For the 2025 Annual Conference & Expo, we are pleased to offer three amazing pre-conference workshops for conference attendees. Pre-conference workshops dive more in-depth into topics of interest to school business professionals. These learning sessions will occur on Monday, October 20, 2025. Join colleagues and experts to discuss these critical and timely topics.
Pre-conference workshops have an additional fee and are not included in the main Annual Conference registration.
*Pre-Conference Workshop Participation Disclaimer:
To ensure a high-quality professional development experience, each pre-conference workshop requires a minimum number of registered participants. Should a workshop not meet the required enrollment by August 21, it will be canceled. In such cases, registered participants will be notified and provided the option to either transfer their registration to another available pre-conference workshop or receive a full refund of the workshop registration fee.
| PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP #1 |
A Better Formula for Forums: Engaging Your Community in School Finance Conversations
Time: 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Description: Do your town-hall-style meetings too often devolve into a litany of complaints from the public? Or worse, does the public mainly engage with your school district on finance topics when they vote against a bond or levy proposal? The community conversations model of public forums is an inclusive approach to public engagement, one that promotes greater understanding by helping audiences see more varied viewpoints in their community. In the first part of this workshop, learn how to plan and structure community conversations in support of the annual budget development process or a public vote on a school finance proposal. In the second part of this workshop, learn how to facilitate a conversation among community members of differing viewpoints. Tools and resources will be provided so that you can help other administrators in your school system become better facilitators during community conversations.
Learning objectives:
At the end of this activity, learners should be able to...
- Explain why community conversations are more productive and beneficial for a school than town halls and other public meetings.
- Describe how to plan and structure a community conversation (or series of them) on school finance topics.
- Demonstrate how to properly and effectively facilitate a conversation with participants of differing viewpoints.
Speaker(s):
Mellissa Braham, Associate Director, National School Public Relations Association
Accreditation Details:
- SFO: 3, External Domain
- CPE: 3, Information Technology
- CAE: 2.75, External Domain
- Knowledge Level: Intermediate
- Prerequisites/Advanced Preparations: None
Fee:
- Member - $275
- Non-member - $325
| PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP #2 |
AI Unleashed: A Hands-On Workshop for School Business Innovators
Time: 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Description: Designed exclusively for school business officials eager to harness AI in their daily operations, you'll discover cutting-edge tools and practical applications tailored to streamline your work and ignite innovation within your institutions. We begin with a dynamic one-hour overview where we explore the latest AI tools that are reshaping school business administration. Learn how prompt engineering is evolving, enabling intelligent chatbots to manage routine inquiries, automated podcast creation to amplify your communication efforts, and advanced AI solutions to revolutionize financial reporting by comparing multi-year budgets against actual expenses.
After the informative segment, we transition into hands-on activities where theory meets real-world application. Imagine building your own custom chatbot to answer common questions from parents and staff or setting up a podcast that shares inspiring success stories and key updates from your district. Engage in an exercise using AI-driven deep research tools that can gather and synthesize data in minutes, saving you hours, if not days. Additionally, you'll dive into advanced Excel techniques, creating complex formulas with the assistance of AI, and explore how AI can function as an intelligent operator to streamline your administrative tasks. We will also dive into ChatGPT agent mode to explore possibilities of using AI as our assistant, which can perform complete tasks.
To maximize the practical value of this session, please bring along key documents from your daily work. Examples include:
- Budget reports from the past two years
- Policies and procedure documents for your district
- Current communication materials or board meeting notes
These documents will serve as the foundation for our exercises, ensuring you can immediately apply new skills to your own projects. A sample list of recommended documents will be shared with registered attendees prior to the session, so you know exactly what to prepare.
By the end of this workshop, you'll have gained not only familiarity with innovative AI tools but also practical experience in integrating them into your workflows. Whether you're automating routine tasks or enhancing data analysis, you'll leave with actionable insights and a robust toolkit to drive efficiency and innovation in your role as a school business official.
Pre-Requisites: Before the session, please ensure you have activated the following: Sign up for a ChatGPT account, a free account will suffice, though we will also demonstrate some capabilities of a Plus subscription that aren’t available in the free tier. If you are part of a Google district, ask your IT department to enable Notebook LM for your Google account. Additionally, request that your IT team enable Gemini and allow Gemini extensions to ensure you can fully participate in the hands-on activities.
*Please note: Due to the fast-evolving nature of AI tools, the content of this session may be updated to include the latest advancements and tools introduced prior to the event.
Learning objectives:
At the end of this activity, learners should be able to...
- Explain emerging AI tools and prompt engineering techniques that can transform school business operations.
- Create digital solutions, such as custom chatbots, automated podcasts, and advanced Excel formulas, to solve real-world administrative challenges.
- Describe practical skills and strategies needed to integrate AI into daily workflows using their own documents and data.
Speaker(s):
- Aziz Aghayev, MBA, CEO at Flowlyst
Accreditation Details:
- SFO: 3, External Domain
- CPE: 3, Personal Development
- CAE: 2.75, Executive Leadership
- Knowledge Level: Basic
- Prerequisites/Advanced Preparations: Before the session, please ensure you have activated the following: Sign up for a ChatGPT account, a free account will suffice, though we will also demonstrate some capabilities of a Plus subscription that aren’t available in the free tier. If you are part of a Google district, ask your IT department to enable Notebook LM for your Google account. Additionally, request that your IT team enable Gemini and allow Gemini extensions to ensure you can fully participate in the hands-on activities.
Fee:
- Member - $325
- Non-member - $375
| PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP #3 |
Future-Ready Budgeting: Navigating Financial Uncertainty with Strategic Vision & Agility
Time: 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Description: Districts face a moment of incredible uncertainty. A flurry of Federal actions and economic volatility has left leaders grappling with big questions about their financial futures. In the absence of any concrete answers, many financial leaders find themselves flying blind. Navigating this uncertainty will require district leaders to adopt a fundamentally different approach to budgeting for the 2026-27 school year – one that is laser focused on the district’s most important priorities and responsive to rapid change. This new approach calls on district leaders to plan backwards from multiple financial scenarios, rethink when and how budget decisions are made, and aggressively pursue cost reallocation and revenue opportunities.
During this pre-conference, ERS will share a set of agile budgeting tools and strategies that districts can put to immediate use as they develop their school year 2026-27 budget. Participants will have an opportunity to put these approaches to practice and collaborate on thorny budget issues with a group of peers from around the country.
Learning objectives:
At the end of this activity, learners should be able to...
- Apply a structured approach to assessing the financial impact of recent Federal actions and areas of future uncertainty.
- Explore ways to facilitate budget decision-making in the face of uncertainty through “what if” scenario planning and more agile budget routines.
- Gain exposure to a curated set of budget planning tools and approaches that help link budget decisions to strategic priorities.
Speaker(s):
Sharla Horton, Director of Texas Strategic School System Support, Education Resource Strategies, Watertown, Massachusetts
Accreditation Details:
- SFO: 3, External Domain
- CPE: 3, Business Management & Organization
- CAE: 2.75, External Domain
- Knowledge Level: Intermediate
- Prerequisites/Advanced Preparations: None
Fee:
- Member - $275
- Non-member - $325