Why not five separate subscriptions?

You can, but a district organisation is usually cheaper and cleaner. Seats are shared, someone who works at three schools still counts once, and analytics roll up. XL covers up to 250 staff at $449 a month, or $4,490 a year in USD.

Can each school keep its own roster style?

Yes. Each site has its own school-type profile, duty areas, weekly template and daily board. Central staff switch schools without logging out.

Is this only for public districts?

The same model fits charter networks, diocesan groups and independent school groups. The maths uses national BLS administrator pay because that is the published benchmark. Your local salaries will differ.

US school district

Five schools, one seat pool, and three days a week of time back

A five-school district mixes two small elementaries, a larger elementary, a middle school and a high school. Each site is at least at the 5-hours-a-week elementary floor, then a central office chases PDFs. One SchoolRota organisation on the XL plan replaces about 35 hours a week of scattered work.

1,638 hoursback every year, about 234 school days
$94,946net saving after the XL plan
22.1xreturn, paid back in about 2.3 weeks

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9.8x faster152 hours a month becomes 15.5

35 hours a week across five schools, for $4,490 a year

Across five schools and the central team, roster work costs the district $110,543 a year in leadership and operations time.

Cost per hour saved

202 staff on the XL plan

Time back each month

136.5 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

A small suburban public district in the United States. Two K-5 elementaries, one larger elementary, one middle school and one 9-12 high school. Two hundred and two people appear on rosters. A few paras and substitutes work across sites, so they should count once. Each school already spends at least 5 hours a week on the roster. Larger sites and the high school sit higher. District operations spend another few hours a week chasing whose sheet is current.

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.

07:00Five offices work in parallel with no view of each other.Each school records absences on its own board in one portal.
07:30A shared para is double-booked across two sites.One seat, one record, so a cross-site clash is visible.
07:50Central office asks each school to email the current sheet.Publish status for all five schools is on one screen.
Month endA Friday afternoon of copy-and-paste for the board packet.Group analytics roll coverage and duty load up in minutes.

The numbers

Time and money, side by side

Hours on the rota each month

Specialist time spent building the rota, covering absence, rebuilding sheets and sending them.

Spreadsheet and email152 hours
SchoolRota15.5 hours

What that time costs each year

Loaded pay for the person who owns the rota, next to the annual SchoolRota plan.

Cost of doing it by hand$110,543
Cost with SchoolRota$11,107
XL plan, per year$4,490

Where the 152 hours go

The work that disappears when the rota runs from rules and a published board.

Same-day cover at five schoolsEvery site solves the same problem separately55 hours
Five separate weekly rostersDifferent formats, different owners, no shared rules52 hours
Rebuilding and reissuing sheetsEach change is a new file at each school28 hours
Central chasing and board reportingWhich version is current, and what do we tell the school board17 hours

Hours saved each year, school by school

Local leadership time, plus central operations no longer chasing versions.

K-5 elementary240 hours
K-5 neighborhood elementary264 hours
Larger elementary306 hours
Middle school282 hours
9-12 high school378 hours
District operations168 hours

Hours and cost by school

Loaded cost of rota time at each school and at the centre
Site	Who owns the rota	Seats	Hours a month, by hand	With SchoolRota	Saved a year
K-5 elementary	Elementary principalBLS 11-9032 median	18	22	2	$17,158
K-5 neighborhood elementary	Assistant principalBLS 11-9032, 25th percentile	24	24	2	$15,205
Larger elementary	Special education coordinatorBLS 25-9031 instructional coordinators	38	28	2.5	$15,685
Middle school	Middle school assistant principalBLS 11-9032, 25th percentile	32	26	2.5	$16,241
9-12 high school	Assistant principal (coverage)BLS 11-9032 median	90	35	3.5	$27,023
District operations	District operations coordinatorSchool business / operations grade	-	17	3	$8,124

Today, by hand

Why only a couple of people can do this

Five different spreadsheets, five local habits, and no shared view of coverage pressure.
A para who works Monday at the middle school and Thursday at the high school is duplicated, or missed.
Central reports for the school board are a Friday afternoon copy-and-paste.
Expertise sits in individuals. A new office manager cannot safely run cover in week one.
Calendar and email practice differs by school, so staff who move sites get different instructions.

With SchoolRota

What changes after setup

One organisation, per-school boards, and a single seat pool. Cross-site people count once.
Group analytics show coverage and duty load for the district or for one school.
School login and staff sync can be set once, then mapped to sites.
Each school keeps its own duty areas and school-type profile. A high school is not forced into an elementary template.
After setup, site staff can run the day with the assistant. Central roles still see every board.

Feedback

What leaders say about this change

We did not buy this to save a few hours in one office. We bought it so a principal leaving in June does not take the entire duty system with them.

District operations coordinator, five-school district

The high school and the elementaries finally look comparable. I can take coverage pressure to the board without five different Excel files.

Superintendent, small suburban district

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 not five separate subscriptions?: You can, but a district organisation is usually cheaper and cleaner. Seats are shared, someone who works at three schools still counts once, and analytics roll up. XL covers up to 250 staff at $449 a month, or $4,490 a year in USD.
Can each school keep its own roster style?: Yes. Each site has its own school-type profile, duty areas, weekly template and daily board. Central staff switch schools without logging out.
Is this only for public districts?: The same model fits charter networks, diocesan groups and independent school groups. The maths uses national BLS administrator pay because that is the published benchmark. Your local salaries will differ.

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 XL annual card plan ($4,490, two months free) for 202 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

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Five schools, one seat pool, and three days a week of time backFive schools, one seat pool, and three days a week of time back

35 hours a week across five schools, for $4,490 a year35 hours a week across five schools, for $4,490 a year