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Category Archives: School Districts

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Managing School Board Meeting Minutes

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This post is part of The Datamation Guide to Managing School District Records.

Digitizing and storing records doesn’t just apply to student and personnel records. Managing and storing School Board meeting minutes electronically gives your district reliable access to a comprehensive record of important district decisions.

And where do those important district decisions happen? School board meetings. These meetings include decisions like appointments to new offices, donation approvals, vendor contracts, treasury reports, project progress reports, the announcement of new programs, and changes in policy. The minutes taken from these meetings are vital records of each and every decision made by the School Board, and can be referenced if one of the decisions is questioned.

Meeting minutes can also be referenced in order to identify patterns in voting. For example, voting patterns can be examined over a period of 5 years, identifying patterns with board members individually, or the Board as a whole. In short, these records may protect any decisions made by the school and the Board.

Because these records are so important, storing them in paper form makes them susceptible to fire, floods, or just getting lost in the fray. It also takes considerable time to find the correct paper document, digging through filing cabinets or boxes. If something came into question from the meeting that needed to be resolved quickly, it may take hours or days to find the correct file and that wastes a lot of time.

When these minutes are scanned and stored electronically, you can be sure that they will be safe from harm, and can be accessed within a few seconds with a simple keyword search. If a record needs to be sent, there will be no need to worry about making copies, printing, or mailing, saving both time and money. Every single important record will be saved for as long as is necessary, and can be referenced and shared quickly and efficiently.

Preserve every important decision for your district today with Datamation.

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2018-03-14 00:00:00

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Why Immediate Access to Student Records is Vital

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This post is part of The Datamation Guide to Managing School District Records.

Student records contain a huge amount of very important information that must be readily available. When your school district has hundreds of students, handling paper records can be extremely inconvenient. When records need to be accessed immediately, even if they are well-organized, it can take time to find the right one. Scanning and digitizing student records can bring organization and accessibility to the level it should be.

Student records primarily consist of the student’s name, address, and phone number, their parent/guardians contact information, grades and test scores, health and immunization records, discipline and attendance records, the schools they have attended and the courses they have taken, awards and degrees earned, and any IEP (Individualized Education Programs).

While some of this information usually isn’t a matter of immediate concern, some of the information, like medical records and parent/guardian contact information, are incredibly important. Medical records detail any allergies, medications, or disabilities that a student may have, which will be invaluable in the event of an emergency. Having to dig through a filing cabinet to find the record can take valuable time that could be spent treating the student for that medical emergency and contacting their parent(s) or guardian(s) immediately.

Having quick access to attendance and behavioral records is also vital to understanding what is best for a student academically. Keeping track of attendance, behavior, and grades can help identify patterns that can be used to recognize behavioral or academic issues before they grow and get worse. Having these records readily available is also helpful to recognize signs of depression, anxiety, or problems at home that may be affecting academic performance.

Having quick access to student records is also vital for better communication between schools, whether they are within the same district, or not. If a student transfers from one school to another, their records must go with them, but sending records by mail is risky and often subject to delays. Even when a student moves from elementary to middle school or middle to high school, those records travel with them.

With many school districts having hundreds or even thousands of students coming in and out each year, organization is absolutely vital. Digitizing all of these records means that each and every record can be sent with just a couple of clicks, ensuring that all records get to their destination without delay.

We know that the well-being of your students is the first thing that you have in mind, and Datamation wants to make it easier and safer for you to access and share vital student records. Having immediate access can make a huge difference in the event of an emergency, but can also help ensure a students long-term academic and behavioral well-being.

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2018-03-14 00:00:00

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Automated AP Processing Can Save Your District Money

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This post is part of The Datamation Guide to Managing School District Records.

While most industries face issues with manual accounts payable processing, schools simply don’t have the funds to waste on the extra costs that come with manual data entry and processing. Manual processing is costly, error-prone, and time-consuming between approval, matching, data entry, and more. Manual processing is outdated, and luckily, unnecessary when you automate your AP processes with Datamation.

The average invoice costs $22.75 and 16.3 days to process—and that’s just a single invoice. Between cafeteria food vendors, equipment vendors, and more, the average school district handles hundreds of invoices per year.

The amount of resources that go into AP processing reaches beyond money—employees who enter this data could be spending their time enriching student experience. Besides being a waste of valuable resources, manual entry is subject to a sizable margin of human error. When employees spend hours reading and entering numbers, it’s probable that tired eyes will lead to mistakes, which are costly and time intensive to fix.

When AP processing is automated, the difference is dramatic in the amount of time and money saved. Automated invoices cost $3.40 and 6.1 days on average to process. Every step of the process is automated, and the costs of printing, mailing, matching, and fixing data entry mistakes are eliminated.

In addition, companies who automated their AP processes were able to take full advantage of prompt pay discounts, which are offered to businesses who pay their invoices early or on time. On average, only 16% of districts and businesses who don’t automate are able to take advantage of prompt pay discounts. Comparatively, 47% of districts or businesses who do automate are able to use these discounts.

Better still, the money saved by automation can be put towards better equipment, more educational programs, and funding for clubs or teams. Without having to spend time entering data, staff productivity will increase and be directed towards school-wide improvement.

Datamation can take AP processing from an inefficient, time-consuming chore to a streamlined, nearly effortless workflow. The changes made to this process have widespread benefits: higher employee productivity, huge savings, fewer errors, and more funding for the important things within your district.

Datamation can make a world of difference in how your district runs, and gives you only the best results for the well-being of your students and employees.

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2018-03-14 00:00:00

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Are You Scanning Your Special Ed Files? You Should Be!

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Like any student record, Special Education records need to be kept and maintained in order to comply with state regulations, and to assess the future needs of the student. The real difference is that student files for children with special needs can be hundreds or thousands of pages long, depending on how much attention the child has needed throughout the years. With this being said, it can be very difficult to keep hard copies of records of these lengths. Finding a single piece of paper in a file of thousands is time-consuming, if not impossible, so the best solution is to have these records scanned by Datamation.

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