Tatia Davenport, CEO, California Association of School Business Officials, Member Forbes Business Council.
A recent study conducted in partnership with my organization identified key needs and challenges facing the field of school business, as well as predicted staffing shortages within California’s public school business leadership.
Through the study, we pinpointed current gaps impacting the largest public education system in the country, with a future focus on workforce development, succession planning and innovation as key initiatives to address and mitigate projected issues.
Identifying The Critical Needs Of School Business
The scope and breadth of school business, which impacts approximately 49 million students enrolled in public schools in the U.S., is significant and often underestimated.
Like their private industry counterparts, school business officials (CBOs) and leaders manage a myriad of business functions—from transportation, nutrition, human resources and community/local leadership engagement, to financial planning/budgeting, technology, real estate, logistics and more. Through the study, we defined the diverse range of core competencies of a CBO, including organizational management, administration, leadership, budgeting and financial planning, HR and a deep understanding of public policy, intergovernmental relations and legal issues.
Needs and operations vary from school to school and district to district, all in support of students, families, schools, districts and communities. Clearly, when these functions are extrapolated on a national level across the field of education, the intricacies and impacts of school business are monumental.
A key finding in the study revealed a trend toward an aging CBO population nearing retirement age and underrepresentation in ethnic and racial diversity, indicating urgent action is needed to ensure consistent progression opportunities and diverse representation. For a more sustainable future, I believe our focus in the field of school business must be on succession planning, workforce development and innovation.
Focus on workforce development.
Collectively, school business officials need a cohesive and complete array of training and support for the field to enhance workforce development initiatives. This comes through training and professional development, certifications, networking and advocacy to support the profession. Through these paths, a strong, competitive and up-and-coming stable workforce can be developed and retained.
Seeing the need for a deeper and more diverse workforce over the past few years, leaders in school business should continue to focus on accessibility and inclusivity through live and on-demand webinars and podcasts, state and section workshops, certification programs, annual conferences and roundtables. These should all be designed to make the field more accessible, engaging, supportive, inspiring and promising.
It’s imperative that we also remain committed to further engaging in legislative conversations to ensure school business officials are well represented among local, state and national leaders in the K-12 arena. Working through larger trade associations and organizations and with corporate partners will be essential as these relationships provide many learnings and opportunities that enable us to remain a competitive and sustainable career path for school business officials. Additionally, those of us in the industry must continue to invest in trainings and be an advocate to develop and retain a robust, diverse and competitive workforce.
Implement a succession plan.
As many CBOs enter retirement, we must employ succession planning strategies to address and mitigate impending shortfalls in the field of school business.
Much like our focus on workforce development and the techniques and tools we are implementing to engage future school business officials, leaders must share ideas around succession planning and developing models for districts to consider as CBOs enter retirement. Our goal as leaders should be to help create a clear path and plan for school and district leadership.
Consider ways to innovate.
Leaders should also consider technological advancements across all elements of school business as a priority in public education. Tools such as artificial intelligence (AI) can help improve efficiencies, standardize processes, manage quality operationally and add value for the client (students, teachers, community members).
Just as AI is exploding in all aspects of the corporate world, business officials must work to discern opportunities, challenges and solutions that can be developed in a sustainable and scalable manner to serve their schools, districts and ultimately their students. AI has arrived on the scene and school business leaders should be ready to embrace the opportunities it presents.
Tips For Creating A Sustainable Future For School Business
1. Be intentional about a workforce development plan by structuring not only trainings and professional development programs for individuals and teams, but also path to progression or promotion programs so that employees can visualize and strive toward specific goals and outcomes.
2. Identify qualified candidates who may be on a path to promotion to build out your succession strategy pipeline.
3. Explore new technologies and work with employees and team members to understand needs and opportunities to add value to your organization through technology and new processes.
Moving Forward
Like their private sector counterparts, school business officials must work to ensure a solid and sustainable future. Through workforce development, intentional succession planning and technology innovations, the future of school business can become more competitive, diverse and forward thinking.
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