This post is part of The Datamation Guide to Managing School District Records.
Assistant superintendents are the jack of all trades. If the superintendent is responsible for the overall vision and goals of your school district, its your job to help implement it. Youre also the day-to-day operational manager for several important functions, from records retention to human resources and the districts physical space.
With so much on your plate, you need the best possible systems to keep things running smoothly. Thats where Datamation can help.
Electronic student records
As a leading educational software vendor, our education specialists are familiar with the best software for every job. Your district needs to keep comprehensive files for each student and teacher. That’s a lot of paperwork and a lot of space to store it.
Datamation can convert that entire operation to a paperless system. No more moving paperwork from building to building, risking accidental loss or destruction. Your clerical staff will rave about the ease of creating digital records that replace the man-hours wasted typing, printing and filing quarterly and end-of-year reports for every student in your district. And when they’re done, those records will be available in every building for anyone who needs them.
A happier staff is a more productive staff, and creating a paperless student record system will accomplish both.
Better use of building space
Electronic document management isn’t just a time-saver. It can have an immense physical impact on your district.
School districts are constantly in flux. No parent wants to find out their child is being transferred to another school just because there isn’t enough space in one building, but a single housing development of a few hundred homes being built can create space problems at a specific school, forcing you to make difficult decisions about redrawing school boundaries.
By going paperless, school buildings can free up needed educational space that’s being taken up by filing cabinets staff rarely need, but have to be maintained.
An extra 500 square feet of space inside a building teeming with students and staff can mean the difference between making the difficult and unpopular decision to redraw the lines that subdivide your school district.
Records compliance
Human resources paperwork can be an overwhelming task. Every district employee must complete a criminal background check. Most, if not all, are also subjected to a drug test. Teachers and support staff must have their educational history and certifications on file.
And that’s just the standard elements of employment verification.
What happens when law enforcement comes to you with an urgent request for a child’s parent/guardian contact information? Or questions surface about someone on staff? Though infrequent, these kinds of situations are a reality and when they surface, you may not have time to send a member of your staff digging through the basement filing cabinets to find the answer law enforcement officials are seeking.
An automated human resources filing system will give you immediate, 24-hour access to employee and student files, which can prove invaluable when there’s a genuine emergency.
Showing competence creates trust
As the trains-run-on-time person, there’s nothing worse than appearing less-than-competent when a stakeholder needs information. A school board member wants statistics on primary school reading scores? Your superintendent needs the district-wide three-year history of math proficiency? The state is conducting its annual review of district graduation rates?
With paper records, these kinds of requests can take days or weeks to compile. The longer someone waits, the less confidence they have in your ability to do your job.
On the flip side, imagine fielding these requests and turning around answers in the same school board meeting where the questions arise? Being able to juggle information requests and return answers in a timely fashion creates trust in your ability to do your job. Trust is an invaluable commodity.
