WORKING DRAFT

Last Modified 1/29/2015 3:44 PM Eastern Standard Time

Printed 1/8/2015 9:18 AM Eastern Standard Time

Boston Public Schools Operational

Review Team PS
January 29, 2015

CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY

Any use of this material without specific permission is strictly prohibited

Agenda

Recap of Mondays workshop

Descriptions of area deep dives and approaches

District overextension
Organizational structure and management processes
Special Education (with a look at SPED transportation)

Questions and alignment on next steps

DRAFT Pre-decisional - Proprietary and Confidential

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Recap of Tuesdays workshop

We started with 25 RFP items and 3 additional, cross-cutting themes

From the discussion emerged consensus around three areas of focus:

District overextension
Special education, with a look at SPED transportation

Through evaluating each opportunity along dimensions of the size of

the opportunity and how easy/difficult it would be to capture the
opportunity we narrowed to 12 areas of discussion

Organizational structure and performance management within that

structure

The focus of all of these deep dives will incorporate a view of the
student experience and how any changes will make for a more
coherent and efficient delivery of resources and supports to students

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Reimagining the size and scope of BPS can concentrate resources for
students and unlock funds trapped in underutilized facilities and programs
Five-week deliverables

Long-term potential impact

A high-level perspective on the

future size of the district and the
footprint necessary to support it, with
multiple scenarios reflecting aggressive
or conservative approaches, potentially
including:

System
Path forward on direction of

Projections of BPS future student

population and the associated facility
needs

Categorization of current state of

facilities

Applicable student to teacher,

support and facilities ratios in
different scenarios

Sizing of programmatic supports

available to schools currently and
under potential scenarios

district and the size of the

central office needed to
support it

Students
Wider and deeper resources
allocated to narrower set of
individual schools to support
students

What this will not be:

A plan for the

district at a schoolby-school level

Sophisticated audit
and analysis of the
state of school
buildings

A set of immediate
actions that can be
taken to capture
efficiencies

More and better extracurricular

activities

Budgetary
Funds captured through fewer
school and central FTEs

Fixed costs in buildings and

facility maintenance liberated

Central office sizing under potential

scenarios

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We will explore the potential for improved outcomes for students,

supports for schools and cost savings associated with the BPS footprint
Process

What McKinsey will do

What BPS will learn

Develop long-term projections of size of

What can the district physically

BPS
Student
projections

support and what does it need to

support, given future projections
What size district is BPS currently and
what is it likely to be in the 5-10 year
horizon

Analyze ratios of students to space in the Sized opportunity of closing range of

Footprint
analysis

buildings in the district

Begin high-level categorization of
buildings in need of repair

Current support staff ratios across

3
School level
analysis

4
District level

schools (e.g., principals, teachers,

counselors, etc.) and future changes
under scenarios
Benchmarking on effective school
models in support and instructional areas

Current central office staffing ratios and

schools (e.g., energy, maintenance,

redundant staffing, avoided
maintenance)

Discrepancies in school-level support

services
How consolidation could move those
ratios at various schools

Sized opportunity at central office to

what they can look like under different

scenarios

support fewer schools, or push more

saved funds to schools
Capturing of rule constraints and what
is possible under current requirements

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An improved organization will benefit BPS staff and students

Five-week deliverables

Long-term potential impact

An initial look at the gaps in

communication, collaboration and
alignment across BPS, including:
Analysis of org. charts and
benchmarking across other districts
Identification of redundancies and
gaps inherent in departmental/cabinet
goals and missions
Culture and Values Survey results and
analyses
Next steps to strengthen the
organization, both before and after the
entrance of the new superintendent,
specifically processes for KPI setting
and management

Central Office Staff

Clearer role descriptions, goals,
and reporting structures leading
to more efficiency and faster
delivery of support to schools
and students
Tighter alignment with and
accountability for district goals
Stronger professional
development and goal-oriented
evaluation and feedback
Students, Parents, and Teachers
Clearer points of contact and
sources for information and
support for parents and teachers
No students falling through the
cracks left by misaligned support
structures in the Central Office
Budgetary
A reduction in district staff
redundancies could free up
~$10M1 that could be redirected
toward students

What this will not be:

A new org. chart

for BPS

A complete
system of KPI
developing and
tracking

A full accounting
of where talent
lies in the
organization

1 If non-academic staff is reduced by 5%

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McKinsey will investigate specific opportunity areas in BPS organization

and propose plans to improve program and management tracking
Topic
Organiza1 tional
structure

What McKinsey will do

What BPS will learn

Perform a rough analysis of the

Positions with too few/too many

organizational chart

direct reports

Make a comparison of organizational Other potential organizational

charts internally and externally to
exemplars

options

Interview BPS leaders to determine

Departmental
missions and
2
goal
management

Spread of goals and missions

goals, missions and associated KPIs

Identify overlaps and gaps in the

overall spread of goals and missions

Create process for KPI alignment

across each department and

cabinetry

Overlaps and gaps in operations

Process for data-driven org.

and performance management

Use McKinseys Culture and Values

Culture and
3
Values

survey to build a data-driven look at

perceptions of the BPS culture

Identify next steps based on the

Strengths of BPS culture and

values

Cultural aspirations of BPS

Central Office Staff

analytic results
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Rethinking Special Education at BPS will allow funds to be spent

improving supports for students
Five-week deliverables

Long-term potential impact

A deeper understanding of who BPS

special education students are
and the services BPS is providing,
with dives in areas including:

Students, Parents, and

Required supports and

transportation

Students in private school

Teachers

Ensure students a level of

support that aligns with what
is best for kids

Align support for teachers

placements and opportunities to

limit

with the most appropriate

and effective supports for
students

Correlations on special education

Freed up funds can be used

diagnosis and other indicators

to improve services provided

and enhance the school
experience

Budgetary
$5-20M in savings from

What this will not

be:

A new model for

delivering SPED
services

Comprehensive
transportation rerouting

Detailed plan for

recapturing
privately placed
students

tighter staffing, reclaimed

students and new
transportation approaches

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McKinsey will further investigate BPS Special Education services to

identify potential efficiencies, opportunities, and cost savings
Topic

BPS direct
1 student
supports

What McKinsey will do

What BPS will learn

Analyze the current ratios and services

Baseline understanding of the

provided along different classifications

across the district

Capture regulatory, research

recommended and BPS special ed.
approaches

Examine regulatory needs for school

and district-level supports
BPS district
2 and school
supports

Analyze current strategy for deploying

transportation and other supports

Identify opportunities to reduce spend

SPED picture and spectrum of

services

Understand where BPS is

investing in SPED services

Regulatory needs for supports

Current strategies and spending
patterns around transportation and
other special education supports

Opportunities to reduce costs

on supports to free up money for others

Identify categories of students needing

private placements
Private
3 placements

Estimate costs of serving these

students needs

Profiles of students requiring

private placements

Potential plans for keeping those

students in BPS schools

Create a plan for retaining some private

school-placed students in BPS schools
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Questions and alignment on next steps

Questions

Does this seem like a realistic set of goals for the next 3-5 weeks?

Are the end products going to be useful to BPS in the short-term

and in the long-term?

Other questions?

Is the data available to do these analyses and get to these

perspectives?

Next steps

This week:

Continue to gather data as needed for deep dives

Next week:

Cabinet-level interviews, most of which have been scheduled

at this point

February 13:

Phase 2 workshop on deep dive findings

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