Analyze Top Savings Opportunities Step #7

1

Pay for Priorities

After completing the screening & sizing tools, you may use the Deep Dive tracker to identify the biggest opportunities for your district

By this point your team should have…



Completed the Cost Savings Options: Screening & Sizing Tool located in “Step 6: Identify Top Savings Options”

Cost Savings Options: Screening & Sizing Tool



Engaged with the “4. Track Savings Opportunities” tab in the Progress Tracker to identify the opportunities for which your district will perform a deep dive analysis

Smarter School Spending Progress Tracker

2

Pay for Priorities

Once you have identified potential opportunities for reallocation you will need to perform a deeper dive analysis to confirm and/or quantify the savings

There are 3 potential steps to performing additional deep dive analysis

1 Develop an Internal Team 2 Determine Your Need for External Assistance 3 Build Stakeholder Support

3

Pay for Priorities

Develop an Internal Team

Create an Internal Team Determine Your Need for External Assistance Build Stakeholder Support

A successful deep dive analysis requires careful planning & management

Key Questions Who is on the internal team and what are their responsibilities?

What are the key milestones to be completed by the internal team and when will they be completed?

Deep Dive Planning Template

Note: Aspects of the Deep Dive Planning Template have been adapted from the Boston Consulting Group’s materials for use within Lake County Schools 4

Pay for Priorities

Develop an Internal Team: Roles & Responsibilities

Create an Internal Team Determine Your Need for External Assistance Build Stakeholder Support Roles & Responsibilities Roadmap

A potential structure for organizing internal teams involves multiple Action Teams reporting on their analysis to the Working Group

Source: Process Organization & Work Planning Guide

Action Teams may be internal teams responsible for directing or conducting deep dive analysis

5

Pay for Priorities

Develop an Internal Team: Roles & Responsibilities

Create an Internal Team Determine Your Need for External Assistance Roles & Responsibilities

• •

Roadmap Recommended Internal Team Members

Team size & structure will vary based on the budget area or initiative assigned Each team may include: ─ ─ ─ ─ Team leader Representative from Working Group Stakeholders relating to area of focus Analyst(s) to conduct research • • • • • •

Build Stakeholder Support Possible Responsibilities

Specifically size the savings opportunity Conduct deep dive analysis/research & synthesize results Create implementation plan to achieve goal Advise on political feasibility and expected support Present findings and recommendations to the Working Group Manage external assistance

Name Title

What is their role in the district or community?

Deep Dive Planning Template

: Includes a blank template you may use to create your internal team. You will also find an example team structure.

Role on Team

What perspective will they bring to the team & what role will they play?

Source: Process Organization & Work Planning Guide 6

Pay for Priorities

Develop an Internal Team: Roadmap

Create an Internal Team Determine Your Need for External Assistance Build Stakeholder Support Roles & Responsibilities Roadmap

A Roadmap is a high-level plan of the major milestones that need to be achieved to reach project success

What IT IS

• • • The Roadmap’s milestones reflect major steps that are typically the aggregations of many smaller activities One person owns a Roadmap and is responsible/accountable for its implementation Milestones occur regularly, typically monthly or bi-monthly, to prevent projects from going off track or becoming invisible to senior leaders

What it IS NOT

• ─ ─ ─ A detailed project plan that outlines everything that needs to happen to complete the project Dozens of tasks & milestones Very specific details Includes meeting timing • • Teams are encouraged to develop their own project plans that are tailored to their unique task Project plans must align with roadmap milestone timing Source: Boston Consulting Group’s materials for use within Lake County Schools 7

Pay for Priorities

Develop an Internal Team: Roadmap

Create an Internal Team Determine Your Need for External Assistance Roles & Responsibilities Roadmap

Suggestions for writing a successful roadmap

Build Stakeholder Support

• •

Involve Others

You may choose to draft your roadmap with your entire group, a smaller team, or solo . . . . . . . But remember that your entire team will need to execute on the plan you create, so it is wise to share it with your whole group before it is finalized •

Keep It Simple

A roadmap is essentially a list of 10-20 milestones with "completed by" dates attached •

Create a work plan as you go

Your roadmap will only work if you know you can have the meetings needed to get the work done • •

Remember, a milestone is not an activity

Example of an activity: Train directors on cost/ROI tool Example of a milestone: 40% of directors trained on Cost/ROI tool (with date by which accomplished)

Start With the End in Mind

• Know what your final work product is and what success looks like for your team; your milestones are your mini-deadlines to get there

Deep Dive Planning Template

: Includes an interactive template to list your milestones. You will also find a example list of milestones from Lake County Schools.

Source: Boston Consulting Group’s materials for use within Lake County Schools 8

Pay for Priorities

Determine Your Need for External Assistance

1 Create an Internal Team Determine Your Need for External Assistance Build Stakeholder Support

You should consider 3 main factors when determining your need for external assistance

People

− − Do your district employees possess the capability, skill and/or expertise to conduct the deep dive analysis?

Does you believe your district can effectively manage an external provider?

2 Time

− − Do members of district staff have the time to execute specific deep dive analyses in addition to their daily duties & responsibilities?

Does the budget schedule necessitate an accelerated timeline for producing results that current district staff cannot accommodate?

3 Money

− − Can your district afford to hire additional district employees to either take over responsibilities of district staff on the internal team or assist in conducting deep dive analysis?

Does your district have the resources necessary to hire an external provider?

If you already have External Providers working within your district, remember to leverage their skills & expertise

9

Pay for Priorities

Determine Your Need for External Assistance: Type of Support Necessary

Create an Internal Team Determine Your Need for External Assistance Build Stakeholder Support

External assistance may be valuable in different ways depending on the specific opportunity targeted for deep dive analysis

Analytical Bandwidth

Sample Opportunity:

Can the district free up funds by managing class sizes differently at the high schools?

Possible Assistance:

An external person or team may be hired to conduct rigorous class size analyses to identify specific, actionable options to generate cost savings

Service Provider

Sample Opportunity:

Can the district free up funds from energy expenditures

Possible Assistance:

An external person or team may conduct a comprehensive audit of energy expenditures to determine wasteful spending and identify opportunities to streamline costs

Subject Area Expertise

Sample Opportunity:

Can the district free up funds by reducing reliance on out-of district special education placements?

Possible Assistance:

An external person or team with specific in-depth experience relating to special education programming may be consulted to develop programs that will service students with special needs within the district 10

Pay for Priorities

Determine Your Need for External Assistance: Identify Potential Partners

Create an Internal Team Determine Your Need for External Assistance Build Stakeholder Support

You can find a list of potential external providers and the services they offer on the Smarter School Spending website

11

Pay for Priorities

Build Stakeholder Support

Create an Internal Team Determine Your Need for External Assistance Build Stakeholder Support

Cost savings opportunities will impact a set of programs or people

Cost Savings Opportunities Instructional Priorities Cost savings opportunities should exhibit a large potential funding source for instructional priorities and a low impact on student learning Realignment Opportunities Instructional Priorities Impact on Student Learning

Who will be most impacted by these changes?

12

Pay for Priorities

Build Stakeholder Support

Create an Internal Team Determine Your Need for External Assistance Build Stakeholder Support

Ensure that you engage with stakeholders impacted by these changes

1 What analysis was done?

2 What has been the impact in student learning?

3 What new investments will be made?

For additional resources on building stakeholder support, please see the Cost Savings PowerPoint and Pulse Check in Step7: Analyze Top Savings

Options

13

Pay for Priorities

After deep dive analysis reveals specific next steps to realize cost savings, you must TAKE ACTION!

Total the actual savings found through deep dive analysis

Progress Tracker

Use the Progress Tracker to total the amount of savings you can expect to realize based on deep dive analysis. Compare your total savings found to the amount of money needed to fund your instructional priorities and budget gap

Make tradeoff decisions to determine future investments and cost savings

Balancing Tradeoffs Tool

Use the Balancing Tradeoffs tool to balance budget needs, investment priorities, and cost savings. The tool will also help district think about how to sequence these changes

Develop a plan to implement resource realignment strategies Use savings to fund instructional priorities

Strategic Finance Plan Strategic Budget Template

Within your strategic finance documents, you should communicate a plan to realize the savings identified through deep dive analyses and detail how your savings will be used to fund instructional priorities that will improve student achievement

Continue to identify opportunities to reinvest savings to improve student learning

14