The University School of Nashville (USN), with over 400 high school students and a six-day class rotation, faced significant challenges in managing attendance. Nicole Jules, the school’s Dean of Students, was spending an 15-20 hours per month more than she is now on attendance-related tasks, using their previous system. To address this growing inefficiency, USN sought a better solution and implemented Orah’s Attendance Management platform. The results were immediate, with improved attendance tracking, real-time alerts, and a significant reduction in administrative workload.
Managing Attendance at USN: A Growing Administrative Burden
Before adopting Orah, managing attendance at USN was time-consuming and manual. Nicole described how using Blackbaud added hours to her workload: “After about a month of school, it was adding 15-20 hours of additional work to my life.” Keeping track of students who missed classes, setting up meetings, and emailing parents was a tedious process.
Additionally, the school had concerns about student safety and accountability. Nicole highlighted the importance of knowing where students were throughout the day, stating: “Part of us keeping our students safe is we’ve got to know where they are. We’ve got to know if they’re in class or not.”
How Orah Simplified Attendance at USN
USN decided to implement Orah’s Attendance Management system. The transition was smooth and efficient. Within a few weeks, all teachers were using Orah exclusively for attendance, with Nicole commenting: “It was pretty seamless…within three or four weeks, we pretty much had everybody taking it in Orah.” The implementation process was well received by faculty, who appreciated the system’s automation and ease of use.
Nicole shared that Orah’s automated alerts were particularly beneficial: “The number of faculty members who have not taken attendance has dropped significantly…because that means I’m not sending a reminder every class period or at the end of every day.” The system’s automated reminders ensured that teachers consistently logged attendance, helping the school stay compliant.
The Orah Impact
Time Savings
Orah’s automation reduced Nicole’s attendance management workload, giving her back 15-20 hours each month.
Improved Accountability
Real-time alerts allowed Nicole and the team to address attendance issues immediately. “We set it to alert us if a kid misses two class periods in a row."
Superior Insights
Orah’s dashboard provided useful trends, allowing USN to monitor unexcused absences and tardies more effectively. “It’s nice to be able to see what kids have the most unexcused tardies or absences and when.”
USN’s Major Wins with Orah’s Attendance System
The implementation of Orah led to several key wins for USN:
Seamless Transition
The switch to Orah was easy for faculty and required minimal training. Teachers appreciated the ability to integrate their attendance-taking process with Orah’s Chrome extension, making daily tasks more efficient. “It was pretty seamless…within three or four weeks, we pretty much had everybody taking it in Orah.”
Increased Student Accountability
The real-time alerts allowed staff to address student absences quickly. As Nicole noted, “It makes it a lot easier for kids to know where they are in terms of attendance, and they’re now talking to teachers about it.”
Administrative Efficiency
Automating attendance reduced Nicole’s reliance on manual reports and reminders, allowing her to focus on more important tasks.
Looking Ahead
At the time of writing, USN is exploring rolling out parental attendance alerts and possibly adding student check-in features for more accurate real-time tracking. Nicole remains enthusiastic about the system: “As long as I’m here, I’m going to push for us to keep using it. It simplifies what we need to do.”
With Orah, the University School of Nashville has not only streamlined its attendance process but also enhanced student safety and engagement. The school continues to explore new ways to utilize the platform to further improve its operations.
The Simplifying Power of Orah at USN
Nicole concluded, “Orah is pretty user-friendly. Once we got set up and I started clicking around, it made sense. It simplifies what we need to do, as long as teachers actually take attendance.”
USN’s success story demonstrates how schools can effectively streamline attendance management with Orah, saving time and ensuring a higher level of care for students.
