Cost savings in the McKinsey report

As noted, the report Towards a Stronger Milwaukee Public Schools has both a broad based assessment of MPS' financial and academic challenges and some suggested cost savings in non-academic areas. The latter include:

1. Procurement of supplies and textbooks (Savings: $5.8-7.8 million)
a. Compare prices before ordering
b. Specify lower end computers
c. Rationalize sku’s
d. Consolidate text book purchases

2. Food service ($8.8-15.6)
a. Pre-pack school lunches
b. Reduce benefits for food service workers
c. Reduce cost of purchases
d. Increase prices to students and participation

3. Transportation ($7-14.2 million)
a. Lower prices with yellow bus companies
b. Negotiate a greater discount with county transit
c. Increase use of public transit, including middle school students
d. Put a cap on the number of miles students would be transported
e. Use smaller buses
f. Charge an annual fee to students not qualifying for free and reduced lunch (would require a change in state law)

4. Administration ($17.3-28.6 million)
a. Restructure salaries
b. Benefits
c. Reduce administrative staffing in schools

5. Benefits ($23-43 million)
a. Lower cost packages–PPO vs HMO
b. Redesign benefit packages
c. Raise eligibility from 20 to 34 hours per week
d. Shift retirees to lower cost plan
e. Reduce retiree eligibility

6. Maintenance & facilities ($12-23 million)
a. Benefits for maintenance workers
b. Reduce salaries where above market rates
c. Better use of boiler engineers
d. Custodian staffing
e. Sick policy
f. Sell closed facilities
g. Consolidate facilities

Some of these are likely to be implemented by MPS, such as the pre-packing of lunches and more negotiating on bus contracts. Other may prove impractical or hard to implement. The day after the report was issued, one group of employees appeared at a board meeting to protest the recommendations affecting them.