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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.

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3 Ways that a GIS Tool Can Help with Enrollment Trend Analysis

As schools collect and analyze large amounts of data to increase efficiencies and optimize resources, Geographic Information System (GIS) tools are not always the first that come to mind. The ways that geo-spatial data could benefit your district might not be obvious, but there are new project ideas arising every day which capitalize on the power of seeing your student information on a map. One of the main uses for this type of system is analyzing your shifting enrollment and identifying trends before they become an issue. Here are three ways that a GIS tool can help you with enrollment trend analysis.

Visualize your shifting enrollment over time

One of the most powerful aspects of being able to load your data onto a map and view it geographically is the ability to query this data in order to locate specific subsets of students. By including data pertaining to enrollment dates and withdrawal dates, districts can visually analyze, in real time, how their population is shifting over time.

This is the kind of insight you could not easily gather from a spreadsheet or data table. By looking at a map of your new students, you may find, for example, that a particular neighborhood seems to be growing as a result of new developments. Or, you might find that a particular subdivision seems to be attracting a large number of young families with small children. This type of insight will allow you to plan for potential overcrowding in the near future, as well as what the current impact is on your buildings and staff. This same approach can be applied to a declining enrollment.

Analyze demographic changes and new service requirements

As you work through visualizing your shifting enrollment and identifying pockets of students, having demographic data in your GIS tool allows for that next level analysis to help you better understand who those students are. With that, you can now run statistics on your new students in order to identify instances where buildings may need additional services to accommodate this new influx. Whether it’s an increase in special education needs or a higher number of ELL students, tracking these demographic changes will allow you to stay one step ahead of your district’s needs and reallocate the proper resources where they will be needed.

Simulate potential solutions and their effectiveness

As you work through this analysis, you may find that the only real solution to your shifting enrollment will be to re-align your boundaries, close a building and consolidate students, or build a new building. GIS tools provide a great sandbox for you to work in as you develop possible changes and evaluate their effectiveness. By loading your current boundaries onto the map with your student data, you can begin manipulating those boundaries and run scenario analysis using student statistics to create a simulation for each of your potential solutions. Having this real time information allows for an easier re-districting experience and enhanced communication throughout the process. We often hear district leaders talk about the tremendous insights they have gained by using a GIS tool internally, rather than the traditional methods of spreading paper maps on a conference table or hiring an outside consultant.

GIS, though a lesser-known tool, continues to provide districts with a very effective analytical solution to an assortment of issues they may be facing. As more and more districts begin to find unique applications of GIS, it’s worth asking: are you using this powerful technology to your advantage?

Multiyear Financial Projections: An Essential Undertaking

In this era of limited resources and continued financial strain, school business officials need to combine accounting and analysis, along with compelling communication skills, to meet the present and future needs of their organizations.

The multiyear projection is one of the most critical working documents the school business office produces. When done well, the multiyear projection becomes a living instrument that speaks with numbers and pictures and focuses internal and external stakeholders on the key opportunities and issues facing the district.

Elements of a K-12 Financial Plan Projection

Operational or Strategic?

A well-constructed multiyear projection should serve both operational and strategic functions.

From an operational perspective, the multiyear projection should include enough detail to be useful for budgeting and cash flow planning. If you manage your district’s investment portfolio, the multiyear projection will help define the long-term investment opportunities or, in some cases, short-term borrowing needs. You should be able to use data from the multiyear projection in internal or external reports or as a foundational support document for your bond ratings or continuing disclosure obligations.

From a strategic perspective, the multiyear projection should be a centerpiece for financial and budget decisions related to future educational services and infrastructure improvements.

It is important to consider how internal and external stakeholders will engage with the output of your multiyear projection. When setting up your multiyear projection model or evaluating a third-party application, consider the kinds of reports you need. You will be using your multiyear projection as a communications vehicle, so your reports must speak to a wide range of audiences on both operational and strategic issues.

Elective or Required?

Maintaining an multiyear projection may be an elective task within your state; however, some states require school districts to submit a financial forecast as a scheduled compliance task. In those states, the required projection period is generally three to five years. Even when optional, local governments commonly use a five-year period for their projections.

In states that require an multiyear projection, districts typically submit their projection using a specific state-developed form. Many of those state forms are unsuitable for use in strategic discussions with your board or community as they have limited strategic or communications value. In fact, presenting a compliance document with 100 or more pages may confuse more people than it engages.

Take the time to produce an executive summary of the data with useful charts and dashboards. Your report will more likely be understood if it is delivered in a graphics-rich format.

How to Use the Multiyear Projections

The multiyear projection forecast becomes the central tool in financial discussions with governance boards. After the governance board members become familiar with the mechanics of the forecast and have access to their preferred data views, they will likely ask the question, “How does this affect our multiyear projection?” By extending the financial forecast further into the future, boards focus more on growth and sustainability. The multiyear projection can provide a board with more insight and certainty in decisions and subsequently increase the community’s confidence in those decisions — and in the board itself.

The best forecasting models allow you to simulate “what-if” scenarios on demand and quickly and confidently answer questions about new investments and other affordability issues with a longer-term perspective. Additionally, you can use scenario comparisons and data visualization to engage decision makers and stakeholders with graphics that increase their understanding and accelerate their decisions. The ability to answer difficult financial questions quickly and confidently is an invaluable feature.

The Critical Components of a Multiyear Projection

As you develop your multiyear projection, focus your effort in four key areas:

  • The source and structure of the foundational data. If you are using your budget structure for the projection, determine the level of granularity that you want to use to support decision making.
  • The assumptions and variables that will drive future revenues and expenses. Understanding the key variables and their relative impact on financial outcomes is critical.
  • The reporting output that people can understand. Your audience may represent a wide spectrum of experience and analytical perspectives. Supporting your projection with both tabular and graphical data is important to improve understanding and engagement.
  • The ability to simulate and track changes. In addition to being able to create what-if scenarios, you will need an airtight process of cataloguing the changes that have been introduced to each simulation so you have a clean audit trail for each scenario.
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When Revenues Are Volatile

You may be in a position where your revenues are subject to volatile political swings, or your revenues may be under pressure because of local tax constraints. In such cases of revenue uncertainty, you can still benefit from an multiyear projection.

Focus on the expense side of the forecast. When you have loaded the desired expense components to support a required or the visionary level of programming, you will be in a position to perform a basic financial gap analysis. Use the expense side of your multiyear projection to calculate the funding level required to provide the services. The presentation and the talking points for this analysis are relatively simple and might sound like this: “If we continue at this current level of funding, we will be unable to provide the types of services that our community is seeking. To provide this higher level of service, we need X dollars more in funding over a five-year period.”

The financial gap analysis then becomes a great communication tool with stakeholders, including taxpayers, parents of students, legislators, elected leaders, and employees of the local government.

You may be in a situation where the likelihood of additional funding is remote, bringing up the question of the value of the exercise. But without a clear definition of the preferred level of programming, it will be difficult to communicate and engage critical stakeholders in a way that eventually achieves your goals. Additionally, as you look forward and begin to consider the potential infrastructure and staffing requirements of the multiyear projection, you may gain other strategic insights regarding the current state of your organization.

New Concepts in Financial Projections

Twenty years ago, Excel spreadsheets revolutionized the forecasting process. Spreadsheets remain a valuable financial analysis tool today, but high-performing public- and private-sector entities are now using database technology to create and manage their forecasts.

Databases can be used to manage large file structures and easily compare multiple complex budget scenarios. Additionally, the increased processing capacity allows you to use your entire general ledger with the ability to aggregate and work with the data at different levels and in different views. Applications with “in-memory” data processing can convert your financial history and your projection into a giant pivot table that is much faster and easier to use than an Excel spreadsheet.

By capturing the entire general ledger in the system, you can create projections down to the lowest level of detail in your chart of accounts. This expanded processing capacity may allow you to consolidate your budgeting and forecasting projects into a single project. In other words, if your multiyear projection includes all of the accounts in your general ledger, you will be creating next year’s budget as you finalize your forecast. In contrast, when you execute the multiyear projection with aggregated annual financial report data, you may lose the details that you need for your budgeting process.

The Long-Term Impact

Many school districts use an multiyear projection as a focal point for their strategic planning. A well-constructed and documented forecast not only assists in the planning and decision making, but also can establish a professional brand for the district that provides significant value over time. School business officials who lead this charge and demonstrate command over their district’s financial data enjoy increased levels of internal and external support and can serve their communities at the highest level possible.

 

4 Tips to Optimizing Peer Comparisons with Data

As a sports fan, I enjoy the common debate over who is the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan or LeBron James. Sports is a unique situation in that oftentimes, athletes do not have the luxury to choose who they are compared to. Performance, standards, history, and experience are not always accounted for when making such comparisons.

Unlike sports, school district leaders find themselves in a different position: they do often have the ability to choose who they will compare their organization to. With that choice can come the temptation to compare against peers that seem to perform similarly or maybe not as well as your district in certain areas. In doing this though, you potentially miss out on many benefits associated with optimizing peer comparison data. To realize the full benefits of benchmarking, here are some tips for optimizing the process:


Move beyond your region.

Many school districts tend to compare themselves only to their neighbors. Comparing regionally is helpful, and in many cases a necessity. However, I also encourage clients to also look across the state, or even nationwide, to find districts with similar enrollment, demographics, revenue, etc. Not only can finding ‘like’ peers be an educational exercise in and of itself, but having two groups with which to compare yourself (regional and ‘like’) can strengthen or challenge current views.

Another benefit of finding similar districts is that it can also help expose differences between your organization and your neighbors. It is all too easy to get into the habit of comparing yourself with the same districts you’ve always compared to. Showing your district’s stakeholders just how different you are — be it size, demographics, revenue, etc. — can build support for moving beyond borders in your benchmarking.


Think about your buildings.

While district-level comparisons are incredibly helpful, don’t stop there. How do your individual buildings compare with their own respective peers? Do you have a handle on how similar elementary buildings, for example, in the state are staffing, achieving, etc.? In many cases, each building within a district has its own needs, its own initiatives, and its own challenges. All the benefits realized from district-level comparison can be extended to each of the buildings in your district.


Be consistent.

Regardless of the criteria chosen for optimizing peer comparison data, be consistent with your method and approach. Clearly define your metrics and stick to them. Additionally, make sure these metrics are clearly communicated to all appropriate parties. Every methodology will have its limitations, but being clear and up front with what you did and did not factor in and why, will only build trust and confidence among stakeholders. Adhering to a methodology for peer group construction will also allow you to easily see how your peer group might change each year. No school district is static, which means some years a district may ‘qualify’ as a peer and other years it may not.


Aim high.

One last tip to forming peer groups at either-district-or building-level, is to compare against the best. For most, there are a handful of school districts like you who are ‘knocking it out of the park.’ While you might look like the lowest achieving among this group of districts, understanding what is happening differently at each of the ‘high achieving’ districts can provide insight as to how your own organization can improve. Identifying a path to your desired success is essential, and there is perhaps no easier way to learn how to navigate that path than by speaking to someone who has already traveled it. Aim high and see what the ‘best’ are doing already that you can emulate.



Take advantage of having the opportunity to choose your peer comparison group. Incorporating these tips into your peer comparison methodology will allow you more opportunities to make prudent decisions for the good of your organization and ultimately, the students you are serving.


The Value of a 5 Year Financial Projection: More Than Just a Spreadsheet

Executing a five-year financial projection can be a time consuming and complicated process — especially if you are starting the process for the first time. However, administrators that approach this type of project with a strategic perspective will understand that a financial projection is more than just a spreadsheet. A meaningful multi-year financial forecast can produce tremendous value for a school district — beyond the tables, charts, and graphs that are generated as output.

High-performing organizations look at financial projections as both a strategic process and as a valuable instrument. Furthermore, they don’t view a financial forecast as a static document that is filed on a shelf after execution. Rather, they understand that a five-year projection is a dynamic mechanism that facilitates organizational growth and improvement.

A Strategic Process

Let’s look at some of the main benefits of looking at a five-year forecast as a process that enables:

  • Collection and organization of important information
  • Assessment of key variables that will impact the organization
  • Collaboration with internal and external stakeholders

The process of developing a multi-year forecast requires time and resources. As a first step, collecting information and input from key areas of the district is critical for success. Spending sufficient time to assess and discuss the key drivers for revenues and expenses with stakeholder groups will help improve the accuracy of the projection. Additionally, collaboration between administrators allows valuable perspective to be gained and incorporated into the forecast, while at the same time increasing the level of buy-in for a finalized plan.

A Valuable Instrument

Now, let’s turn to the benefits of using a five-year forecast as an instrument that facilitates:

  • Measurement of historical performance
  • Strategic alignment of resources
  • Communication of challenges and opportunities

Many times, the process of looking forward can be enhanced by looking backward. Using historical data to inform future assumptions can be valuable. Historical review also provides an opportunity to examine performance of budget vs. actuals.

Depending on the financial strength of the organization, the forecast may initiate valuable discussions and decisions regarding the allocation of limited resources. Organizations can use the forecast as an instrument to define priorities and service levels with sustainability insight. Further, a projection model that allows for the modeling of “what-if” scenarios can assist in modeling the optimal alignment of resources.

School districts have often been asked to “do more with less” while also being able to make decisions with 20/20 foresight. A well-constructed financial projection can facilitate deeper understanding and communication with stakeholders around organizational challenges and opportunities.

Additional Benefits

Many organizations look at forecasting as a year-round function that seeks to continually fine-tune and adjust the forecast to current information.

By looking at the projection as a perpetual and dynamic process, organizations can achieve enjoy numerous benefits including:

  • Efficiencies in the budgeting process
  • Elevated performance from on-going benchmarking of plans vs. outcomes
  • Increased understanding of key drivers and risk metrics
  • Enhanced communication of objectives with internal staff
  • Improved organizational brand through transparency and accountability

Historically, developing a budget and developing a five-year forecast were tackled as two separate projects. Some would use elements of the five-year plan to inform areas of the budget. But in many cases, an unintegrated process between budgeting and projecting leaves organizations in a position of financial and reputational risk.

Now, high-performing teams are looking at budgeting and forecasting as an integrated, year-round effort. And they are using tools and processes to connect the flow of information in a manner that benefits the entire organization, as well as increasing the reputation and brand of the district as transparent and accountable. An “analytics” or “data-informed” brand can prove to have immeasurable advantages for an organization that is seeking to serve students, staff, and the community with excellence.

When you look at a five-year forecast as more than a spreadsheet and move to the next level of viewing it as a process and an instrument for continual improvement, your district and your community will enjoy numerous tangible and intangible benefits.