Bensalem Paperless

From the BCCT.

Board hopes cutting paper helps cut costs
District officials are tallying up how much the cost-cutting suggestions will reduce expenses.
By JOAN HELLYER

The Bensalem school board is going “high tech” in the district’s continuing effort to trim expenses.

Board members used spare laptop computers Wednesday night to access information about items brought before them for approval.

Gone are the days when board members will plow through voluminous paper packets of information before deciding an issue, officials said.

The board agreed to use the spare Classroom for the Future laptops as part of the school system’s ongoing effort to trim expenses.

The laptops are one tip the district received after Superintendent James Lombardo asked staff and community members in February for cost-cutting suggestions to implement over the next few years.

Lombardo made the plea in anticipation of expected revenue concerns in the coming years because of the recession. Everything except salary and benefits is up for consideration, the superintendent said.

Another submitted costcutting suggestion being implemented includes fewer pages in the printed copies of the board packet handed out to people who attend the meetings.

Previously, each packet would be 30 pages or more, including separate pages to designate when the superintendent’s report, the solicitor’s report and the treasurer’s report came up in the meeting. Now, the three reports are listed in small print on the same page as other items on the board’s agenda. Other areas also are condensed to reduce the average paper packet to 12 pages or less.

In addition to the board’s packet, non-essential travel not already approved by the board and other reductions in staff paper consumption and energy usage have been put in place, Lombardo said.

No word yet on how much the operational changes will save the district.

District officials are reviewing dozens of other suggestions received in the last few weeks, the superintendent said. They’ll present the ideas to school board members during the governing body’s April 7 committee meeting.