NEW! Budget Hold'em for Schools

Hold’em is an ERS tool that’s helped more than 10,000 education leaders better understand the kind of trade-offs that are possible to improve districts and schools while staying within budget constraints. We’ve facilitated live sessions all over the country with audiences including district leadership teams, union leaders, foundation leaders, and more. We’ve sold decks of cards with facilitator guides for districts to do it themselves. And our online tool has had thousands of users. Up until now, the online tool has been focused exclusively on district-level activity. Today we are releasing a version for school-level planning.

The new Budget Hold’em for Schools allows school leaders to be creative, suspend disbelief, and create a winning hand of school design strategies. You can play Budget Hold’em on your own or with your team as a visioning exercise that integrates the budget process with school planning.

The new online tool is built from our customized versions of Budget Hold’em with our partner districts working on strategic school design. If you don't know how to start, this story about Palm Beach County School District (SDPBC) gives a taste of how Hold’em can help district and school leaders think more creatively about their planning.