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Educational center to share $250,000 grant

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Updated 9:29 PM Friday, December 16, 2011

By Richard O Jones

Staff Writer

HAMILTON — The Butler County Educational Service Center will share in a $250,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Education to implement new shared services programs that could be a model for Ohio’s 614 school districts.

“Better use of scarce public resources is a key element in improving Ohio’s educational system,” said Stan Heffner, Superintendent of Public Instruction. “The grant proposal not only will save money for area taxpayers, but also will be an example for other schools to follow.”

Schools in four southwestern Ohio counties expect to save millions of dollars by teaming up to better coordinate transportation, make joint computer purchases and effectively align their models for educator evaluation with state guidelines, the ODE said.

The BCESC is part of the Interagency Shared Services Network of Southwest Ohio, which also includes the Educational Service Centers of Clermont, Hamilton and Montgomery counties. The network serves 415,000 students in 15 school districts across four counties, is one of only two consortia selected to receive this funding. The other is the Southeastern Ohio Regional Service Center Collaborative, which serves 11 southeastern Ohio counties.

“The Butler County Educational Service Center has a long history of working collaboratively with school districts in Butler County to provide cost effective programs and services,” said BCESC Superintendent Jon Graft. The southwest consortium will use this grant to design, implement and evaluate:

• A regional transportation management center that consolidates and shares out-of-district transportation for students with disabilities;

• A shared-service model for information technology purchase and delivery; and

• A shared-services approach to help school districts align their models for educator evaluation with state guidelines.

“The areas of transportation, information technology and educator evaluation being piloted as part of the grant are most cost effective at a regional level,” Graft said. “The Butler County Educational Service Center is excited to expand our current services to our client districts.”

The grant is a portion of $500,000 set aside in Ohio’s 2012-2013 budget to fund pilot projects to create, develop and demonstrate ways to improve efficiencies through expanded use of shared services.

“The southwestern network plan represents the kind of innovative thinking that this grant is designed to encourage,” added Heffner said. “Ohioans are certain to get a good return on this investment.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

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