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While fall time marks the beginning of a new school year, it’s also budgeting season for K-12 districts and their administration. K-12 budgeting requires careful planning and a focus on meeting the educational needs of students and maintain financial sustainability. Representing approximately 70% of a school district’s budget, staffing and employee benefits are the costliest expenditure and a crucial area to closely review while budgeting. A Staffing and Enrollment Report is a great tool to help school districts review and plan effectively for the following school year.
What is a Staffing and Enrollment Report?
This report provides detailed information about the number of students enrolled in your district and the corresponding staff levels. These reports collect staffing data for administrators, professional staff, and support staff, identified by program, grade level, department, or building. They also include data collected regarding student enrollment, typically gathered on the first day of school, grade level, program, and building.
“A school district’s primary goal is to educate our students. Our largest budget item is staff salary and benefits. These two facts, education and budget, make the Staffing and Enrollment Report a critical building block in providing a quality education, while creating a responsible budget.”
– Dr. Brian Ulmer, Superintendent of the Jersey Shore Area School District
Once all data has been collected, the report is used to analyze changes in staffing and enrollment to be used to identify potential needs for additional resources and staff.
Benefits of a Staffing and Enrollment Report
The report also serves as a transparent communication tool for administration, the Board of Directors, members of the school community, and the community-at-large by displaying the detail of the costliest budget expenditure. The data collected and analyzed through these reports can help K-12 school districts:
- Determine the professional staffing needs of the district for the upcoming school year based upon the forgoing studies.
- Make recommendations to the Board based upon the considerations set forth in the Public School Code, concerning whether any professional or temporary professional employee positions should be maintained, added, reduced or eliminated during the 2023-2024 school year.
- Make recommendations to the Board to add, eliminate or reduce position(s), implement the established procedures through retirement, resignation, termination of specific professional and classified employees.
- Notify any temporary professional, professional, and classified support employees who may be affected by the recommendations.
- Notify any permanent professional employees or classified support employee who may be affected by a transfer.
This data will help effectively inform those members, guide conversation, and assist in decision making.
How to Present Your Report
As you begin to build your report to present, keep in mind that the data you want to display is dependent on your school district audience. It’s also important to consider whether that audience can easily understand the data recorded. Too much data can be overwhelming, and the key takeaways can be lost; therefore it’s important to be sure that you address these two areas:
- Tell the story about what is happening in your school district based on the data; for example, the need for additional staffing to improve student education.
- Share insights that help you make decisions for the upcoming school year.
As you compile your report, visual representations of your data can make it easier to understand and help show trends that may have been overlooked. Use graphs, tables, and charts that visually display constancy or changes in your data. Your Staffing and Enrollment Report also needs to be user-friendly. Does your audience find the report self-explanatory? Are there any terms that your audience won’t understand? Customize your Staffing Enrollment Report to meet your school district needs.
Partnering with SitelogIQ
At SitelogIQ, we partner with K-12 school districts to enhance the learning environment, bringing comfort, functionality, and efficiency to the classroom through our K-12 school construction and related solutions.
Our team of dedicated experts, including retired or previous school administrators and support staff, understands your district and community needs and can help develop a plan that fits your educational goals, both now and well into the future.
Reach out to us today as you prepare for budgeting season for assistance with your Staffing and Enrollment report and capital planning needs.
About the Author
Cathy Keegan is a Senior Business Consultant for SitelogIQ Northeast. She first joined SitelogIQ in 2023 with over 24 years of experience in public education, serving various roles such as Superintendent of Schools and Assistant Executive Director for Pennsylvania K-12 school districts. Her experience leading school districts through construction, design, and project management allows her to partner closely with SitelogIQ’s K-12 customers to thoroughly understand their needs and develop a plan that first their educational goals.
Cathy attended Lehigh Carbon Community College, Cedar Crest College, Lehigh University, and Immaculata University, earning her doctorate in April of 2018. She is also an Adjunct Professor, Dissertation Chairperson, and Dissertation Committee Member for Immaculata University.