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Student Janitors? Frisco's List of Ways to Save Money

Frisco ISD staff and volunteers spent several months creating a list of ways to save or make the district money.

One item includes having students take out their classroom's trash.

“So I mainly photograph newborns and babies,” professional photographer Melissa Bradbury said from her home office.

Bradbury know the importance of details, especially when it comes to her child’s school.

“I mean that was our number one reason to move to Frisco was the school districts and how good they are and well known they are throughout the state,” Bradbury said.

With a six-year-old daughter in Frisco ISD and a three-year-old heading that way, she invests time in knowing what’s happening in her district.

“Well, I think as a parent, it’s hard not to be passionate about the schools because parents are passionate about their children. And my child spends more hours at school than they do with me during the week,” Bradbury said.

So, she took a close look at the long list of money-saving ideas proposed by a committee of Frisco staff and volunteers.

“And I think that there were people that were concerned about some of the things on that list. The list in general, I think, it’s always good to have more ideas that not enough, right?” Bradbury said.

One of the catchiest items on the list is in the section that includes “Custodial.” It gives the example that kids could ease a time-consuming job for custodians and take their classroom’s trash to a general area.

“They help me take out the trash as one of their chores, so I guess I don’t see it as too terrible of a thing. Do I want my child to use that as part of their learning time? Not necessarily,” Bradbury said.

Then, there’s the recommendation to charge a utility fee for students to play sports. It would cost $200 for a high school student and $100 for a middle school student. That utility fee is predicted to save the district $1.9 million.

“It doesn’t impact me as much since I have a young child, but I know people who have two, three, four kids that it would impact and that’s a lot of money.”

With a pile of suggestions in front of her, she said she’s trying to stay open to any options provided.

“I mean, I think that there’s people who spent a lot of time putting their heart and soul into the list, so I think it’s something everyone should be looking at and deciding what’s important to them.”

You can see a full list of the proposed ideas here.

A representative from Frisco ISD reiterated that this list is just a suggestion.

The school board will vote on the items when they approve the budget in April.

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