A half dozen districts brought services back in-house within the past year.
Of those, three of the contracts were for food services, two for custodial services, and one for transportation services.
Coleman Community Schools, Gobles Public Schools and Martin Public Schools reported financial savings obtained through insourcing. The combined savings for these three districts is estimated at $70,000 per year.
Coleman Community Schools previously contracted for its food service manager with Chartwells, but found savings by instead entering into a service-sharing arrangement with Bullock Creek School District. The new arrangement is expected to save Coleman $15,000 annually.
Gobles Public Schools similarly entered into a service-sharing arrangement with Bloomingdale Public Schools for its food service, which had previously been outsourced to Chartwells. The district said that it considered Chartwells’ service adequate, but they expect to save $25,000 a year through the consolidation.
Reading Community Schools contracts for support employees in multiple areas through the employee-leasing agency PCMI. The district previously had one custodian contracted this way, but the employee retired. Although the support service contract and option to hire more workers remains in place, this is recorded as insourcing because no private employees are now providing custodial services to the district.
Whittemore-Prescott’s transportation manager, previously an employee at METS, had retired from his private-sector job, but the district wanted to keep his services for one more year. The district ultimately hired the manager directly, enabling him to work the additional year at no financial difference to the district.