Frontline Blog

As funds provided to school districts for the use of technology continue to grow, it will become even more important that the business office and technology departments work together.

Education is constantly changing, giving us new opportunities to discover, create and adapt. That goes for all of us: the teachers referring to real world situations and current events to deepen student learning, the Curriculum & Instruction specialists seeking ways to further uphold and implement best practices in evaluations and professional learning, and the administrators who must prepare for and comply with new regulations and expectations.  

While teachers often teach because they love it, and administrators are frequently former teachers who advanced through the ranks, there’s also the necessity to learn and apply business skills to ensure success from classroom to business operations. It’s hard to conceive of this passion-driven operation as a pragmatic company that thrives when students succeed. However, without passion and pedagogy schools revert to just buildings; without solid practices and processes schools become more likely to fail financially (no matter how much love and creativity is fostered under those roofs).

School districts don’t run a generic recruiting, hiring and onboarding shop like most corporations in the world. Therefore, district HR, Finance & Payroll professionals should have the ability to plan for all of the intricate and unique staffing scenarios that they run into throughout the year. Budgeting can be tricky, often infusing a ton of red-tape in the process that, when overlooked, can bottleneck processes and ultimately negatively impact education.

Making sure that your people are being paid the right amount, consistently and on time is among the most critical responsibilities of a school business office. An unintended consequence in many districts, however, is that Finance and Payroll tend to be an island instead of working alongside Human Resources.