Reforms Could Save Loudoun Schools $2.2 Million

Study Suggests Analyzing Personnel Needs, Streamlining Pay System

The Loudoun County school system could save $2.2 million over the next five years by implementing reforms, an independent review has found.

Among the recommendations of the study are time limits for each agenda item discussed at School Board meetings, cutting down on board committee meetings and providing nonmonetary compensation for some employee overtime.

The findings were presented Tuesday at a School Board meeting.

The study was conducted by MGT of America, which was hired by the Virginia Department of Education to carry out efficiency reviews of school districts when they request them.

MGT's review in Loudoun, which began in February 2007, was based on school system records, comments at public forums and interviews with School Board members, administrators and teachers. The consultants visited county schools to verify the feedback they had received from residents.

Loudoun schools officials are not required to adopt any of the recommendations, but the governor's office must revisit the findings in several months to see whether they were implemented and, if so, how.

The report says employees in the school system's Personnel Services Department "are accumulating excessive amounts of overtime." From July through December last year, 19 department employees were paid a total of $318,682 in overtime. The amounts they received ranged from 21 to 61 percent of their salaries, the report says.

The study says the department should analyze its personnel requirements and hire more employees if necessary.

Other recommendations include hiring an additional director of elementary education, creating the position of energy coordinator and streamlining the system for calculating employee pay.

The report also suggests that schools officials look at Loudoun's high teacher attrition rate and notes the large number of teachers eligible for retirement in the next few years.

Board members said they appreciated the recommendations. But Chairman Robert F. DuPree Jr. (Dulles) said it might take a while to make decisions based on the more than 300 pages of data.

"This will take some time to go through," DuPree said. "It will take some work to flesh through all of this."

In other business, the board voted to change the bylaws for the Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee. Members voted to require that the committee consist of one representative from each public school in Loudoun and that the representative be chosen by the school's parent group.

The vote came after some residents had said that proposed new bylaws did not clearly state that all committee members should have a child in the Loudoun public school system.