BOCES has designed Business Office Support Services to save districts time and money. By using Business Office Support Services, district staff are free to perform other functions while BOCES staff handle school business operations and management in the areas of:

• Cooperative Bidding

• Data Collection

• Actuarial and Valuation Service (Post Employment Benefits in accordance with GASB 45)

• Management Studies

• Labor Relations

"We knew that these areas are issues districts have to deal with so we looked at all the different pieces and realized that a Business Office Support Service could fill a real need,” says School Support Services Director Peter Kopcha. “The Business Office Support Service is another value-added service of BOCES that can help districts reduce costs so they can re-allocate more dollars to address instruction.”

Cooperative Bidding
The cooperative bidding service handles:

• Preparing bid proposals

• Developing standard specifications for common items

• Gathering the quantity estimates, prepare legal notices, and award bids

• Talking with vendors regarding problems and complaints

• Coordinating the process with a users group

Currently the service does cooperative bids for cafeteria food and supplies two times per year, and bids for ice cream, bread and bread products, snacks and chips and sports beverages annually. We are open to responding to other district bidding needs as well.

Data Collection
Through the data collection service, districts of similar size and geographic location will be provided with comparative data to assist in the preparation of their annual budget and collective bargaining. Data will be collected in the areas of:

1. Staffing by employee groupalary data for each employee group

2. Benefit information including health insurance, vacation time, leave time,personal days, etc.

3. Demographic data

4. Budget / Financial data

Data will be collected on an annual basis during the months of September and October and entered into excel spreadsheets.  A person with background and experience in school district budgeting and negotiations processes will supervise the collection of data.  

Service:

• Collect data as noted above on annual basis during the months of September and October.

• Review of data for accuracy, consistency and completeness.

• Follow up calls to districts when there appears to be a discrepancy in the data in order to verify the accuracy of data collected.

• Organize data by category (i.e. staffing data) on excel spreadsheets and provide supporting detail where required.

• Conduct meetings in November with groups of similar districts to review the data collected and provide data interpretation where needed.

• Provide data in December in spreadsheet format to participating districts.

• Assist districts with data interpretation.

• Meet annually with a steering committee of superintendents, business officials and human resource administrators to discuss the data to be collected as well as it use.

GASB 45
This service will assist districts with establishing the required actuarial valuation of other post employment benefits.

Management Studies
Studies of business office operations and other areas of school operations will be provided to assist in the efficient and effective use of resources.

If districts have business needs other than the ones currently provided, please contact Bruce Bonacquist at the contact information above.