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Helping School Districts become
"Textbook" Smart
(reprinted from
Bright Futures, Edition 4, 2004-2005)
BOCES non-public textbook loan service a win-win for
schools
public and private
During the winter, Anne McCoy and Mark English go about their work
with few
distractions or interruptions. But the summer months are
a whole different story for the coordinator of Capital Region BOCES non-public textbook
loan service and her assistant. In July and August, the seemingly quiet warehouse is
transformed; trucks drop off as many as 100 boxes of books a day, which are then
cataloged by seasonal employees. McCoy described last summer as particularly "wild"
because at the height of crunch time, the service moved to its current larger location near
Central Avenue to accommodate growth.
Non-Public Textbook Distribution is a service provided by Capital
Region BOCES to
public school districts for resident students who attend
private and parochial schools. The program serves more than 5,500 students in 67 schools
from 31 districts – from Lake Placid south to Poughkeepsie. Public school districts
are the clients, McCoy explained,ordering books through BOCES to supply to private school
students residing in the district. Each private school can have anywhere from one
to 400 students enrolled from client districts.
The Perks
BOCES provides its own delivery
service – dropping books off at each school in the
beginning of the year then collecting them from the
district at year's end. "Districts contract with us if
they don't have the manpower or realize that we can do
it better and cheaper," McCoy said. The consolidation of
these services under one roof saves time, stress and,
sometimes, money for the districts. "This is absolutely
the best thing that has happened to textbook
acquisition, in my opinion," declared Jeff Kimble,
textbook coordinator for Schenectady Christian School.
"It takes a significant administrative burden off
private schools." When questions arise, instead of
dealing with the 15 different districts from which his students come, Kimble simply calls McCoy.
"It's one place and one person who I speak to," he
added. "It used to be a nightmare." Nostalgia is absent
from Kimble's voice as he described how each district
had its own method of distribution. Instead, he is
relieved that BOCES has one coordinated and consistent
process. "They know their stuff," he concluded. "It's
one of the most efficient organizations in the
educational world." Another advantage for districts is
BOCES's huge inventory that can be shared. "The beauty
is we can pool the resources from every district," said
McCoy. Let's say one district needs to replace a damaged
book, or has a few more students enroll than
anticipated, BOCES can arrange to borrow books from
another district. It also frees district personnel from
searching for space to store all the books. Cost savings
is another perk. Steven O'Shea, Bethlehem Central's
assistant superintendent for business, said his district
was able to offset the cost of one part-time employee
who helped distribute books during the summer. Jodie Gilheany, a budget analyst from Shenendehowa, which
happens to be the largest client with 882 students, noted that since
contracting with BOCES two years ago, not only have they saved money but also they have not heard
one complaint from parents. "We love it," she said. "It's made our lives a lot
easier." For more information, call program manager
Linda Fox at 464-5102, or e-mail
lfox@gw.neric.org.
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