[Template] School District Position Management and Control Plan

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.

Districts are turning to a workforce planning process known as Position Management and Control in order to account for all of the K-12 specific requirements for pay structure, accounting code block info (AKA funding distribution/budget codes), assignment details and security permissions. This makes life easier on HR, IT, Finance & Payroll when the details are tied to the position and not the employee.

If you’re brand new to position management and control, you might find this infographic useful; however, if you’re ready to implement a position management plan then we have an outstanding resource made just for you.

Here’s a completely customizable template of commonly included information for a school district position management and control plan.

Download the template  

[Template] School District Position Management and Control Plan

**Please note: Once downloaded, this entire document is completely customizable. Edit any sections to correspond with your district policy. Share with your district-wide stakeholders.

Table of Contents:

What is school district position management and control?

Who should be involved in the conversation?

Personnel/Staff Changes & Vacancies

• Hiring to fill a vacancy
• Creating positions that vary in duration (9-10 months, temporary, etc.)
• Request/approval workflows for new positions/vacancies
• Changes in employment status

What is School District Position Management & Control?

Position management and control across the district will help ensure that administrators have access to real-time budget information as it relates to school district staff. This process designates specific information to each unique position district-wide. Regardless of the staff member filling the specific job role, the integrity of the designations (agreed upon by district stakeholders) stays intact. Making each hiring and staffing change event streamlined and in compliance with district policies and guidelines.

The information tied to each position will include the following:

• Pay structure
  • Steps
  • Stipends
  • Grades
  • Cycle
  • Supplementals
• Accounting code block information (Funding distribution/budget codes)
  • Fund
  • Function
  • Object
  • Sub-Object
  • Organization
  • Program Intent Code
• Assignment details
  • Permanent/Part-time/Temporary
  • Department/Grade-level
• Security permissions
  • Access to data
  • Reporting

The district will begin the year with budget that is specifically allocated for positions:

• District-wide
• School or campus-based
• Permanent
• Part-time
• Temporary
  • Substitutes
  • Short-term (several days/weeks)
  • Long-term (several months)
  • Year-long (9-10 months VS 12 months)

These funds are set aside for individual schools, departments or a combination of the two. Each school administrator determines how funding will be allocated with regards to salaries and benefits for the year, ensuring that each designation is in accordance with the district policy rules and guidelines. This information is reviewed and approved by various stakeholders across the district:

• Human Resources
• Finance
• Payroll
• Superintendent
• School Board of Education

Who Should be Involved in the Conversation?

Human Resources – The district CHRO/Director of HR is responsible for validating compensation and benefits related information (all the information that influences the financial impact of a position on the district budget including the pay steps, stipends, grades, cycle, supplementals and benefits packages). Human Resources will also be responsible for posting vacant positions in a timely fashion, confirming recommendation to hire, alert applicable administrator(s); sending offer letters, onboarding documents and instructions for what to expect throughout the hiring process.

Finance & Payroll – The district CFO/Director of Finance/Director of Business/Payroll Manager is responsible for ensuring compliance with budget. When requests for new hires/filling vacancies come through, this stakeholder will confirm budget availability and initiate approvals/denials.

School/Campus-based Principals – The school/campus-based principal is responsible for creating and submitting the job description and request to the Human Resources department. Principals are also responsible for reviewing applications/resumes/related documents for top candidates and ultimately making the recommendation to hire.

Superintendent – The district superintendent is responsible for making the final decision to hire (or not hire) all new staff members, as well as appointing all position changes internally across the district.

School Board Members – The School Board members are responsible for ensuring that the position management plan is in accordance with the community’s values, beliefs and priorities.

*This team of district-wide stakeholders will be responsible for ensuring compliance with district, state and federal policies and guidelines.

Personnel/Staff Changes & Vacancies

Hiring to fill a vacancy –

When a staff member leaves the district through resignation or termination, the school/campus principal will request that the position is filled. This request will be routed to the appropriate Finance & Payroll professionals for review and approval. Once approved, the appropriate Human Resources professional will post the vacancy through all available channels (district job board, digital job boards, social media, etc.). Next, the principal who submitted the job requisition will review applications/resumes/related documentation, and when a top candidate has been identified, will make the recommendation to hire.

At this point, Human Resources will accept/approve the recommendation to hire and the superintendent will appoint the new employee to the corresponding position.

Creating positions that vary in duration (9-10 months, temporary, etc.)

Occasionally, it becomes necessary to reallocate previously approved budget to accommodate unique K-12 specific scenarios. School/campus-based and district-wide administrators need to have the flexibility to request and fill assignments that vary in duration.

Not all district employees are 12-month employees. Assignments can vary from days to weeks to months. It’s particularly necessary to be able to accommodate 9-10 month instructional or administrative positions.

These unique position requirements still carry the same security needs as a full-time employee; therefore, it’s imperative to designate proper security permissions at the position level regardless of the duration or permanence of the request.

Request/approval workflow for new positions/vacancies

Changes in employment status

If/when there is a change in employment status for a current district employee, the employee will assume the pay structure, accounting code block/funding distribution/budget codes, assignment details and security permissions of the new position on the effective date identified by the hiring administrator.

Changes in employment status include, but are not limited to:

• Reappointment or transfer to a new position
• Relocation to a new school in the district
• Change in pay structure
• Change in hours worked per week (FTE)
• Change in source for funding

Download the template  

Now that you have a plan in mind to ensure that you’re making the best use of district resources, want to know how school districts are using software to automate and improve the implementation and success of position management and control district-wide?

Learn more about how Frontline handles Position Management and Control