US high school
A 90-staff high school stops rebuilding coverage by hand
A typical 9-12 high school has a much larger classified-staff pool and class cover on top of hallway, cafeteria and parking duty. Attendance clerks print lists. The person who can decide who may cover a class is usually an assistant principal. SchoolRota turns about 8 hours a week of that work into a short daily review.
- 384 hoursback every year, about 55 school days
- $25,162net saving after the Large plan
- 12.0xreturn, paid back in about 4.3 weeks
8 hours a week of coverage time, for $2,290 a year
The roster sits with the assistant principal, whose time costs about $71 an hour once FICA and a typical public pension contribution are added. Doing it by hand costs $30,026 a year.
Cost per hour saved
$6
90 staff on the Large plan
Time back each month
32 hours
Straight back to students and leadership
Who can run it
The office
Rules and the assistant hold the expertise, not one person
The school
Who this is modelled on
9-12 high school in a typical US suburb. About 1,400 students. Ninety people on the duty and coverage roster: paraprofessionals, campus aides, cafeteria staff, attendance and campus security. An assistant principal often owns coverage because it has to respect teaching periods, prep, testing and who is qualified for which class. An attendance clerk or office lead may run the board day to day. The hours still sit well above a small elementary.
Role costed
Assistant principal (coverage)
BLS 11-9032 median
Published salary
$104,070
May 2024, United States, national
Loaded hourly rate
$71
With FICA and a typical public pension contribution
These figures are modelled on published pay and typical duty-roster practice, not taken from one named school. Pay is U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook (United States, national, May 2024). The full workings are set out at the bottom of this page.
The morning
Same absences, two very different mornings
This is where the hours actually go. Not planning, but reacting before the gate opens.
- 06:50Three absences in the inbox, two of them teachers.Absences recorded, uncovered classes listed automatically.
- 07:05Cross-check the master schedule by hand for every proposed name.Clash-aware suggestions rule out anyone teaching or on a prep period.
- 07:25Rebuild the duty sheet, then redo it when period 3 changes.Adjust the draft, publish, and the board is the single version.
- 07:45Chase staff who never saw the email.PDF and calendar updates have already landed.
The numbers
Time and money, side by side
Specialist time spent building the rota, covering absence, rebuilding sheets and sending them.
Loaded pay for the person who owns the rota, next to the annual SchoolRota plan.
The work that disappears when the rota runs from rules and a published board.
These are real gains we have deliberately left out of the cash figure, so the saving stays defensible.
- Automatic PDF rota emails to staff on the board
- Outlook, Google and Apple calendar updates
- Fairer duty load across the week
- Less key-person risk when the rota owner is away
- Any reduction in agency or supply spend
Today, by hand
Why only a couple of people can do this
- Duty rosters and class cover are two spreadsheets that drift apart by Wednesday.
- A single absence can force a rebuild of the morning, plus emails to staff who have already planned their day.
- Checking teaching clashes, weekly commitments and job level is specialist work. An attendance clerk cannot safely do it alone.
- Staff do not see a live calendar, so I did not know I was on duty is a weekly conversation.
- When the assistant principal is at a hearing, coverage quality drops and substitute spend creeps up.
With SchoolRota
What changes after setup
- One Today board for duties and uncovered classes, with clash-aware suggestions.
- Import the teaching timetable so cover steers around classes, prep periods and meetings.
- Publish once. Staff get the PDF and an Outlook or Google Calendar update without a second admin pass.
- The AI assistant can record an absence and prepare cover. A non-specialist can run the morning once the rules are set.
- Leadership time goes back to behavior, instruction and the rare cases that still need a judgement call.
Feedback
What leaders say about this change
Coverage used to be a 06:50 job that only I could do. The office now drafts the board and I approve it on my phone. That is the first semester coverage has not owned my mornings.
The PDF going out on its own matters more than people admit. We were losing 20 minutes a day to which version is this, and to staff who never opened the shared drive.
Feedback is composed from reviews of this workflow with school leaders. It is representative rather than a quotation from one named school.
Questions this study answers
- Why model an assistant principal rather than an attendance clerk?
- An attendance clerk can print a list and often runs the board once the rules are set. Deciding who is allowed to cover a class, who is already on duty, and who must stay with a student is still administrator work in most schools. We cost BLS 11-9032 because that is the common owner.
- Does SchoolRota replace the master schedule?
- No. You import teaching slots so duty and class cover work around them. The product is for classified-staff duty rosters and same-day cover, not for building the instructional master schedule.
- Which plan fits around 90 staff?
- Large covers up to 100 staff on the roster at $229 a month, or $2,290 a year in USD. If you grow past 100, move to XL. Seats count people on the roster, not logins.
How the numbers are worked out
Pay is United States, national for May 2024, using the published administrator wages named above. Certified roles add 7.65% FICA and a 16% typical public pension employer contribution. Health insurance is left out. Operations roles use a 28% on-cost. Loaded pay is divided by 1,800 hours, an 11-month administrator year, which keeps the hourly rate on the low side.
Manual hours cover the standing roster, same-day absence cover, rebuilding sheets and sending them. A small elementary starts at 5 hours a week. Larger schools sit above that. SchoolRota hours cover publishing, reviewing and the odd exception. The subscription is the Large annual card plan ($2,290, two months free) for 90 staff on the roster, and net saving is time cost saved minus that plan. Calendar sync and automatic PDF delivery add no cash value here, so the real return is higher.
Sources and next steps: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, current plan prices, what the Today board does, and the other studies. Assumptions last reviewed 17 August 2026.
Other schools, same maths
Run the same maths on your own staff list
30 days on your own rota, no card required, and no charge per login.