| THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 9:15 AM – 10:15 PM |
Location:
Room: Governor's Ballroom AE
Description:
Join us for Innovation Hour, where school business professionals and researchers come together with industry leaders to drive forward innovation in the field. Enjoy an engaging panel discussion followed by interactive roundtable conversations with experts from ASBO International Corporate Alliance Partners and organizations committed to advancing school business excellence.
Panel Discussion – Innovation in School Business!
Innovation Hour kicks off with a live podcast recording of School Business Insider, the official podcast of ASBO International! Panelists will discuss the importance of research in innovation and how school business professionals can get involved in advancing the field.
Moderator:
John Brucato, Assistant Superintendent for Finance & Operations, Briarcliff Manor UFSD, Host, School Business Insider Podcast
Panelists:
- Mario Chiasson, PhD, Dir. of Research, Innovation & Change Management, District Scolaire Francophone Sud, New Brunswick, Canada
- Laura Anderson, Associate Director, Edunomics Lab, Georgetown University
Roundtable Conversations
After our panel discussion attendees will begin roundtable conversations with the ASBO International Corporate Alliance Partners and organizations, including a special table with Missy Testerman, the 2024 National Teacher of the Year.
Attendees will join the table with the topic they are most interested in and can rotate to a new table every 10 minutes for a total of 3 rounds. Conversations began during roundtable discussions can be continued outside of Innovation Hour in the Expo Hall or after the meeting. We encourage everyone to exchange contact information and keep the conversation going well after you leave Nashville!
Tables, Topics, Descriptions and Speakers:
Table # 01 – RETIREMENT PLANS: Attract & Retain Educators By Optimizing Your District's Retirement Plan
Description: Only 27% of public education employees enroll in their 403b plan, and recent research shows that K-12 educators hired today would need to save an extra 4%–6% throughout their careers to be fully funded for retirement in addition to their state pension plan. To help educators achieve long-term financial security, change is needed, and moving to a single or limited-provider model can help.
Vendor consolidation can be complex; however, reducing providers can improve plan sponsors’ understanding of their program, streamline administrative processes, reduce fees, and improve financial wellness programs offered to employees. Corebridge Financial can help with careful planning to deliver a smooth transition to an improved retirement plan to attract and retain your employees.
Optimizing retirement plan programs can provide several benefits for your district, including:
- A simplified and personalized onboarding process.
- Improved financial well-being and retirement readiness for all employees.
- Consistent employee communications.
- Delivery of investment options to meet employee needs.
- Mitigate employee financial stress.
As with any change, this requires research, preparation, and key stakeholder engagement. Corebridge Financial is the right partner to share best practices and work with plan sponsors and consultants to make modernization as seamless as possible. We’d love to provide your school district with vendor consolidation support by sharing specific tactics to meet your goals, such as determining whom to engage at the outset, creating a timeline for implementation based on the size of your school district, and clearly communicating the “why” of vendor consolidation by reviewing case studies of successful modernizations.
Speakers:
- Andrew Jerdal, Corebridge Financial
- Allen Thomas, Corebridge Financial
Table # 02 – INNOVATIVE SCHOOL LEADERSHIP - Empowering Educators: Leadership Through the National Teacher of the Year Program
Description: Join us as we delve into our impactful partnership with the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) to support the National Teacher of the Year (NTOY) Program. Each year, this initiative celebrates 55 State teachers and 1 National teacher of the Year, providing them with a transformative year-long professional development experience designed to enhance their leadership skills. As a Gold Level partner in 2024, we are dedicated to uplifting these exceptional educators, gathering real-time insights, and advocating for critical issues in education. This discussion will highlight how our collaboration fosters leadership and excellence in teaching, ultimately contributing to an equitable education for all students.
Speakers:
- Nory Gonzalez, Equitable
- Michael Linehan, Equitable
Table # 03 – RETIREMENT PLANS: Help Your Employees Achieve Financial Freedom with a 403(b) Student Loan Payment Match Program
Description: According to a March 2024 Newsweek report, one in four teachers has more than $40,000 in federal student loan debt, while 23% have between $30,000 and $40,000 in loans. Although student debt isn’t the sole reason educators choose to leave the profession, it has become a major contributor. Repaying student loans also delays educators from achieving other milestones in life, like purchasing a home, having children, and saving for retirement.
Help employees who are financially stressed by student debt and can't otherwise make contributions to your district's 403(b) retirement plan by considering a newly legislated feature: a student loan payment match program.
Never before have employers been allowed to match retirement contributions based on employee student loan repayments. However, thanks to the recent passage of the SECURE 2.0 Act, this is now effective in 2024. Visit us to learn more about how your district’s 403(b) plan can support your employees in paving a path toward their financial freedom.
Speakers:
- Thomas Granger, Security Benefit
Table # 04 – COOPERATIVE PROCUREMENT: Drive K-12 Innovation with the Power of Cooperative Purchasing
Description: Cooperative purchasing is a powerful innovation tool when used strategically. It preserves limited resources and allows them to be used for growth, change, and innovation in education. Cooperative procurement directly addresses the impact of limited financial resources, staffing reductions and vacancies, and shortens procurement timelines.
Join GovMVMT for a conversation about the value of public agency-focused cooperative procurement in leading innovation in education. By conserving resources (e.g., personnel, time, and public dollars), cooperative purchasing ensures that your district gets the best value from top-tier suppliers to meet your needs. Smarter purchasing frees up K-12 procurement leaders and their teams to focus on agency-specific solicitations and saves money that can support other educational priorities.
School district and other public agency use of cooperative procurement has exploded over the last 20 years, but much of that has been through the proliferation of cooperatives. Very few, however, meet or exceed the highest public sector procurement standards, and are focused on the needs of public agencies. We’d love to share what sets us apart and discuss how we can support your procurement needs.
Speakers:
- David Kidd, GovMVMT
- Tyler McCall, GovMVMT
Table # 05 – DIGITAL PROCUREMENT: Work Smarter, Not Harder with School Procurement
Description: Educational organizations face various compliance-related challenges, from order approvals and budget constraints to record-keeping and adhering to purchasing guidelines. As a leader in digital procurement, Amazon Business is committed to meeting your district’s purchasing needs with innovative solutions such as customized integration with e-procurement systems, built-in approval processes, and tailored buying policies aligned with your school system's purchasing requirements.
Amazon Business was started in 2015 and has remained an innovative leader in digital procurement across several industries, including education. Our services are currently available in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and India.
Our solutions provide a suite of compliance and technological enhancements tailored uniquely for our customers. We prioritize the customer experience, offering a diverse shopping experience that caters to buyers at every level of the organization—from tail spend to managed spend. Chat with us to learn more about how schools can leverage our technology to support their procurement needs and educational initiatives.
Speakers:
- Justin Sluyter, Amazon Business
- Shaina Biller, Amazon Business
Table # 06 – STUDENT IMAGES AND DATA: Streamline Your School's Photography & Data Management in a Flash!
Description: Lifetouch and Shutterfly are revolutionizing school operations by enhancing communication, securing data, and automating tasks for school photography. Our approach saves districts time, cuts costs, and sets new standards in educational efficiency.
Join us to learn more about how we can help you streamline your school’s photography and data management in a flash!
Speakers:
- Nathan Pierce, Lifetouch, Inc.
Table # 07 – ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Generative AI: Tools to Ensure Safe and Ethical Use in Schools
Description: Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) has the potential to significantly improve school systems' productivity if—and ONLY if—district leaders understand the technology, provide strong leadership and vision, and ensure guardrails are in place for safe and ethical use.
School business professionals must lead the conversation about using Gen AI in district operations across an array of departments with other senior leadership at the table, including their superintendent, CAO, CTO, and school board. While there are many visionary statements about what Gen AI could do for K-12 education or about its risks, there are few concrete frameworks for district leaders to assess and think through the many dimensions of AI implementation in school systems.
To address this challenge, the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN)—the national association of school district CIO/CTOs—and the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS) have co-created a free K–12 Gen AI Awareness Assessment and Gen AI Maturity Tool to help school district leaders assess where they currently are around using Gen AI and develop better policies and practices moving forward.
The assessment highlights a range of issues districts should consider to ready themselves for safe and ethical Gen AI implementation, while the maturity tool helps districts develop a road map for identifying their current state of AI readiness and how to move up to their next level of maturity. The tool encompasses six major domains essential to AI integration: Executive Leadership, Operational, Data, Technical, Security and Risk/Legal. Join CoSN for a conversation about these helpful resources and learn how you can use them to ready your district for AI integration.
Speakers:
- Chris Smallen, Lenoir City Schools on Behalf of CoSN
Table # 08 – PROCESS AUTOMATION: Invoice Capture: Automate Invoice Processing With an Integrated Workflow
Description: Manually inputting invoices is among the most data-heavy and time-consuming processes school business offices handle. Tyler Technologies’ Invoice Capture automates a previously manual, data-heavy, and time-consuming process to save school business professionals' time and increase data accuracy compared to manually entered data.
Invoice Capture streamlines invoice processing by automatically extracting key data from invoices and integrating it directly with Tyler ERP. Partnering this solution with our AP Automation solution for payments streamlines processes from start to finish. With the functionality to automatically sync invoices from an email inbox, read handwritten or typed PDFs, customize the level of data detail, and view invoices and purchase orders side-by-side, districts can make invoice processing faster and more accurate.
Invoice Capture adds a native solution to Tyler ERP that was previously only available through a third-party vendor, which streamlines processes and eliminates the need for external data transfer. Come visit us to learn more about this new solution and other ways Tyler Technologies can make your day-to-day tasks and responsibilities easier.
Speakers:
- Kim Yager, Tyler Technologies
- Alexis Catanzano, Tyler Technologies
Table # 09 – CYBERSECURITY: K-12 Cybersecurity Trends and Resources for Collective Defense
Description: Cybersecurity risks in K–12 education are on the rise, leading to operational disruptions, monetary losses, and loss of public trust. School systems of all types and sizes have experienced cybersecurity incidents, and absent a significant intervention, all signs point to this issue growing in severity.
The goal of K12 SIX is to help school systems better manage and mitigate cybersecurity risk. While there are technical aspects to this work, it is a fundamental mistake to solely delegate cyber risk management to IT departments, which may not always share the same organizational visibility or priorities as the school business office.
Membership in the non-profit K12 Security Information eXchange (K12 SIX) provides school systems with threat intel, collaboration, and capacity building specific to an educational context, to increase districts’ resilience to emerging cybersecurity threats, including ransomware, phishing, and data breaches. If you serve in a U.S. local education agency (LEA), area education agency (AEA), private school, or state education agency (SEA), visit our table to learn more about how K12 SIX membership can support you.
Speakers:
- Doug Levin, K12 Security Information EXchange (K12 SIX)
Table # 10 – FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT: Mastering Budgeting with Integrated Financial Software
Description: Discover how LINQ’s latest cutting-edge financial software can help address the unique financial management challenges facing your district and transform your budgeting process.
Our innovative solution offers a comprehensive and integrated approach to financial management in K–12 districts, addressing multiple aspects of budgeting within one platform. It combines essential financial elements such as position control, salary administration, benefits, hiring, and financial projections into a single, dynamic budgeting tool.
The software enhances transparency, supports strategic planning, and simplifies complex financial decisions, thereby optimizing district resources and achieving financial goals with confidence and precision. By automating and centralizing financial processes, the software also reduces manual errors, increases efficiency, and provides real-time data insights. It also can help foster collaboration between departments while empowering district leaders with actionable insights to make strategic decisions, ultimately transforming the budgeting process.
Visit our table to learn how this software can help you master school budgeting and meet your district’s financial goals.
Speakers:
- Morrad Battah, LINQ
- Santina Connors, LINQ
Table # 11 – RETIREMENT PLANS: Help Your Employees Achieve Their Health and Wealth Goals with Combined Enrollment Decisions
Description: By optimizing benefits, employees have more appropriate coverage and are better prepared for their future health and wealth needs. Learn how you can help your staff evaluate their benefit decisions to meet their financial and wellness goals with Voya’s MyVoyage tool.
Launched in 2022, MyVoyage was developed to enable employees to optimize their savings potential and make more informed decisions with their complete financial picture in mind. This tool combines both health insurance, voluntary benefits, and retirement options to help employees determine the best choices for their specific situation and how to allocate their benefit spend across all options. Voya is the only health and wealth provider in the K–12 space offering this type of decision-making tool.
Want to learn more? Visit us and let’s discuss how Voya can help your employees secure greater financial security and well-being.
Speakers:
- Gregory K Springfield, Voya Financial
Table # 12 – BUDGET PRESENTATION: Build a Better Budget Book that Instills Community Trust
Description: Say goodbye to cumbersome traditional budget-building processes and learn how to build a better budget presentation with ClearGov’s Digital Budget Book.
This innovative solution modernizes the budgeting process for your staff and community. It produces a polished budget book that can be presented effortlessly in multiple formats to exceed public expectations for optimal viewing.
School business professionals can present their budget book as an interactive website and automate the creation of fund summary pages and data visuals. The software can instantly generate your budget book framework, including pages, charts, tables, and more.
Stop by to learn more about how this solution can help you create a high-quality, easy-to-understand budget book that builds community trust in a fraction of the time.
Speakers:
- Andrew Donohue, ClearGov, Inc.
- Matt Muller, ClearGov, Inc.
Table # 13 – RETIREMENT PLANS: Three Things Educators Should Know When Navigating Retirement Challenges
Description: Whether you’re in the throes of planning for your nearing (and well-earned!) retirement or you’re the one guiding tenured employees along their retirement journey, it’s important to anticipate key retirement challenges and understand what tools and resources are available to help you solve them.
Our teams at U.S. Retirement & Benefits Partners have spent nearly 30 years dedicated to servicing, educating, and designing retirement plans specifically for school districts and their employees.
Join us for a conversation about retirement readiness support and how to help employees transition into this next phase of their lives. We’ll share our “Top 3” list of key retirement readiness details that district employers and employees should be aware of. Additionally, attendees will leave with several takeaways and functional content that districts can repurpose for their own retirement readiness education materials for their employees.
Speakers:
- Sarah Breiner, U.S. OMNI&TSACG Compliance Services
- Kurt Miller, U.S. Retirement & Benefits Partners
- Brad Hope, U.S. OMNI&TSACG Compliance Services
Table # 14 – ROI DATA AND TOOLS: How to Use Data to Drive Smarter Spending and Better Student Outcomes
Description: After a decade of strong increases in public school funding, the revenue outlook is undeniably much tighter. Pandemic relief is winding down and near-term increases in federal funding are highly unlikely. State revenues are slowing and shrinking enrollments also mean fewer dollars for many districts. With inherent cost escalators set to exceed even the most optimistic revenue projections, school systems will be forced to make tradeoffs that will test even the strongest leaders. Going forward, it’s imperative for leaders to get maximum value from available dollars, which may require changes to the traditional budget process.
The typical budget process runs on something approaching autopilot. It’s a series of choreographed moves with the same rehearsal schedule and the same cast year after year, with built-in deference to continuing whatever the district did the year before. In the end, the process doesn’t set up leaders to have evidence-based discussions about spending trade-offs, the effect of the spending on kids, and changes that might do more for kids.
Using ROI data and tools to promote strategic investment tradeoffs can help leaders change this annual process and maximize the value of dollars for students, especially those furthest from opportunity. Join Edunomics Lab to learn more about our data displays and tools that all U.S. districts can use to examine ROI and consider budget implications and investments to drive student outcomes and improve schooling.
Edunomics Lab believes that smart data visualizations can help fuel thoughtful and productive conversations among district and school leaders on financial strategy and management. School-by-school spending data was not widely available until 2020 and is a new tool for leaders examining equity and ROI. As part of a federally funded study, Edunomics Lab developed and tested data visualizations of school-by-school spending and outcomes with 26 diverse school districts in 2021 and 2022 and provided district leaders with training on communicating the data with their school communities. We will share lessons from the study and how they are using this data and accompanying tools to assess the investments in their schools.
Speakers:
- Laura Anderson, Georgetown University/Edunomics Lab
Table # 15 – ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: How Can Your District Use GenAI in a Safe, Secure, and Cost-Effective Way?
Description: Leveraging Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools to meet your specific school district’s needs can be challenging because although there may be many options to choose from, few providers are familiar with navigating a K-12 education environment. Kadal, an AI workbench for education, enables school districts to use GenAI in a safe, secure, and cost-effective way. An AI workbench is a customizable tool that allows you to manage, visualize, and analyze data in a way that meets your district’s needs. While teaching and learning have been a focus for AI in education, Kadal can help school administrators benefit from GenAI as well. Specifically, Kadal allows school IT administrators to centrally manage and monitor multiple GenAI Learning Language Models (LLMs), such as OpenAI (Chat GPT), Claude, Gemini, and others.
The workbench can help monitor and audit LLM usage and manage costs, auto-enable data protection to prevent accidental data sharing to LLMs, and enable “AI filtering” across multiple LLMs to ensure harmful or dangerous data cannot be accessed. Kadal also allows a school administrator, teacher, or student to have an individual GenAI workbench to help them effectively use LLMs while safeguarding data so that private personal information is never shared. This workbench and some professional development allow educators to develop AI agents, further fine-tuning LLMs to be more accurate and relevant. Our AI workbench is designed to enable educators to advance education for all and can assist anyone who has major concerns about data privacy and simple GenAI use.
Visit us to learn more about how Kadal can support your school district’s educational, administrative, and data privacy goals. We are working on a pilot to roll out this tool with a select group of districts; early adopters will benefit from being able to provide feedback on workbench features and benefit from early-adopter pricing.
Speakers:
- Andrew Ko, Kovexa Solutions
- Saurav Bandi, Kovexa Solutions