With budget season fast approaching, members of the Jaffrey-Rindge School Board are already thinking of cost-cutting measures for the school district’s budget for next year.
Member Forbes Farmer suggested the board consider leaving an open positions – a part-time media associate – unfilled as a way to save money.
“I anticipate that we may be trying to keep the budget down so maybe we don’t fill [the media associate position,]” said Farmer.
“It’s easier to look at a position that we haven’t filled than to look at cutting a teacher or other position.”
The district also needs to hire a custodian to replace a retiring employee.
The board tabled decisions on filling the two positions, opting to wait until the Sept. 19 meeting, where more information about the two positions will be presented.
Further cost-cutting ideas were discussed when the board received an update from Technology Director Warren Luebkeman about the district’s changes to its copier/printer fleet.
In the 2015-16 school year, the district implemented a print management system, which involved retiring 60 classroom printers and adding 12 new copiers and analyzing yearlong trends.
By changing to the new system, which centralized the district’s 25 copiers, the district used one million less pages than the previous year, saving the district a “conservative” $30,000 to $40,000, according to Luebkeman.
Seeing the savings that can be had, the district will now work with employees to see what improvements can be made, including less color printing allowed and possibly considering a limit on how many copies employees can make.