MANSFIELD, Ohio —City Mills Technology LLC entered into a one-year contract with Mansfield City Schools in May 2014. Since then, the company has saved and recovered at least $338,000 for the district’s technology department.
“And there’s probably more than that,” said CMT President David Rose.
This feat far exceeded Superintendent Brian Garverick’s expectations, which initially forecasted $10,000 savings to the technology department.
“Their service has been absolutely great. Ever since City Mills came into the district, they’ve been serving our teachers and students — it’s been absolutely impeccable,” said Garverick. “They’ve just been a real bright spot for our district. Now, since we have up-to-date technology, which is used every day, we can better transition our students into higher education.”
During the board’s regular monthly meeting, Rose announced that CenturyLink agreed on a settlement that will result in $72,120. The refund payment represents an unused phone line bill of $621 per month since 2007.
Saving and recovering the district money was an indirect result of CMT’s intervention, said Rose.
“Last year was really assessing all of the outdated technology, getting it out and getting technology in the hands of the kids. And we were also able to get technology into the hand of teachers,” said Rose.
When Rose and his employees started assessing the existing technology in the schools, he found ways to diminish costly services and replaced those with up-to-date, less expensive services.
“We looked at every line item and said, ‘are we using it?’ if we are, is it adequate? If we’re not, can we get rid of it?” said Rose. “So I’ve kind of put it on my company to say, ‘oh yeah, let’s look at that,’ but understand what it is, understand how we’re utilizing it in the district.”
For example, Rose replaced the internet connection for the schools. The past bill ran the district $88,000 per year and the new service now costs the district around $37,000 per year, with the same bandwidth connection, said Rose.
Rose also helped reduced the district’s monthly telephone service from $7,700 to $1,900. Additionally, as CMT brought in a hosted phone solution, Rose said he looked in to E-rates — a program directed under the FCC that provides discounts to schools’ telecommunications and internet access.
Rose said he found reports from 2012 that had been documented erroneously, a mistake that cost the district around $239,000. “We were able to refile some papers and reclaim that money. So the district should be getting that money back,” said Rose.
They also replaced software services that were either not being used or outdated. Like the school’s Novell Inc. software licensing, which cost the district $11,000 per year, along with a Novell consultant — an additional $10,000 per year contract. CMT eliminated those costs by switching to Microsoft.
And another $15,000 was slashed by eliminating obsolete back-up software. In all, Rose said his company has saved anywhere from $70,000 to $80,000 in software changes alone. But CMT is not finished.
As of July 2015, CMT and the district entered into a three-year contract.
“All technology contracts, we have been reassessing,” said Rose. “And we will continue to reassess them.”
