012, 6-9 p.m.• North Penn High School, Lansdale, PA• 80+ presentations– Budget background– Progress reports on last year’s initiatives– New ideas by staff, students, partner organizations

• Broadcast on educational television

Improvements in Year Two

• More space• More participants• Interviews• More television content• Options for input• Awards?• Food/drinks• Referendum readiness-progress reports, more ideas,

more enthusiasm, more community involvement

Topics for Innovation Celebration 2012

• Budget background– Impact of recession– Five -year financial projections– Unfunded mandates

• Progress reports on current initiatives• New initiative proposals– Labor saving equipment and techniques

• Partner organization initiatives

Next Year

• Regionalized Innovation Celebration with multiple school districts, intermediate units, municipalities, etc.

• “Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” - (R. Emerson)

Reminder

Please join us as a presenter or guest at Innovation Celebration II.

Wednesday, April 18, 6 to 9 p.m.North Penn High School, Lansdale