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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Finally, Good News Around a School Board and Xerox

No sooner had I "gone off" in one of my comments around how school districts just don't understand "value" and only get the lowest bid which is usually supported by the heaviest RFP, a school district proves me wrong.

Unfortunately, the School District is in Canada. Not unfortunate because of Canada, it's unfortunate that US School Boards are not as "enlightened". No offense to our good friends to the north.

The Niagara Catholic School District Board handles 53 elementary schools, eight secondary schools, six adult education sites, and a central office.

The District is required to hold records for 55 years.

Noticing that file space was dwindling, and as part of Canada's Eco-Schools Initiative, the board reviewed the current process and looked to support Green initiatives.

They settled on an ECM solution composing of software Xerox hardware. From this article:

"...These combined systems gave the district that ability to automate leave-of-absence approvals, substitute teacher scheduling, HR documentation, and payroll steps -- without all the paper or wasted time. For example, processing a teacher leave-of-absence request once took threes pieces of paper and a lengthy approval process. It's now simply done online in about 30 seconds and approved in minutes..."

The new system has reduced fuel consumption, reduced paper consumption and saved $38,000.00 per year by publishing the newsletter online.

"... Furthermore, 8,000 old hanging folders previously used to store paper documents were given to the district's elementary schools, "thus giving them money to spend on other things rather than stationery for the school," says Pasto.

"We [also] took the used binders and sent them to schools with students whose parents couldn't afford to buy them binders. Other binders were shipped to third-world countries. We're all about recycling," says Pasto..."


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