Author: Phil SaurmanPhil Saurman is an experienced K-12 financial advisor. He now works at Eidex as a Financial Data Analyst. You can reach Phil at psaurman@eidexinsights.com  As the old saying goes there are two things we all have to look forward to….death and taxes. As a K-12 school administrator we can add one more thing…..negotiations. As negotiations are unavoidable, it is important for a district to utilize “best practices” on a consistent basis to achieve the best and most transparent result for all parties in the process. Presented below are a series of best practices that a district may utilize to maintain efficiency and transparency throughout the negotiations process. These are not meant to be a complete list, as each district will have unique issues to deal with and include in their negotiations process. Overall Best Practices for A Successful Negotiations
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The Challenge2018-19 brings the final opportunity for districts to comply with the Michigan educator evaluation legislation. With the school year upon us and to-do lists growing by the minute, ensuring adherence to policies for calculating student growth ratings may feel like a daunting task.
The solution: Eidex® School Evaluation Module Recognizing the time constraint that school leaders face, we have worked in partnership with Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP) and the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) to develop a School Evaluation Module. Also known as the Student Growth Percentile (SGP) calculator, this module uses state assessment data to calculate student growth ratings consistent with recommendations from the MDE. If your district is looking for an efficient way to evaluate educators, this intuitive, low-maintenance tool can calculate an SGP rating for individual teachers, building and district administrators in minutes. We also deliver complimentary custom SGP reports to our district partners. To learn more about the new educator evaluation requirements and how our School Evaluation Module works, check out this article in the most recent MASA Leader Magazine, Summer 2018. Recently, I had the privilege of presenting a session on how achievement influences budgeting.
Schools often say that achievement is our number one goal, but how often are budget decisions made on other factors? Since 85% of school budgets are staff expenses, there is no way to get into budget conversations without concern for someone’s job. This ends up leading the budget conversations way too many times, especially at the Board table. Without good data, it is very hard for budget conversations to not get into personnel. Eidex is a wonderful resource for building principals!
School Leaders have access to both formative and summative assessments using the Eidex website. NWEA (Northwest Evaluation Association) and M-Step (Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress) are two examples of assessments that can be analyzed. Principals can use this data analytics resource to support Professional Learning Teams in effectively analyzing student achievement data for the purpose of guiding instruction and designing meaningful student interventions. 
Jeff Malloch, Director of Finance, Comstock Park Public Schools  Photo: Jeff Malloch in his presentation on analyzing and aligning expenditures. Jeff is relatively new to the school finance field and to his district, Comstock Park. In order to get up to speed, Jeff used Eidex to educate himself on the district and how it compared to other districts
Tom Livezey, Superintendent, Oakridge Public Schools
Mike Foster, Andrew VanWylen, Tim Raymer  Data analytics is The power of data analytics is rapidly moving moving districts towards into ththe e analytical orientation necessary to meet today’s challenges, and away from a traditional transactional orientation. In this presentation, Eidex team members reviewed pProduct enhancements that supporting this analytical orientation. were reviewed by Eidex team members.
 Kara Cotton, Former Executive Director of Instructional Services for Howell Public Schools, has spent her career working to ensure students are academically, socially, and emotionally successful. Her experience has taught her two things — that although there are common elements in each area of education, every person, department, building, and district is unique, and that every place has stories to share, situations to learn from, and lessons to teach.
 Data analytics helps with resource allocation and time management. Data analytics tools empower districts to focus on areas of need, while minimizing time spent on areas requiring less attention. Whether it is monitoring trends or analyzing comparable data of similar districts, these tools improve decision-making and save time.
Written by: Tim Raymer, Retired Assistant Superintendent, Forest Hills Public Schools |
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