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3 Ways to Demystify Benefits Open Enrollment

Every year, benefits season rolls around. And every year, HR departments rev up their engines and kick into high gear to prepare their districts for open enrollment. Though the specific timeframe for enrollment may vary by state, the amount of hard work and preparation that goes into it does not.

But when it comes to navigating benefits, sometimes it feels like wandering through a thick layer of fog with no clear path to take. From insurance jargon to sorting through stacks of paperwork, benefits enrollment can leave employees feeling dazed and confused. The process is complex and complicated for all parties involved, so it’s no surprise that benefit literacy is generally low. According to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP), nearly half of employees in the United States don’t understand their benefits.

A closer look into benefit literacy:

Source: Voya Financial Consumer Survey

With that statistic in mind, it’s important to ask: how can school districts relieve the confusion their employees face and the arduous tasks their HR teams tackle during benefit season?

One district, Spring Grove Area School District, automated their processes into one system to make benefits open enrollment a whole lot simpler for their employees. One teacher described the new process as “settling for my brain, my heart, and my wallet.” How can you do the same for your teachers?

Communicate Clearly, Concisely, and Creatively

Employees need a detailed understanding of what benefits they’re choosing to feel secure and calm about the process. To make selections that suit their personal and familial needs best, they’ll need information and support. Think about the “three c’s” as you prepare to communicate effectively with your staff:

  • Be clear: Insurance jargon is confusing. What’s an out-of-pocket maximum? What does HSA-eligible even mean? Remove ambiguity wherever you can. Speak and write in the simplest of terms.
  • Be concise: If your staff receives a massive benefit handbook, will they actually read it? Keep it simple, keep it short, and if you need to share a long document, find a way to review it in simple terms.
  • Be creative: Don’t be afraid to mix up your delivery methods. Every individual has a different learning style. Cover all the bases by offering multimodal and multi-channel communications — varying your methods will increase engagement.

Offer Support Beyond the Open Enrollment Period

Open enrollment may be seasonal, but benefits sure aren’t — it’s crucial to keep the conversation going all year long. In doing so, districts can help their employees stay engaged with their benefits, understand how their annual plan works, and better prepare them for the next open enrollment season.

And when it comes to qualifying life events, employees need easily-accessible support at any given time. By offering year-round support, employees will know exactly where to turn, and frustrating scenarios like this can be avoided all together. Throughout the year:

  • Create a 12-month communication calendar: This is a great opportunity to visually outline what conversation is the most valuable to your employees each month. Perhaps it’s a back-to-school annual physical reminder or a telehealth information session information session during flu season.
  • Promote a wellness campaign: Get your staff on a health kick with events like a nutritional challenge, an employee field day, or a meditation-station.
  • Get feedback: Generate a survey and ask your employees what’s working well vs. what’s not. Do they want more creative resources? Do they want monthly reminders on how their benefit plan actually works?
  • Send reminders throughout the year: If health care plans offer free preventative care such as vaccines, screenings, checkups, nurse resources, health tools, and other options even before they meet their deductible, schedule regular communications reminding employees to get the most from their benefits.

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Are you ready to evaluate your benefits enrollment process and highlight areas for improvement?

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Ditch Paper — Go Digital

If your open enrollment season is still a series of manual processes, your HR team might:

  • Find it hard to locate records
  • Struggle to read illegible handwriting on forms
  • Waste time updating inaccurate employee information,
  • Face redundant data entry

Not only that, but stacks of paperwork can often feel daunting and even tamper the enrollment experience for new hires. So it’s time to reflect on a few questions:

  1. How much time does your team spend transcribing written data?
  2. How many pages is your employee benefits packet?
  3. How long do you spend tracking down or updating employee information?

Are your answers a little (or a lot) higher than you would like them to be? If so, it’s probably time to ditch the paper. When you make the switch to a digital benefits process, your district will cut costs and save time, and employees will have a fuller understanding of benefits enrollment.

Benefits of Going Digital:

  • With self-enrollment, employees can make their own benefits decisions
  • The employee experience is improved through increased flexibility
  • HR teams can provide a greater level of support to their employees
  • Countless trees are saved through more sustainable processes

Do More With Frontline HRMS

Are you ready to start your journey toward demystifying benefits enrollment in your district? Frontline HRMS can help.

With Frontline, staff will be able to digitally…

  • Select and enroll in benefits packages
  • Adjust life/qualifying events as situations change
  • Change contact information with the click of a button
  • Access pertinent information pertaining to individual plans

Learn more about benefits management with Frontline HRMS.

“Trying to manage benefits without a system is, very honestly, impossible. [With a system] you can keep track of information, put the decision-making in the hands of the employees, allow them to make their own selections, and produce the information about those selections to various vendors to update the plan selection.”

Angie Doll
Director of Human Resources

Erin Shelton

Erin is a writer and member of the award-winning content team at Frontline Education. With experience in education, she is passionate about creating content that helps to support and impact the growth of both students and teachers.

How District Leaders Can Address Challenges with the Power of Analytics

In today’s K-12 landscape, school leaders face a host of challenges that seem to have only been exacerbated since the pandemic. Ongoing barriers to a quality education workforce, interrupted learning and widening academic gaps, increased social emotional need, inequitable access to opportunity, uncertain stimulus-boosted budgets and heightened pressure to demonstrate meaningful growth and change are just a handful of important strategies that remain top of mind for school leaders as they work to establish, measure, and refine plans that will positively impact student outcomes.

As a way to combat these challenges, many school leaders rely on data to guide the planning process. Data usage within K-12 really runs the gamut, from districts reviewing stock reports at the highest level all the way to Chief Financial Officers drilling down into financial granularity on a daily basis. And while many school districts may be rich with data, they oftentimes find themselves wading through piles of information, lacking strategic insights that could help to establish benchmarks, accelerate planning, and guide decision-making.

The Role of Analytics

Analytics can change all that and have the potential to significantly impact how we manage and deliver education by identifying efficiencies, targeting financial and student-focused opportunities, and ensuring teacher quality, among other things. Specifically for financial leaders, leveraging easy-to-use yet sophisticated analytics tools can easily examine and analyze data to determine how things are trending, and where they are going, while also having the ability to provide evidence-based, digestible reporting to stakeholders within a district.


Stock accounting system reports are often too difficult for stakeholders to understand. Having data analytics systems in place enable the CFO to quickly provide easy-to-read and understand reports with the click of a button.

Providing a multi-year forecast is imperative to determining the path to maintaining a district’s fiscal stability. Financial Analytics solutions help districts efficiently build annual budgets and multi-year projections and model scenarios and future impacts to increase transparency and ensure their budget stays on track despite the impact of COVID-19. As important, a forecast rooted in data and analytics can help protect a district from the impact of unstable or unsustainable revenue sources, such as ESSER funding. While a district may have the cash to afford something in the near term, how will it impact the long-term budget of the district? What revenue streams will the district need to support the operations of the district? How can a district easily model different scenarios and illustrate the financial impact?


The visual above illustrates how school districts can use data analytic systems to quickly analyze the impact specific financial decisions will have on the fiscal stability of a school district. In this case, the visual is showing the property millage needed to overcome the projected budget shortfall.

Budget and financial analytics will certainly help to contribute to a well-thought-out, comprehensive plan. As financial leaders conduct the financial planning and monitoring process, whether it be monthly, quarterly, or annually, it may also be helpful to assess how one school district stands in comparison to another based on common districts characteristics such as size, location, or demographics. By studying comparisons and identifying contrasts, school leaders can develop a deep understanding of contrasting performance and variations at the district and school level, which may reveal new insights that drive new decisions.


Having the ability to quickly select, filter and visualize data enables school districts to gain valuable insight. The graphic above shows how a school district can quickly inquire about the compensation levels of their staff in relation to other school districts in their area.

Analytics in Action

Analytics tools provide school leaders with the ability to see and understand macro and micro indicators, and also provide access to historical content as a way of evaluating past, current, and future trends.

Bill Wade, Chief Financial Officer at Mentor Schools in Ohio, recently adopted analytics in his organization to help set and drive strategy. Using financial, budget, and comparative analytics, the newly appointed CFO was able to establish a formal budgeting system that would address the organization’s short-term needs, but also help to maintain long-term fiscal stability. Wade has become an avid user of the analytics platforms, relying on some of the tools, such as forecasting and scenario reporting, on a weekly-to-monthly basis to support budgetary decision-making and to increase communications transparency with the Board and community.

Wade commented, “Working with Frontline Analytics has empowered me to understand our budget and spending behaviors so we can make informed decisions for the betterment of our schools. The data allows us to see what is on track, what we can and cannot control, and most importantly, how to be more efficient so our operations are sound and have the ability to thrive. Frontline’s Analytics platforms are easy to use, help school leaders evaluate data in an efficient matter, and the reporting is digestible and compelling for all audiences. There’s also a tremendous amount of advisory and professional development that comes along with the tools. I can’t imagine being able to do my job successfully without the support of data and analytics.”

Why School Leaders Should Embrace Analytics

Nuances in K-12 education make it hard for districts to adopt the larger or more generic analytics tools. This can be a barrier to entry for many districts that don’t have the resources or know-how to manage complex data systems. It’s important to use tools designed specifically to manage K-12 data. Having the ability to use data in the manner in which a school needs, with the click of one or two buttons to preview trend data, make projections, and produce professional, visually compelling reports, is invaluable. Analytics tools help to automate processes around the financial activity of a district, which should ultimately help to increase efficiencies so leaders can continue to focus on strategic initiatives that benefit students.


Automated visuals, like the one above, easily allow the CFO to determine how their current projected cash flow is trending in relation to the forecast last approved by the BOE. It also allows the CFO to determine what further revenue and expense areas they may need to research.

Reprinted with permission from the Ohio School Boards Association.

Getting School District Employees Buy-in for A New Time Tracking System

Sometimes, change is hard — even when it’s for the better. It’s relatively easy to get staff buy-in for things like dress-down days, unlimited printing or discount programs. But other changes can be a little harder to rally your employees around, even when the switch is integral to the school district’s operations.

Take time tracking, for example. Having an accurate picture of employee time is a key part of staying compliant with labor laws and managing the district’s expenses, but moving to a new time tracking system is rarely on any employee’s wish list. Even so, you want to make sure that your people are on board as much as possible when you make a change that affects their work day.

So, how can you make a new time tracking system a win-win for you and your employees?

1. Be open about why you’re moving to the new time tracking system

People always appreciate honesty, so be upfront about the reasons why the district is making the change. If it’s to keep costs under control, it’s okay to say so — everyone knows that school district budgets are tight, but it’s not as well-known that organizations overpay by an average 1.2% due to payroll errors. And according to research by the American Payroll Association, payroll errors could cost anywhere from 1% to 8% of your annual gross payroll if your organization uses paper-based time cards. So, explain that moving to an electronic time tracking system will save the district money, without needing to make cuts.

Or, you may be moving to a new system to improve accountability. Maybe you’ve found that employees work additional hours off the clock in order to get their work done, and need to make sure that all of your employees are compensated fairly for their time. Or perhaps you’ve had issues with “buddy-punching”, where one employee clocks in on another’s behalf. Consider being transparent about the effect this behavior has had on the school district’s finances.

2. Make sure you pick a time tracking system that works for employees and the school district

First and foremost: when you move to a new time tracking system, make sure that it’s the best one for the district. It can be demoralizing for employees (and your payroll office) to jump from one system to another, to another, and yet another ad infinitum in search of the right one. So, when you choose the new system, make sure it’ll meet everyone’s needs.

It should be flexible enough to work with K-12’s unique needs, like different employee groups, or staff who hold multiple positions or work in multiple locations. At the same time, it needs to put you in control of who can clock in where, or how.

For employees in particular, one of the most visible parts of time tracking is actually clocking in and out. The most effective clock-in/clock-out device for one group may not be best for another, so choose a system that can work with a variety of time capture methods.

Obligatory vendor note:

Time & Attendance from Frontline lets you use any compatible time-tracking device or method that works for your district: electronic timesheets, proximity scanners, biometrics, a mobile app and more. Bonus: you can use different methods for different employee groups — whatever works best for your district’s needs.

3. Communicate!

Throughout the process, communicate with your employees. In addition to being open about why the district is moving to the new system, share the reasons why you chose the new system, and address their concerns. Maybe you heard from bus drivers that the clock-in method used for other employees wasn’t working as well for them, and the new system makes sure that everyone’s needs are met.

Remember that communication goes both ways. In addition to sharing the reasons behind the change, make sure that employees feel heard. You may find they have valuable feedback that improves the overall process, and staff will feel included and respected.

Thinking of moving to a better system for tracking and managing employee time? Check out Time & Attendance. As part of Frontline Absence & Time, it works with Absence Management (formerly Aesop) to give you the full picture of employee attendance.

Learn More

A School Bus Trip to New School Year Success: School Health Edition

Growing up in Massachusetts, the school year kicked off around Labor Day in early September. I’d go to bed with my first day of school outfit picked out. And since I walked to school each day in elementary school, living just a quarter mile away, by the time I entered sixth grade I couldn’t wait to ride the bus: what would it be like?

In the new-to-me middle school building, I underwent new classes along with a host of standard health screenings. I never thought about the notes associated with my vision or hearing screenings, or asked my mom about my vaccination records. I never questioned why I was handed a stack of paper at the beginning of each school year that I was supposed to give to my parents.

You understand the importance of those notes, records, and paper stacks. You know that each new school year doesn’t happen thanks to magic, unless you consider hard work magical.

In your journey toward a successful new school year, let’s take a virtual school bus trip for a few minutes. Along the way, we’ll look at a few factors that can contribute to that success.

A School Bus Trip to New School Year Success

Each stop along the way represents something you can do to make this school year a great one for everyone at your district.





Stop One: Student Enrollment

Anyone involved in student health will require visibility into the students they’re supporting.

Of course, student enrollment is tracked in your student information system, so if you have an EHR that integrates with your SIS, you can avoid some redundant work. It’s important that providers have access to student demographics, too, so that they can better prepare for their caseloads. Student information can also help ensure that providers have enough of the prescriptions they need, too.

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When you have a good view of your student enrollment, it’s easier to be aware of any students transitioning between buildings, ensure that health providers are assigned to the correct campus, and inform providers of their assigned campus. And of course, student immunizations are another critical piece, especially for school nurses.

If you have a system like Frontline School Health Management, all of this information is easily accessible to any users whose roles require it. And important details like students’ immunization records are easily imported to the system at the time of enrollment, too. Students are the foundation of every school, so getting student enrollment right is the first stop on our way to a successful year — it’s almost like a GPS for our bus.

That GPS is taking us to scheduling next.

Stop Two: Scheduling

When you’re starting your day, you probably begin by looking at your schedule to make sure you’re prepared for any meetings. The new school year is similar, just on a larger scale. It’s ideal if you can add any non-attending days for students and/or faculty ahead of time.

Then there’s the scheduling for group events like vision and lice screenings. If your school engages parent or guardian volunteers for such events, you’ll need to communicate with them.

Depending on how many nurses, counselors, and other providers you have in your district, you may also need to think about travel time for these professionals. And if you have students who require services outside of the classroom based on their IEPs, you’ll need to coordinate with Student Services.

Stop Three: Security

Student data is more vulnerable than adult data, and it’s the district’s responsibility to keep that information safe. K12 Information Exchange releases annual reports on cybersecurity, and their reports have shown that since 2016, 1,331 incidents have been reported, with 2020 being a record-high year for security incidents.

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If your system has security roles, you’ll likely need to update them to reflect any staff changes. Even if you haven’t experienced any turnover, you might have staff who didn’t require system access over the summer. Those individuals might need their access reinstated with any required edits.

Remember those stacks of papers I went home with on my first day of school? That probably wasn’t the most secure method of communicating with parents, but fortunately, there are much better ways today. Frontline’s EHR gives you and students’ guardians a user-friendly way to communicate in a secure portal.

Of course, security is relevant year-round, so part of your back-to-school prep might include reviewing and informing all staff of your district’s security procedures and information privacy policies.

We’ve got one more stop on our journey. Let’s go!

Stop Four: Tracking Services

Anyone working in Student Services might be keenly aware of the need to track services even on the first day of school, especially if you’re trying to maximize your Medicaid reimbursements. If you choose a single vendor for both your school nursing program and service tracking program, you’ll have one point of entry for submitting claims, giving you a fuller picture of how health services impact your Medicaid reimbursements, and ensuring that no eligible claims are missed.

A tip: if your state has embraced Free Care, this could be especially helpful in tracking mental health services.

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The Destination: A Fabulous New School Year!

You made it! Your providers will be ready to support students, and will feel supported themselves, making everyone’s first day of school smoother. If you have an EHR, don’t forget to check in with your vendor and review any release notes from product updates completed over the summer.

As a kid who wasn’t used to taking the bus to school, I remember the nurse’s office fondly. Our nurse helped alleviate my headaches and nausea thanks to the motion sickness brought on by the bus. Without their care, I wouldn’t have had the chance to be as focused in the classroom. Even simple student encounters can make a big difference in a student’s life and academic trajectory.

This trip flew by, much like this school year likely will, too. You’re ready!

 

Why School Referenda Fail: Research and Best Practices for Success

Results of tax referenda over time vary significantly from state to state for a variety of reasons. In any given year, however, upwards of 50% of all school referenda seeking operating money or bonding are unsuccessful.

Some factors such as demographics, the economy, anti-tax politics, and the presence of organized opposition are contributing factors and out of a district’s control. Other factors, including harnessing research-based best practices and understanding how to capture and effectively use available data sets are mostly or fully within control of leadership and the school board. Below are 10 key research-based factors associated with unsuccessful referenda. And if you are wondering why not the “Top 10 Tips for Winning,” read on after going through the list below!

1. Lack of unanimity and support from school board

Split school boards, factions of the school board working against the referendum, or perceptions that the school board is not united and supportive negatively impact referenda. Split school boards give the uninformed within the community a reason to oppose.

2. Lack of alignment in ballot proposal

Alignment in a school district’s ballot proposal has two dimensions: (1) how the new money is going to be used; and (2) the tax impact associated with the requested investment in the public schools. It is critically important that the school board and administration get both components of alignment right. One way to inform the decision about the ballot proposal is to use a well-designed scientific, random-sample survey.

3. Failure to demonstrate a compelling need and consequences (positive and negative) of the referendum

Unlike political campaigns, in which voters can identify with party affiliation and perceptions about the past record and qualifications of the candidate, school referenda are reliant on information alone:

    1. What is being proposed?
    2. How will the money be used?
    3. Why is it necessary?
    4. How much will it cost me?

To convince voters to voluntarily raise their taxes to invest in public schools requires clear and compelling information. No voter should go to the polls uninformed.

4. Controversy, lack of trust, or “climate” issues within the school district and between the school district and the community

Contentious issues are part and parcel to the business of running a school district and can be more problematic in times of financial stress. It is incumbent on the school board, administration, and staff to be mutually supportive, proactively anticipate and solve problems before they become unmanageable, initiate quality control systems, and work to strengthen relationships internally and within the community to offset the negative impact of inevitable distractions.

5. Poor public relations, communications, or hostile local media

Research clearly demonstrates the importance of effective and ongoing communications and public engagement as a foundation from which to launch a successful referendum. Maintaining a respectful and positive relationship with local media is also linked to success over time.

6. Referendum conducted prematurely

It takes the time it takes to get it right. Waiting until the school district is ready, with the prerequisite foundation in place, is best practice if the school board has the luxury of having a legitimate choice about moving forward now or waiting until the school district is better prepared and positioned for success.

7. Inadequate planning, execution, and commitment of resources (time, talent, and treasure) by school district

Executing successful referenda is complex, challenging, and dependent on good planning and the commitment of human and financial resources. Coordination between the school district’s administration of the referendum and the advocacy work of the campaign committee is paramount.

8. Inadequate planning, execution, and commitment resources (time, talent, and treasure) by campaign committee

Most successful school referenda are dependent upon a grassroots advocacy group organized to support the referendum proposal in coordination with the school district. Planning and executing a winning campaign requires commitment, expertise, and sufficient resources, particularly in the “Big Three”: communications, canvassing, and GOTV (Get Out the Vote). Poor execution of GOTV, resulting in lower than optimal turnout of key voter targets, is often a contributing factor to defeat.

9. Demographics and socioeconomic factors

There are many demographic and socioeconomic factors that affect the outcome of referenda. In terms of demographics, parents of school-age children typically make up only 15-25% of registered voters in the average school district. Aging of the baby boomers is also impactful with the count of folks over 65 years-old now greater than the total number of all K-12 students. Economic conditions and consumer confidence are also important drivers in referendum success rates. Conditions of high inflation and low consumer confidence steepen the challenge leading up to Election Day.

10. Critical or unexpected events

Factors totally outside the control of the school district can occur and adversely affect the outcome of a referendum. These critical or unexpected events could range from a stock market crash to the invasion of Ukraine to global pandemics to political polarization around such controversies as critical race theory. The timing and severity of such events have the potential to encourage organized opposition and torpedo even a well-planned referendum campaign.

So inquiring minds want to know…
Why emphasize these ten research-based factors associated with unsuccessful school referenda rather than focusing on the positive in terms of the “Top 10 Tips for Winning” as referenced in the opening paragraph?

Two reasons:

First, while the professional literature is replete with such “how to” lists (including some I have authored!), the tips are often anecdotal rather than research-based, and they tend to be tactical (e.g., our teachers took out an advertisement in the local paper) rather than “big picture” strategic.

Second, experience over time has taught me that starting with broad factors associated with unsuccessful referenda motivates school leaders to process how each factor will or could influence a future referendum in their unique environment, and then to strategically plan to eliminate or minimize the potential negative impact of a given factor. The challenge and opportunity for school leaders is to understand and analyze contextual factors (e.g., wealth, age, education level) not within the district’s control and then to act strategically on the mirror images of the factors listed above, developing a comprehensive referendum plan on a foundation of research and best practice.

Developing a winning strategy for your referendum is greatly enhanced when school leaders understand how to access and use voter data obtained from public and commercial sources in order to identify a campaign target structure that extends beyond just parents. Your voter target structure can then be harnessed by powerful geovisual software tools to support execution of canvassing, communications, and GOTV.

 

4 Myths About Asset Management

We’re that family.

The school year ended several weeks ago, but there it is, in a basket in the living room, under a pile of papers and our family’s stack of laptops (don’t judge): a school computer, issued to a child in my household, unreturned, and unaccounted for.*

It will be returned and accounted for, of course. One young member of our family, sheepish smile on her face, will carry it back into the school building as soon as we find time. Accounts will be settled, all will be right with the world technology department.

But Overlooked-Laptopgate (as I affectionately refer to this chapter in our life as members of this school community) did get me thinking:

    What if we’d never found that laptop? What if it remained unseen in the basket, languishing under old field trip forms, orphaned charging cables, and a battered Steve Jobs-era MacBook Air?

    Has the school even noticed the laptop is missing?

    Would we receive a sternly worded email, an invoice for the missing equipment, maybe a midnight knock at the door from school tech department repo-men intent on reclaiming school property?

Upon further reflection, it’s clear that I had some misconceptions about how technology is managed at my child’s school. Some colleagues who work to help districts manage assets like this told me that this experience is common — and that there are several myths about asset management that tend to come up each year.

Here are their top 4, and how you can tackle them.

Myth #1: School asset management is only for tracking devices.

Of course laptops, tablets, Chromebooks, and other 1:1 devices spring to mind when thinking about technology assets. Then add in all the other devices: printers, projectors, smartboards, TVs… the list goes on.

But those are just the tip of the iceberg. Anything on which your district spends funds should be tracked for its entire life. As audits happen, these items are often looked at first. Full information on each asset should be easy to find and report on.

What about furniture, like bookshelves, tables, and all those desk/chair combos?

How about kitchen items like refrigerators, mixers, and walk-in coolers? Or maintenance and custodial equipment? It makes sense to track the lifecycle of mowers, vehicles, and floor polishers, for example, so you’re not caught off-guard when something needs to be replaced.

And, of course, special education assistive equipment is also worth tracking: wheelchairs, hearing aids, touchscreens, text-to-speech synthesizers, sip-and-puff systems. All of these are assets for which your district not only needs to track location, but also funding sources and estimated lifespan to inform the budget and ensure you can confidently respond to audits.

Myth #2: Inventory data needs to be perfect before implementing an asset management system.

You might think that until your inventory tracking data is lined up neatly like so many ducks in a row, you can’t start the process of implementing a new system. If you wait until you’ve been able to go through every spreadsheet, every file, until each one is 100% neat and tidy, you may never cross the starting line. (Plus, that sounds like quite a hassle!)

Thankfully, imperfect data doesn’t have to be a roadblock to moving forward. For school districts looking to implement Frontline’s Asset Management, for example, there are three options to help you get moving quickly:

    Data Conversion

    Imagine: a team of specialists who work with you to clean your data. They’ll run it through a validation process, identify errors, and guide you to inventory best practices.

    Physical Inventory

    If you’d rather start from scratch, there’s a team that can come on-site to your district to complete a physical inventory. This gives you a good baseline and starts you out with best practices to get started.

    Import & Audit

    Lastly, you can take your existing data and import it into the system as-is. Then, running an audit on that data will highlight any areas for cleanup and help you identify any gaps in your information that need to be filled.

So if you’re feeling paralyzed by your data, wondering how or if you’ll ever be able to clean it up and dreading the time you may need to spend, don’t let that stand in your way.

Myth #3: An asset management system will take forever to implement.

Not true!

Thankfully, an asset management system like Frontline’s Asset Management shouldn’t take more than a few weeks to get up and running.

Setting an achievable goal is the first step toward a complete rollout of a new system. Not all implementations will look the same. As mentioned in Myth 2, there are multiple ways to get your data ready for implementation. For some schools, the method is to begin with great data, while others start with newly purchased items and take it in stages.

The technology department at Rock Hill Schools in South Carolina (student enrollment: 16,700) consists of about 37 people. They decided that the first step in launching their new asset management system was to simply get student laptops into the system. Once those devices were tagged and tracked, the technology team could then expand to other kinds of technology.

Now, the team at Rock Hill Schools is managing assets consistently and can make data-driven decisions about whether to purchase new devices or move equipment around. Read the case study

Myth #4: Audits have to be stressful and time consuming.

Let’s be honest: no one likes an audit. Opening up your files to show compliance (or lack thereof) with Title I, the E-rate program, or ESSER funds criteria has historically cost time and in many cases, money. They can require significant staff to perform inventories and compile records often kept by multiple departments. When this is done manually, with legions of staff checking off items with pen and paper, human error rears its ugly head.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

An asset management system can make the entire system so much easier and remove the fear from audits.

    Categorize devices and assets.

    A good asset management system can help ensure that devices are accounted for, categorized correctly, and classified to the correct funding source. (Be sure to ask about this — not all systems check this box.)

    Know where every asset is at all times.

    Systems like this also make it simple to track each asset — regardless of value or cost — through its entire lifecycle. Did your district have to suddenly distribute laptops or mobile hotspots at the beginning of the pandemic? An asset management system makes it easy to keep track of each asset from the moment it’s issued to the time it’s collected, when it is sent out for repair, and when it’s powered down for the last time.

    Make compliance easy.

    Different funding sources often have their own sets of rules attached to them. Is an asset only allowed to be used at a certain site? You will need to be able to govern its movement and use according to the funding source it came from, and a system like Frontline’s Asset Management can help you do that — but be aware that not all systems can.

    Need to keep records for 7-10 years? You can archive your assets and keep track of that inventory, even if it’s not in active use. Plus, it’ll be far easier to generate the reports you need to satisfy audit requirements.

    An asset management system can also help you lower the risk of fines or lost funding by helping you identify and address problems before an auditor does.

There you have it. Asset management systems can be used to track far more than laptops and other devices. Implementation doesn’t have to be a 6 month long process — and doesn’t require perfect data! And if you’re using one that can help you classify assets according to the correct funding source and can govern their use accordingly, it can help make audits much less painful.

*Correction: We’ve since learned that computers stay with students so long as they remain in the district, so we’re okay. But still.

On-demand webinar: Using Asset Management to Ensure Your District is Prepared for an Audit
Join us for a conversation about how to ensure compliance with federal and state restrictions for special funding sources with Lance McConkey, Comptroller for Dekalb County Schools, and Uwe Lord, Inventory Specialist at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

 

Talk Data to Me: Hire Rates

According to a 2021 Frontline survey, about two-thirds of over 1,200 school and district administrators reported having a teacher shortage. Some districts experienced the teacher shortage worse than others. About half of the respondents reported difficulty filling jobs across all grade levels and subjects while the other half felt the effects of the shortage in specific subject areas only.

Are vacancies for some teacher subject areas easier to fill than others?

We decided to find out!

Using data from the Frontline Research and Learning Institute, we examined teacher job postings from the 21-22 school year to see if jobs for certain subject areas tend to be filled faster than others.

For this blog post, we defined Hire Rate as the proportion of job postings that were filled within 30 days of the posting date. Chart 1, below, shows the Hire Rate by subject area relative to the average.

Chart 1

Vacancies for Business teachers had the lowest Hire Rate. Compared to the average teacher job posting, the Hire Rate for Business teacher jobs was 5 percentage points less. Vacancies for Technology teachers had the highest Hire Rate, 7 percentage higher than the average.

Want to dig into the data around one type of teacher shortage?

Let’s explore the Special Education Teacher Shortage

Most job postings eventually get filled with the ideal candidate, but the time it takes to fill certain jobs certainly varies. Chart 2, below, shows the number of days it takes, on average, to fill a job posting for each subject area relative to the overall average.

Chart 2

Job postings for Physical Education/Health teacher positions filled the fastest compared to other teacher positions and 12 days faster than the average. Postings for Lead Teachers/Department Heads took the longest and were filled 29 days later than the average teacher job posting. Subject areas that are typically the hardest hit by teacher shortages like Mathematics, Science, and Special Education, took longer to fill than the average teacher job posting.

In the face of the teacher shortage, what can you do?

If only there were one simple answer! Of course, complex challenges like the teacher shortage require nuanced solutions. This video discusses seven ways you can tackle the teacher shortage with a holistic strategy.





If your district has Frontline Recruiting & Hiring, you have access to the Institute Dashboard in your system. You can dig into data just like we’ve done here today, but with your district’s data, so you can gather insights that will make a difference in your community. Check it out today!

Want Tips to Find Your Ideal Candidate? Check out these other Frontline resources!


Generation Z: The New Wave of Teachers

Let’s talk Generation Z.

Born roughly between 1997 and 2012, Generation Z (also referred to as “iGeneration” or “The Global Generation”) is the largest and most ethnically diverse generation to date. The youngest of Generation Z are still in the K-12 classroom while the oldest have already begun to enter the workforce.

What does this mean for the future of the education sector? It’s no secret that teaching as a career choice has declined in popularity among the younger generations. Pair that with the teacher shortage and decreasing enrollment in teacher prep programs, and your district’s future applicant pool could be at risk.

To effectively attract and keep those in this generation who are seeking teach, your district needs to truly understand what sets Generation Z apart.

They’re here and more connected than ever. Is your district ready?

Gen Z Fast Facts according to the Pew Research Center:

  1. Projected to make up 27% of the global workforce
  2. By 2025, Gen Z will make up 32% of the global population
  3. 52% of Gen Z are non-Hispanic white
  4. 22% of Gen Z have at least one immigrant parent

 

Curious to see where your state stands with teachers prep programs? Check out the interactive map.

Who is Gen Z?

Before we dig into the nitty gritty, it’s important to note that not all of Generation Z is confined to the characteristics outlined here. However, these are traits and tendencies that have been widely identified and must be acknowledged as districts continue to face a tightening teacher pipeline.

Generation Z are not Millennials. Despite sharing some similarities, Gen Z is strikingly distinct, and understanding the differences between the two is your first step toward effectively attracting them to your district:

Millennials Gen Z
  • Optimistic
  • Prefer collaborative work environments
  • Tech-savvy
  • Risk-aware
  • Desire career growth
  • Prioritize work-life balance
  • Pragmatic
  • Prefer their own workspace
  • Digital natives
  • Risk-averse
  • Desire job security
  • Prioritize diversity in the workplace

Sources: McKinsey & Company, Academy to Innovate HR

Technology is their past, present, and future

If you ask someone in Generation Z if they remember the sound of dial-up internet or how to use a floppy disk, you may get a quizzical look. Generation Z is the first generation to be born into technology, the first true digital natives. There’s no denying that Millennials are tech-savvy and considered digital pioneers themselves, but Gen Z has had immediate, unfiltered access to the digital world since birth. Most are “plugged in” in every facet of life, from communication to entertainment to eCommerce.

Gen Z Fast Fact: In general, Gen Z favors technology and applications that have non-permanent storage and prioritize privacy.

 

District Support Tips

  • Support a digitized classroom by encouraging the use of educational software. From review games to interactive lessons, there are countless applications available for free!
  • Improve your hiring and onboarding strategy by offering digital onboarding. With “technology-first” employees, digital onboarding can help improve engagement, productivity, and even retention.
  • Embrace new technology. Future classrooms will be shaped by new technology. Whether it’s 3D printing, augmented/virtual reality, or biometrics, fully digitized classrooms will undoubtedly become the norm. Get ahead of the curve and investigate ways your district can implement new technology.

 

Instant feedback is highly valued

Considering we can now binge-watch an entire series on Netflix or find virtually any “how-to” video on YouTube, it’s easy to see why Generation Z expects to have access to information within seconds (eight, to be exact). They are professional multitaskers, communicating on multiple screens at once while simultaneously leaning into the “TL; DR” (too long; didn’t read) era.

“Because of the way [newer teachers] get their news and information, they’re used to immediate feedback”
– from “Five Generations at Work” on the Field Trip Podcast.
Listen Now

 

District Support Tips

  • Provide shorter, frequent feedback. Members of Generation Z value instant and ongoing feedback, but also consider offering varied forms of feedback, be it via Zoom, email, or in-person.
  • Consider implementing a peer-to-peer mentor program (if your district isn’t already doing so). Pairing a younger teacher with a veteran teacher will promote an ongoing dialogue and it will also allow for more instant feedback.

 

Diversity and social activism are top-of-mind

Generation Z has brought the age of activism to the center stage. As global citizens, they are more radically inclusive and culturally aware than previous generations. They also have a strong preference for sustainable and eco-friendly products.

Within the workplace, Gen Z highly values diversity, equity, and inclusion. Pew Research notes that more than any other generation, Gen Z sees increased racial and ethnic diversity as a positive thing for society as a whole. Is your district prioritizing DE&I strategies to promote a culturally responsive school?

District Support Tips

  • Offer ongoing, robust professional development that focuses on DE&I.
  • Consider implementing an Equity Leadership Team to promote diversity-related events.
  • Don’t be afraid to continually evaluate your DE&I strategies. Invite feedback, evaluate, and iterate.
  • Ensure diverse literature is easily accessible. Check out The University of Maryland’s International Children’s Digital Library.

 

“We’re going to have to look at some more strategies, and to really find the time, the budget, the opportunities to tap into communities of color, where you have a lot of gifted, talented people who don’t have opportunities to engage in professional learning, so, you’re really looking at ways that you could entice people to become a member of your district that would meet their need as well as yours.”
– from “School Workforce Diversity” on the Field Trip Podcast
Listen Now

 

Mental health matters

There has been an undeniable rise of anxiety and depression over the past few years, especially with the added stresses of the pandemic. Yet Generation Z is much more open to discussing mental health than some earlier generations. They go to therapy more often and are working toward destigmatizing mental health issues.

Gen Z Fast Fact: The American Psychological Association found that 91% of Gen Zers between ages 18 and 21 have experienced one physical or emotional symptom due to stress in the past year.

 

District Support Tips

  • Offer mental health days. The shortage of teachers and substitutes is serious, but that doesn’t diminish the importance of taking care of your teacher’s mental health. Consider separating vacation and sick days from mental health days.
  • Evaluate your onboarding processes to ensure new educators feel welcomed and valued.
  • Create a healthy work environment by individually supporting each employee and making sure their voices are heard.

Generation Z has already started to fill your classrooms, not just as students, but as teachers. To help fully support this new generation as they continue to enter the workplace, it is essential to understand and acknowledge their key traits and characteristics. It doesn’t just stop once they’re hired — your district should continually find new ways to support this new generation to promote a healthy, safe, and interactive environment.

Are you ready?

 

3 Rules for Constructing and Communicating Your Financial Story to Stakeholders

One common thread that every good story has embedded into it is context. Without context, it doesn’t make sense why Hansel and Gretel are lost in the woods, why Peter Pan never ages, or what Harry Potter’s deal is. Context provides depth and a frame of reference to an otherwise flat story.

School administrators across the country are finding that a powerful and effective way to communicate their district’s financials to stakeholders is through telling their district’s “story” with data and visuals. Starting the school year with a State of the District report is increasingly becoming a popular way to provide the needed context for helping a community understand and appreciate the financial management of their school district.

Just like telling any good story, developing a State of the District report requires that the storyteller follow 3 simple rules:

  • Know your audience
  • Know what they need to know
  • Tell it simply

Know Your Audience

When constructing the State of the District report, it’s important to first identify your audience. Educating local stakeholders on the basics of school business finance looks different than familiarizing a new school board member on the history of the district. Often these two can converge, but even when they do, the level of detail needed to inform the audience looks different.

Avoid falling into the common trap at this stage of assuming your audience knows more than it does!  Be sure to include key foundational information, no matter how obvious it seems, which leads into the second rule…

Know What They Need to Know

If rising enrollment was the precursor to increasing staff levels, which drove up personnel costs from last year, include that in the presentation. If changes to the state funding model were determinate to changes the district made in program offerings, include that as well. These might be obvious to administration, but they aren’t necessarily to stakeholders, so map out the paths to decisions made. Opening up your data in this way also increases transparency and builds trust.

To start, make a list of the key data points someone would be interested in learning and understanding about the district: the where, when, why, and how. At the same time, keep in mind that too much data can lead down the wrong path, which is why the third rule is so important…

Tell It Simply

Simplicity is often the key to any stakeholder communication. The US Navy started saying K.I.S.S. (“Keep It Simple Stupid”) in the 1960’s. Henry David Thoreau said “Simplify, simplify.” And you’ve heard the phrase, “Explain it like you’re talking to a 2nd grader.” The idea is the same: simple is better, less is more.

When constructing an outline of what the audience needs to know, cut out the unnecessary and remove the distractions. If what is being said or shown takes more attention away rather than enhancing the ability to understand the situation, then don’t include it. This can be difficult at times because some information might be important to share, but keep in mind that the story is meant to provide insights that might lead to questions and further discussions.

Additionally, simplification doesn’t just mean deciding what data to include and not include, it also looks at the type of content used in the presentation to help your community appreciate the state of your district. To read more on what this looks like and why it is so important, see this post, “I Love My Schools: Make it Easy for Your Community to Appreciate the State of Your District.” It does a great job explaining how to show the story you want them to see by using analytical capabilities in your presentation.

The Resolution

There’s nothing worse than jumping into a great or funny story halfway through, without the context to understand what’s going on, and feeling left out of the conversation or needing to play catch up. If information gaps aren’t filled in with the proper context, people will usually fill them in on their own. A good State of the District presentation will provide that context to your audience to communicate your financial story, and help create a positive foundation for future discussions predicated on that information.

Communicate Your Financial Story

Fill out the form to download this customizable PowerPoint template and start telling your story.

 

I Love My Schools: Make it Easy for Your Community to Appreciate the State of Your District

School spirit is a powerful force. Everyone loves to cheer for the successes of their sports teams, fine arts programs, test scores, and academic rankings.

It’s time to set yourself up to get a few of those “way to go’s” by helping your community understand and appreciate the financial management of their school district.

The best way to achieve this goal is to make it easy for your stakeholders to understand key financial data without a degree in accounting.

The Cliché is True

“A picture is worth a thousand words” is a well-known cliché, but it’s also true because of the way the human brain is wired. An MIT study finds that people can identify images in as little as 13 milliseconds. Our minds are also better at remembering visuals than words and figures.

You can take advantage of our brains’ craving for visuals by presenting data in a way that has meaning and relevance for your team, board, teachers, support staff, taxpayers, and students.

Data is Everywhere

Currently, most school district financial data is housed in accounting systems or a series of spreadsheets. Administrators may not have an easy way to build narratives illustrating the effects of certain decisions or how fluctuating funding sources impacted cash reserves. A lot of time is often spent drawing correlations between line items and determining how to best communicate outcomes or provide general context for stakeholders.

With so many pieces of information housed in various systems, how do you analyze and simplify all the variables that affect how you make financial decisions and present it in a way that tells a visual story?

Determine What Goes in Your Scorecard

First, it’s important to identify the key drivers for expenses and revenues that will affect your budget over the next few years. What do your stakeholders need to understand about those drivers? How would you like them to track your progress over time? What outside influences should they consider?

With that up front work done, it’s easier to provide a consistent story every time that enables stakeholders to see progress and better understand and support difficult decisions.

Show the Story You Want Them to See

Now it’s time to add visuals to how you present the financial status of your school district by adding analytic capabilities to your toolbox.

All the data from various sources you’ve identified as important, can be collected and input into an analytical software tool that enables you to generate powerful, striking charts and visuals very quickly. You can easily compare and contrast different scenarios and show why you made certain decisions.

You can create a standard set of visuals that illustrate progress in key categories as well as produce diagrams at a moment’s notice to answer questions.

Share Your Success

An analytics tool enables you to make connections between line items and inputs from all the data sources that impact your finances. Questions about the budget can be anticipated and you can proactively produce visuals that tell a consistent story over time.

Once your stakeholders can understand how and why your district’s finances are managed, they will be your biggest cheerleaders.

Communicate Your Financial Story

Fill out the form to download this customizable PowerPoint template and start telling your story.

 

Five Steps to Creating Your School’s Brand

As the parent of a first grader and a taxpayer, I’ve learned more than I could have ever imagined about the intricacies of the public school system — from how students are assessed in terms of readiness to the increasing competition for students and the taxpayer dollars they bring. These experiences drive my passion for advocating for data analytics to make better decisions for students and our learning communities.

As a veteran marketer, I’m also intrigued by the idea of using data analytics to build a school’s brand. Interestingly enough, there are many traditional business marketing practices incorporating data, which a school can use to build and enhance their brand. Today, I’ll discuss what a brand is and tips for approaching the creation (or recreation) of your school’s brand.

How to Build a Brand

A brand is more than just a logo or tagline. It is also about the feeling and the perception your organization creates in the consumer’s mind when they see your name and logo. Specifically, a brand reinforces and reminds students and the community of immediate and future goals, builds connections and perceptions with the students and the school community, and creates a sense of ownership and community for the campus. A brand is your identity: the values, culture, and personality that distinguish your school from any other.

Step 1: Define Your Brand Values

The first step in creating your brand is to define your unique value proposition. During this stage, it’s important to seek feedback from staff related to such questions as:

“What’s important to you?”

“Who are we now or where are we now?”

“Who do we want to be?”

“What are our strategic goals?”

After you gather feedback, it’s then important to gain agreement across the organization. I suggest organizing a brainstorming session where you list your values and prioritize them based on what you believe in and want your organization to stand for. Think of your values in terms of words that could represent them and your organization. Ensure input is integrated from across the team and then align upon six to eight words or phrases that define your brand.

Step 2: Consistently Deliver on the Promise

Step 2 is about being consistent and repetitive in displaying your brand’s values in everything you do. Your core brand values should drive everything everyone does in the organization. Consistency sets expectations and reliance on what you offer, thereby reinforcing your brand.

Step 3: Create Your Name and Logo

Most established school districts already have a name and logo, but there is often an opportunity to recreate these brand elements based on how your organization has evolved. When thinking about a name, consider names that are easily spelled and pronounced, have less words for memorability and describe what you do. A logo should be recognizable and memorable, as well as relevant. It should convey your brand’s personality both visually and emotionally.

Step 4: Create and Integrate Your Distinct Voice

Every interaction — written and verbal — with students, employees, board members, and community members should have a set tone of voice. Your voice should be consistent across every interaction to make an impact on the experience people have with your brand.

Step 5: Build Your Brand Though Good Citizenship and Advocacy

When you establish your brand and parents understand that they and their kids are part of it, they then want to share. Part of building your brand is also involving and engaging the community, seeking brand champions among that audience, and building connections.

In addition to these steps, I also recommend the book BrandEd: Tell Your Story, Build Relationships and Empower Learning by Trish Rubin and Eric Sheninger.  Rubin, a former educator now marketing consultant, believes it’s up to school leaders to now become “storytellers in chief” by defining their school’s brand. Rubin and Sheninger’s book provides a step-by-step framework to the nuances of spreading good school news and winning support.

Analyzing Monthly Financials to Better Manage Your Annual Budget

How many times have you uttered the old adage, “Hindsight is 20/20” in a wistful manner? If only you’d had access to the information you now have, you could have made a different, better decision.

Often those insights come during the month-end closing process when you get a truer picture of actual transactions and revenues versus what was planned for the current budget year period.

That’s why I’m such a fan of operational forecasting. It’s a fresh approach to analyzing monthly financials that increases a school district’s visibility into budget performance. It enables chief financial officers and their teams to improve the accuracy of forward-looking assumptions and it gives them the ability to quickly — and proactively — adapt as needed to make good decisions.

Monthly Financial Analysis

Instead of just closing the books on a month, operational forecasting takes advantage of the treasure trove of financial data school districts have from previous years and combines it with current information to make timely updates to the budget forecast and better predict what is needed to support the next one to five fiscal years.

1. Monthly Budgets

Operational forecasting enables a school district to create budgets for each month based on historical trends that incorporate actuals as a percentage of the total to produce a monthly average.

It requires analyzing historical trends to uncover correlations between financial and operating data. For example, do revenues and expenditures tend to vary with the level of economic activity (CPI), or are they independent of business cycles?

Five years of historic data is ideal to the recognition of anomalous events and patterns with exponential smoothing of trend percentages.

2. Actuals vs Budgets

Monthly financial reporting shows the district’s progress in implementing the budget by evaluating the current month’s performance (MTD) and the year-to-date budget (YTD) with comparisons of what was budgeted versus what actually occurred.

It’s also important to compare prior years’ actuals to budget and incorporate what is learned from trend analysis to make adjustments as needed to the remainder of the fiscal year.

3. Comparative Analysis

Monthly financial reporting is also an opportunity to implement a best practice of comparing current data against target goals for both MTD and YTD, as well as multi-year evaluations.

4. Variance Analysis

It’s also critical to understand why there are variances in the actuals versus what was planned in the budget to more accurately measure financial performance and proactively identify potential future budget variance.

Then a school district is better able to reallocate funds from the current year to address the unexpected or fund priority initiatives. By maintaining control over expenses, the team can create year-end estimates and anticipate projected year-end variances from the budget.

Projected Year-End Position

By understanding the variances between planned and actual revenue/expenditures, there’s an opportunity to adjust or re-forecast targets, objectives, or strategies for the current fiscal year.

The Right Tools Make the Difference

Operational forecasting requires being able to model and analyze “what if?” scenarios to identify the cause of changes, the impact of the change, and what action should be taken.

Traditional financial systems geared for school districts often stand in the way. They are great for recording transactions. But, to enable accurate operational forecasting requires analysis of current and historical data, something legacy solutions are ill equipped to handle.

That’s why there’s Budget Management Analytics, powered by Forecast5. It enables school districts to take advantage of operational forecasting to immediately upload monthly transactions from their financial systems to assess where they are at and compare to the trend reports from previous years, identify variances, and see where they’re headed for the fiscal year.

Get the eBook:

Stay Ahead of the Game: Tips for Managing This Year’s Budget While Planning for Next Year.
Balance your finance team’s game plans for both this year and next
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