How School Districts Can Cut Costs and Retain Staff with TrueComp

Across the country, public school districts are under mounting pressure. Teacher shortages are at historic highs, support staff vacancies are climbing, and districts are competing not only with one another but also with the private sector to attract and retain talent. At the same time, budgets are constrained, and every dollar allocated must be carefully justified to school boards, local governments, and taxpayers.

Nowhere is this tension more visible than in workforce costs. On average, 60% of a school district’s budget is tied directly to people—teachers, bus drivers, aides, administrators, custodial staff, and the many other roles that keep schools running. When the majority of funding goes to salaries and benefits, even small errors or inefficiencies can ripple across classrooms and programs.

This is where TrueComp comes in. Built specifically for public-sector organizations, TrueComp provides school districts with the tools to simplify workforce planning, eliminate spreadsheet risk, and make faster, fact-based decisions about pay, staffing, and negotiations. By giving leaders visibility and confidence in their data, TrueComp helps districts protect their budgets while keeping students, staff, and communities at the center.

The Challenge: Workforce Pressures in Education

School leaders today are navigating a perfect storm of challenges:

• Teacher Shortages: According to recent national surveys, thousands of classrooms are being staffed by substitutes or left vacant entirely. Recruiting and retaining teachers is no longer optional—it’s a crisis.
• Rising Turnover: Employee turnover in schools disrupts learning and drives up costs. Research shows that 42% of turnover is preventable with better workforce strategies.
• Budget Constraints: Districts face limited funding streams, rising healthcare and pension costs, and growing demands for transparency in how dollars are spent.
• Negotiation Complexities: Collective bargaining is an essential part of school operations, but negotiations often take months and can strain relationships when accurate data isn’t available.
• Compliance Risks: From pay equity to labor standards, districts must meet legal and contractual requirements that can change annually.

For most districts, these challenges are compounded by outdated tools. Many still rely on spreadsheets—built and maintained by a handful of staff—to run payroll, test scenarios, and prepare for negotiations. While spreadsheets are familiar, they’re also fragile. One broken formula or missed update can create costly pay errors, damage trust with staff, and throw off long-term forecasts.

TrueComp was designed to solve exactly these problems.

Attracting and Retaining Talent

One of the most urgent issues facing districts is the ability to compete for teachers and staff. Neighboring districts may offer higher starting salaries or better step increases, leaving smaller or underfunded districts at a disadvantage.

With TrueComp, HR and Finance leaders gain access to benchmarking data that allows them to compare pay structures to peer districts. This data-driven approach helps leaders:

• Identify where salaries lag behind regional competitors.
• Highlight inequities across roles, such as aides or support staff, that often experience higher turnover.
• Present data-backed proposals to school boards and unions that support fair, competitive pay.

The result is not only stronger retention but also improved recruitment. When districts can demonstrate competitive, transparent compensation packages, they position themselves as employers of choice for teachers and staff who want stability and fairness.

Reducing Costly Pay Errors

Pay errors are more than just administrative hiccups—they’re one of the fastest ways to erode staff trust. For educators and staff living paycheck to paycheck, an error in pay can cause frustration, hardship, and even turnover. On the district side, correcting errors requires hours of staff time and sometimes costly reimbursements.

TrueComp eliminates these risks by automating compensation workflows and calculations. Districts using TrueComp can:

• Reduce pay errors by up to 70%, saving both money and time.
• Ensure step increases, overtime, and contract terms are applied consistently across all employees.
• Provide payroll teams with reliable, auditable data for compliance and reporting.

By minimizing errors, districts not only save resources but also build trust among staff—an essential ingredient for retention.

Negotiating with Confidence

Collective bargaining is a cornerstone of education workforce management. However, negotiations often stall when districts and unions are working from different sets of numbers or struggling to model proposals in real time. This can lead to prolonged sessions, strained relationships, and agreements that don’t align with long-term financial realities.

TrueComp transforms negotiations by equipping leaders with real-time modeling tools. During bargaining sessions, leaders can:

• Test multiple scenarios on the spot and immediately see the financial impact.
• Model how changes in salaries, benefits, or class sizes affect both current and future budgets.
• Share clear, fact-based insights with all stakeholders, increasing transparency and trust.

This ability to negotiate with confidence not only shortens the time it takes to reach agreements but also ensures that contracts are sustainable and fair. For districts, that means fewer surprises down the road and more predictable financial planning.

Maximizing Budget Impact

When 60% of a district’s budget is tied to workforce costs, leaders must constantly balance competing priorities. Funding for instructional programs, extracurricular activities, technology upgrades, and facility improvements all depend on making smart workforce decisions.

TrueComp gives leaders the visibility they need to align spending with strategic goals. With scenario planning, districts can:

• Evaluate how staffing changes affect budgets at the school, department, or district-wide level.
• Plan for future enrollment changes or shifts in funding.
• Protect instructional priorities by ensuring staffing decisions support classroom needs first.

By helping districts allocate resources more effectively, TrueComp ensures that workforce dollars are working as hard as possible to serve students.

Real-World Example: A District in Transition

Consider a mid-sized district facing a familiar challenge: declining enrollment, rising healthcare costs, and pressure from the local union to increase teacher pay. Traditionally, the district would have used spreadsheets to model options, requiring weeks of preparation before presenting numbers to the school board.

With TrueComp, the district was able to:

• Upload and organize all workforce data in a centralized, secure platform.
• Run side-by-side comparisons of different pay structures.
• Immediately see how proposals would impact the five-year budget forecast.
• Present data-driven recommendations to the school board with confidence.

The outcome? A contract agreement reached in half the time, with a pay structure that both met union demands and kept the district financially stable. Just as importantly, the district built goodwill with teachers by demonstrating transparency throughout the process.

Why TrueComp Is Different

Many workforce tools exist, but most are built for the private sector and fail to account for the unique realities of public education. TrueComp stands apart because it is:

• Purpose-Built for Government and Education: Designed specifically for the complexities of public-sector compensation, including step systems, union agreements, and compliance.
• Transparent and Reliable: Provides data that both boards and unions can trust, reducing conflict and confusion.
• User-Friendly: Built to be intuitive for HR and Finance teams without requiring IT-heavy implementation.
• Future-Focused: Lays the groundwork for AI-driven insights, helping districts anticipate challenges before they arise.

Building Stronger Schools Through Smarter Compensation

At the end of the day, a district’s greatest resource is its people—the teachers who inspire students, the bus drivers who ensure safe transportation, the aides who support learning, and the staff who keep schools running smoothly. Ensuring that these individuals are compensated fairly, paid correctly, and supported through data-driven decision-making isn’t just an administrative task. It’s central to building stronger schools and better outcomes for students.

With TrueComp, school districts can:

• Protect their budgets by eliminating errors and optimizing workforce spending.
• Prevent turnover by staying competitive and addressing pay gaps.
• Negotiate with confidence by bringing clarity and transparency to the bargaining table.

In a world where every dollar and every staff member counts, TrueComp provides the clarity, efficiency, and trust that school leaders need to navigate today’s challenges and prepare for tomorrow’s opportunities.

Because when districts make smarter compensation decisions, students, staff, and communities all benefit.