An outside review of payroll and human resources procedures for public schools on Martha’s Vineyard has found costly inconsistencies between the five districts, according to a report from the Collins Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Island towns would save money if their school committees unified the practices for all school employees, regardless of where they work, two Collins Center consultants told the all-Island school committee on Sept. 24. 

“Because there are so many different software systems across the Island, the default systems have been very manual and very paper-based,” said Marie Altieri, who presented the report with Monica Visco. 

The all-Island committee engaged the Collins Center to review school practices after discovering inconsistencies in how transportation workers were being paid under a new timekeeping system that was negotiated with the bus and van drivers earlier this year.

“There really is room to be able to create some efficiencies,” said Ms. Altieri, listing some potential software solutions.

“There are absence management programs out there, whereby people can report a request to take time off, and then that is handled electronically. There are also substitute placement programs out there, where it can automatically go out and offer substitutes the job, and again, that would create a bunch of efficiencies,” she said.

“And there are definitely employee portal programs out there for self-service, so that employees can do it themselves rather than have to email and then a staff member has to keep track of everything,” Ms. Altieri said.

The Collins Center’s top recommendation was to unify employment and payroll procedures across all six public schools.

At present, staffers at the Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and Tisbury schools — each of which has its own school district and elected school committee — are town employees who are paid through their municipalities.

The Chilmark and West Tisbury schools, which also serve children from Aquinnah, compose the up-Island school district, which has a single elected committee and handles its payroll and other finances through the Martha’s Vineyard Public Schools superintendency office in Vineyard Haven.

The superintendent’s office also manages fiscal affairs for Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, which has its own district and committee.

In addition to updating payroll and staffing processes, the Collins Center report strongly recommends a centralized human resources department to ensure all public school employees are treated equally.

Currently, Island teachers’ seniority is limited by contract to the district in which they are currently working. Teachers in the three down-Island towns can’t change schools without losing their seniority and up-Island teachers may only keep seniority if they transfer between Chilmark and West Tisbury.

Superintendent of schools Jaime Curley, who started her job July 1, said she’s already working to make some procedures more consistent across districts, including the Family Medical Leave Act process and the way resignations are handled.

She also found that about 30 Island teachers were working without the required licenses, Ms. Curley said.

“It’s not completely unusual to have staff unlicensed in a district, but generally there’s a process that you need to follow,” she said.

Unlicensed teachers may work at schools under waivers from the state education department, but only once the job has been posted and other candidates considered, Ms. Curley said.

“Our first priority was making sure that we had all of our unlicensed people either on a waiver or to get licensed,” she said.

About 10 of the teachers have obtained their licenses so far, she said, and the waiver process is under way for the rest.

Ms. Curley also noted that her assistant superintendent for operations, former Mashpee Public Schools finance director Ashley Lopes, previously oversaw human resources on a district-wide basis.

“Having an HR director costs money,” Ms. Curley said. “We’re lucky to have Ashley and her skill set.”

Business manager Mark Friedman said an attendance software program is already in the works for the school system.

Further savings could be found by centralizing some of the schools’ food and custodial services, according to the Collins Center report.

Ms. Lopes will meet with the food service departments and the facility directors from each of the schools this year to consider potential efficiencies, Ms. Curley said.

The Collins Center study included on-Island visits with more than two dozen people, with follow-ups on Zoom, Ms. Visco said.

“We met with town and school officials [and] reviewed related payroll and HR forms and procedures,” she said.

All-Island school committee chair Amy Houghton said that putting the center’s cost-saving recommendations into practice will require some initial spending that should be included in the next budget.

“How many years have we been saying that HR needed to be a priority within the district … I think for the better part of five years,” Ms. Houghton said.

“Every time, it has been kicked down the street because there was financial cost associated there, [but] at some point we can’t just say, ‘Well, we’re not going to do it,’” she said.

“The fact that … a staff member can’t go to a portal and find out how much time they have off is ludicrous. Ludicrous,” Ms. Houghton said. 

“We need to change. We need to have more efficiencies,” she said.