Phillips Exeter Academy, situated on a sprawling 600-acre campus with over 1,100 students (800 of whom are boarders), faced challenges in managing attendance and tracking student movements. With manual, paper-based processes requiring extensive coordination and staff time, the academy sought a modern solution. Orah emerged as the answer, streamlining attendance management and improving communication between staff, parents and students.
Addressing Time-Intensive Processes
Phillips Exeter Academy's previous process for managing student passes was time-intensive. Rochelle Karakey, an IT team member, detailed the workflow: “Students had to physically complete and circulate multiple forms, requiring advisor, dorm supervisor, and teacher approvals. Parents also had to fill out identical information in the portal, and all of this was managed manually by our staff.”
The volume of leave passes was considerable, particularly during peak times like weekends.
“On Fridays, with students preparing to go off campus, we processed thousands of passes. Since September, we’ve handled over 5,000 passes.”
This system relied on full-time attendance specialists and additional staff support, creating an administrative burden for the school.
Before Orah
- Manual attendance processes added extra hours of work for staff each week.
- Students navigated a paper-based pass system requiring multiple approvals.
After Orah
- Faculty members and administration staff are saving hours weekly with Orah’s automation of pass approvals.
- Real-time alerts and dashboards improved oversight for deans and campus safety.
- Parents and students accessed pass statuses directly, reducing inquiries to staff.
How Phillips Exeter Digitized School Pass Management
Phillips Exeter Academy implemented Orah to streamline and digitize its pass management system, addressing the inefficiencies of their previous paper-based processes. The transition allowed for substantial time savings and improved oversight, particularly during high-demand periods like weekend leave.
Rochelle shares, "Students no longer need to physically circulate multiple forms for approvals. Parents and hosts can provide their endorsements directly through the system, significantly reducing staff involvement in chasing down approvals."
Plus, Orah’s integration with Blackbaud enabled real-time updates, ensuring that passes were accurately tracked and attendance data was always up-to-date.
By implementing Orah, Phillips Exeter Academy not only digitized its pass management but also improved operational efficiency and student accountability across its large campus. By bringing on Orah, Phillips Exeter Academy were able to achieve:
Automated School Pass Management
Orah streamlined the approval process for student passes, reducing the back-and-forth between students, parents, admin staff and faculty. As well as cutting down manual tasks for all staff.
Note: Phillips Exeter Academy opted to only allow student-submitted passes to enter this Pass Request feed once their parents had endorsed their request.
Real-Time Insights
Passes were updated instantly, providing staff with real-time visibility into student movements.
Orah’s comprehensive easy-to-use dashboards offered insights into trends, allowing administrators to monitor passes and attendance patterns efficiently.
In an October 2024 webinar, Rochelle details that "when you drill into a student's profile, you have the records tab that shows everything that's ever happened."
The Orah Impact
Phillips Exeter Academy experienced immediate benefits after implementing Orah:
Streamlined Processes
Passes that once required manual input and coordination were now automated, saving staff and faculty time.
Seamless Communcation
"One benefit of Orah is how seamlessly it allows communication internally with dorms. In addition, the Dean’s Office, Health Center, etc. no longer need to call or email dorms with information about individual students but can make changes in Orah that are updated in real time.", said Ashley Taylor, Dean of Students at Phillips Exeter Academy.
Improved Oversight
Campus safety staff and deans gained instant access to student location data, aiding in better supervision.
“Campus safety loves being able to see, day by day, how many students they anticipate being on campus,” Rochelle noted.
Greater Accountability
“Parents and students can see exactly where a pass is in the approval process, whether it’s waiting on a host or a parent’s confirmation,” Rochelle explained.
Students and parents can track pass statuses directly in the app, reducing unnecessary inquiries to faculty and staff.
Phillips Exeter Academy's Advice for Independent Schools Considering Orah
These insights were extracted from a live webinar with Phillips Exeter Academy’s Rochelle Karakey in October 2024.
Be Willing to Adapt Your Policies for the Best Outcome
By aligning school policies with Orah’s functionality, the academy reduced administrative bottlenecks. Rochelle shares that "being willing to understand how the software is designed, and then being willing to change your processes and your thinking in order to use the software to its best, was huge for everybody".
After finding success in their regular session, Rochelle speaks about their evaluation of Orah for their summer program recounting, "The thing that helped the most was when we were talking about how they do things, their current state and what Orah could do for them, is that they had the willingness to change their policy." Phillips Exeter Academy were able to prove out Orah in their regular session before exploring other applications like their Summer program, which is now in place.
Train and Communicate Clearly
Proper training and clear communication with students and parents ensured a smooth implementation and adoption of Orah. “There was initial concern about tracking, but once we clarified what Orah does and doesn’t do, acceptance was high,” said Rochelle.
Orah is available to lend our expertise to help schools manage this process. For Phillips Exeter, it was extremely important that students and parents were well-informed of the rollout.
'Tracking student locations' may raise alarm bells for some, but when it is understood that student locations are not updated based on GPS locations, but instead set based on roll calls, check-ins and passes, all of which rely on school procedures, it is generally understood that it's in the best interest of student safety to keep track of students while they are in the care of the school.
Looking Ahead
Phillips Exeter Academy is optimistic about future possibilities with Orah, including:
- Expanding the use of Orah's solutions for greater efficiency campus and school safety management.
- Simplifying additional workflows, such as integrating NFC-based check-ins for students.
- Evaluating Orah for well-being and mental health checks, via Orah Nurture.
The Simplifying Power of Orah at Phillips Exeter Academy
With Orah, Phillips Exeter Academy has overhauled its student tracking and pass management procedures. It's now possible to account for students in real-time when they are off campus, which has greatly improved campus safety and reduced the risk of incidents when a student travels off campus. The academy has reduced administrative workload by automating processes and providing real-time insights while enhancing accountability and communication.
For schools facing similar challenges, Orah offers a proven solution to digitize and automate attendance operations–helping schools exceed their duty of care.
