Managing Expenditures

Energy cost savings of approximately $1.1 million were generated by the implementation of the Energy Smart Program in 2008-09. This program includes renovations & upgrades to all Saskatoon Public School facilities, as well as tracking and monitoring energy use, and engaging all Saskatoon Public Schools stakeholders in the energy conservation process. This program also encourages students to be school-based energy conservation leaders through Destination Conservation, which provides a solid foundation of curriculum and training support.

The use of tenders for various goods & services has saved Saskatoon Public Schools approximately $950,000 in expenditures over the last fiscal year. This figure was determined by taking the successful tender and comparing it to the next lowest tender. 40 formal tenders were completed for the last fiscal year.

The use of an external cost analyst/consultant on major & capital construction projects has saved Saskatoon Public Schools between 1 to 5% on major & minor capital construction projects. In 2008-09, it is estimated that the net savings to the School Division is approximately $700,000.

The Textbook Center was able to send 2,050 secondary textbooks to a bindery this past year to be rebound. This practice not only extends the life of these textbooks by three to five years but also saves on costs. The cost to purchase 2,050 textbooks would be around $307,500, whereas the cost for rebounding is $20,500, thereby saving our school division $287,000.

The Textbook Center purchased 740 used secondary textbooks in 2008-09, which saved the school division 50% of a new textbook or around $39,000.

The use of purchasing cards has improved internal processing efficiencies. In 2007-08 the number of business transactions using purchasing cards was 19,227. This number has now increased in 2008-09 to 29,091.

Using Educational Continuity Planning (ECP) strategic funds a consolidation of hardware into a Virtual format was completed in Spring 2009. In addition to providing a critical level of ECP service redundancy the effort resulted in cost savings related to server expenditures and power consumption all in tandem with better performance for applications and services. Though initial costs were required to transition, the expected savings will be realized in a 2-3 year period when server renewals were required. The expected hardware savings will be approximately $64,000 over a 3 year period.