Stand up for IPS
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IPS Efficiencies
- IPS has continued to close schools to match enrollment as a way to reduce operating costs.
- Starting in the late 1980s, IPS began moving its food service to a central food processing facility. This consolidation has allowed IPS to concentrate the costly food production equipment and staff into a central site. The central site is totally self supporting and so cost efficient it now serves a few private schools as well as all IPS schools.
- IPS has controlled insurance costs by moving to a self-insured workers compensation program. The cost of the district's general business insurance has also been reduced through a program of partial self-insurance under the control of an independent claims monitoring group.
- Transportation savings are crucial, because IPS buses log more round trip miles per year than any other school district in Indiana. The district has consolidated routes and outsourced where possible and continues to look for additional efficiencies.
- To help save money and ensure greater predictability in utility expenditures, IPS has entered into natural gas contracts each of the past five years that allow the district to purchase natural gas from
the well head and store it until needed. This arrangement has allowed the district to take advantage of positive fluctuations in natural gas prices.
- During the same time period, IPS entered in agreements with the electric utility to sell back some electrical power capacity when it’s not needed during summer months. This helps the utility meet power demands and has been a revenue source to IPS.
- In the spirit of cooperation, IPS pays a $150,000 annual membership fee to be a member of the Central Indiana Education Service Center, which allows IPS to participate in cooperative purchasing with other school districts. However, because of the efficiencies of IPS’ purchasing department, the district has found few instances where the Central Indiana Education Service Center price is lower than what IPS can negotiate on its own. At the next renewal time, IPS will have to take a serious look at whether it can continue to be a member of the Central Indiana Education Service Center.
- The new efficient HVAC systems and energy efficient windows in the schools that IPS is replacing or renovating through its Capital Improvements Program has enabled IPS to heat and cool these buildings for what it used to cost for heat alone – or sometimes even less, even with rising energy costs.
- The IPS Capital Improvements Program saved money on interest, saving taxpayers $67 million in Phase 1, and $1 million a year in Phase 2.
- IPS established district facility standards for its Capital Improvements Program that covered everything from classroom sizes to what facilities would be standard for science labs. This keeps us from “reinventing the wheel” as we design each building and creates equity throughout the district.
- IPS limits the number of paint colors and floor tile colors used within our buildings to minimize costs of maintaining stocks of touch-up paint and spare tiles.
- The IPS Capital Improvements Program was one of five commercial and public projects honored with a national award by the Construction Owners Association of America for cost efficiency and the effectiveness of project management.
- The Key Learning Community North building received the international American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Technology Award in 2009 for its innovative heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system. The new system was less than half the cost of conventional equipment. Total utility bills with air-conditioning are 33 percent lower than the school’s 2005-06 energy bills without cooling.
- The IPS Capital Improvements Program was recently featured in the May 2009 issue of the national magazine Business Excellence. Titled “More from Less,” the article cites IPS for its strategic approach and for giving Indianapolis taxpayers more bang for their buck.
Click here to read the article from Business Excellence.
