Area school named 'best-in-class' for saving money in three areas

ST. MARYS - Ohio Education Matters and Knowledge Works named St. Marys City Schools an Ohio Smart School for its exceptional savings in non-instructional spending.

Superintendent Mary Riepenhoff announced Monday that the school received the designation because three out of five possible areas met the benchmark and were designated as "best-in-class."

The three areas that received the best-in-class ratings were food services, Donna Kentner; transportation, Dan Grothause; and maintenance and operations, Greg Adams. The two other areas were school level administration and central administration.

According to the report, "The study identifies 135 (out of 609) Ohio public school districts that are getting more for their money than their peers in non-instructional spending areas, while meeting quality indicators in each area, but spending less than similar districts."

District business manager Kurt Kuffner said he is proud of the recognition from Ohio Education Matters and Knowledge Works.

"Such recognition just doesn't happen. It takes a support staff and support staff supervisors committed to providing quality support services while squeezing more from each support services dollar," Kuffner said. "While this recognition is certainly appreciated, we will not rest on our past achievement, but continue to work each day to find ways to become even more efficient."

Ohio Education matters is a subsidiary of Knowledge Works Foundation, a national organization in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They are working to "bring together the disparate elements of education training to workers who need to improve their skills in order to improve themselves and ultimately the state's economy," according to OEM's website.