Business Office Improvements Eyed by BASD

A study carried out by The Davison Group of Mechanicsburg, Pa., on the practices of the district's business office has made 31 recommendations for improvement, which the Bethlehem Area School District will implement in the coming months, school officials said last week.

President William Davison said the goal is to make meaningful, permanent improvements in the office that will benefit everyone and improve the working environment for employees as well.

“Practices that worked effectively (decades ago) no longer work,” he said, explaining that the office mainly needs updates in its practices.

Many of the changes are small, but together, they will make a significant impact, Davison said.

“You realize the sum of all these together is where you realize the gain,” he said.

Recommendations were categorized on a three-point priority scale, but all should eventually be accomplished regardless of their priority. Instead of trying to accomplish all of them at once, the district should implement a few at a time, Davison added.

“The aim is to have a high-performing office in a short period of time,” he said.

To that end, Davison especially recommended taking steps to make the office more proactive, that is being able to anticipate coming needs rather than reacting to them. He also recommended re-evaulating the office's information technology to both ensure better training of employees on office software and also to make certain the software chosen is best for the situation.

Many of the steps will likely be taken and accomplished in the coming year, but the full project is expected to be long-term, with a 3- to 5-year time frame for the full implementation, Davison said.