More time in school? Or less time?

School districts are fighting the same budget battles as other public administrators. With diminishing resources, school districts across the country are experimenting with furloughs and four-day work weeks. However, as FoxNews points out, Obama has advocated longer instructional hours to give our children a competitive edge, but teachers unions are pushing for ways to avoid laying off teachers. Particularly fascinating is the trend in Hawaii of some parents trying to rent the school on the day off and individually paying teachers to keep their children in school. It’s an interesting tug-of-war.

Shortened work week saves money

Winnebago County in Illinois has come up with their version of a compressed work week. According to the Rockford Register Star, the County will close up shop at 3 p.m. on Friday, essentially cutting the work week to 38 hours instead of 40. They expect to save about $347,000 in reduced wages alone.

The unions are against this proposal, but judging by the comments, it appears some community members favor it. What do you think?

Furloughs: Another sign of the times

In another attempt to save money, more state and local governments are implementing furloughs. Read the Wall Street Journal here.

Four-day school week?

It’s being tried, most recently in La Grange, Georgia.  The consensus I’ve read briefly says a four-day school week is similar to a four-day work week:  it saves money and makes employees happy. However, I also seem to remember reading that the impact on student learning is minimal. I’m now in search of that article and will post the link when I find it.

Clackamas County and Time Magazine

For the past 11 months, we have been evaluating the four-day work week implemented by Clackamas County for their employees. It’s been a wild ride! We submitted the final report last week, and will discuss the contents at a public meeting on Sept. 8th. It’s still up in the air whether or not the county commissioners will keep the schedule, but they must make a decision quickly to follow union procedures. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, in the Sept. 9, 2009 issue of Time magazine has an update on the four-day work week at the state of Utah. It appears other communities are trying this new schedule and seeing the benefits and the challenges for themselves.

State of Utah TravelWise Webpage

TravelWise appears to be a State of Utah initiative encouraging companies to follow their lead in adopting compressed work weeks and using other strategies to reduce emissions and save energy. It needs a closer look because it seems like they are making some bold assumptions about cost savings and productivity. But then again, maybe not.

Results of State of Washington 4-day Work Week Study

The State of Washington also started a pilot project last fall to study the cost savings of a 4-day work week. In a September 2008 news release, Gov. Christine Gregoire noted potential benefits including:

• Reduced costs through energy savings
• Increased employee satisfaction
• Increased customer service through expanded hours of operation
• Decreased employee commuting may mean less environmental impact.

Now, six months later, the State of Washington has released the initial results of the pilot project. According to an April 23 article by Adam Wilson of The Olympian, one of the benefits has been realized. Employees enjoy the new work schedule and are more satisfied with their jobs. However, the cost savings is not as much as anticipated. The largest department in the pilot project, the Department of Community Trade and Economic Development, anticipated an energy savings of $20,000, but said the savings are closer to $10,000.

State officials are unsure whether the pilot project will be expanded or scrapped. However, it appears more aggressive actions may need to be taken to fill their budget shortfalls for the coming year.

Evergreen School District manipulating schedule to save money

Evergreen School District in Vancouver, Wash. is facing a $15 million shortfall. Last night, the school board voted on a way to save $1.5 million, 10 percent of the shortfall, by adjusting student schedules. The theory is the shift will save money by consolidating bus routes. As an April 30 article in the Columbian, points out:

• High school and middle school students will start 20 minutes later; and
• Kindergartners will attend school two full days a week, instead of five half days, with a floating extra day maybe every other week to ensure the same number of instruction hours.

All I can say is I’m very glad my daughter is in kindergarten this year. I know how much she needs a regular routine, and two day per week class with a floating extra day is a little too vague for her.

Welcome to E2PSP

The push to make government agencies and nonprofits more efficient and effective is not new. However, with recent economic turmoil and a renewed demand for environmental sustainability, it seems public sector organizations are scrambling to try creative and innovative ways to save money, retain employees, save the environment and still provide quality public service. This blog is meant to aggregate some of these ideas to see what works, and what really, really doesn’t.

What we need now is feedback from you — city managers, county administrators, nonprofit executive directors, frontline staff — of experiments your city, county, state or agency is undertaking to do more with less. Comment. Suggest a link. Lets share ideas to try to become, truly, more efficient and more effective.

A 4-Day Work Week Might Save Money, But Is It Worth It?

It seems some cities are rushing into adapting to a 4-day work week because of budget concerns.  Yet, sometimes the cost savings are very small.  Instead, these cities use organizational values, rather than money, to make the case for adopting or rejecting a 4-day work week schedule.

In March 2009, the City of Palmdale in Palmdale, Calif. switched many of their departments to a 4/10 work schedule, but expect to only save $10,000. You can access the copy of their press release here. Cost savings is not the main reason why they switched, however. They say the change is primarily to “boost morale” and improve job satisfaction, with cost savings as a secondary benefit.

The city of Hoquiam, Washington recently abandoned their attempt at switching to a 4-day work week because the cost saving benefits did not outweigh the decreased availability of services provided to the public.

So, Hoquiam did not switch to a 4-day work week because they value keeping services available to the public. Palmdale did switch because it values employee satisfaction. It might be interesting to consider organizational values when determining if a 4-day work week is an option for a particular agency.