SY26-27 ERS Staffing Analysis & Benchmarking for Districts

Districts’ ability to meet students’ varied and growing academic and wellness needs depends on how effectively they deploy their resources: people, time, and money. Strategic staffing decisions are a key lever for protecting the investments that matter most for students—even as resources become more constrained.

ERS’ Staffing Analysis & Benchmarking process gives district leaders a clear, nationally benchmarked picture of how they staff their central office and schools today—and what it would take to shift resources to support their highest priorities. Over the course of Fall 2026, ERS experts will build a comparative analysis of your district’s staffing patterns relative to eight similar peer districts and sit with your team to interpret what the data means for your next budget cycle. This analysis is designed to be most impactful for districts serving 10,000 or more students.

The Process

Step 1

Share your data (about 1 week of district effort).

You’ll provide two files: your SY26-27 budgeted position file (position title, department, FTE) and a school information file (enrollment, enrollment by student characteristics, and school program, level, and type). ERS will handle the cleaning, mapping, and categorization.

Step 2

Data conversations (typically just 1 call, 30 minutes).

We’ll have a short working call (or two) with your finance and HR data owners so ERS can confirm how positions and programs are coded in your system. These aren’t interviews or strategy sessions—we’re just checking in to make sure our analysis reflects how your district actually works!

Step 3

Analysis and benchmarking.

ERS will compare your budgeted staffing levels to eight peer districts matched on size, student needs, school size, and year of analysis. The analysis will focus on two big questions: whether your central office is resourced efficiently and effectively and whether your schools are organized to be high-quality and financially sustainable.

Step 4

Share-out and meaning making (60 minutes; up to two sessions).

ERS will facilitate 1-2 discussions of the findings with the audience you choose (often finance leaders prefer to review the data first before scheduling a follow-up with the full cabinet or board). The goal is to leave each session aligned on which staffing insights warrant action in the upcoming budget cycle.

Benefits for Participating Districts

District leaders will walk away with…

  • A comparative staffing analysis. You’ll receive your SY26-27 budgeted staffing levels, broken out for central office and for schools, benchmarked against eight similar peer districts. The data allows leadership to start from one shared understanding of current staffing patterns.
  • Context from real district peers. We select comparison districts for the closest possible match on size, student needs, school size, and year of analysis. If you want specific local comparison districts included, that can be accommodated at a reduced incremental cost.
  • Named reallocation opportunities. We’ll outline specific areas where people, time, and money could be shifted toward the strategies most likely to address student needs.
  • Facilitated interpretation from ERS experts. You’ll join us for one or two 60-minute share-outs led by ERS, plus an individual close-out session to further develop your district’s next steps and priorities.
  • A board- and cabinet-ready view. Your findings are already framed to integrate into existing SY27-28 budget conversations, with all district data aggregated and anonymized for public sharing as needed.
  • Progress toward financial sustainability. You’ll be on a clearer path to preserving the investments that matter most for students, even while navigating flat or declining funding, compensation pressure, and enrollment decline.

FAQs: Cost, Logistics, and More

The analysis is most impactful for districts serving 10,000 or more students. Finance leaders are our primary collaborators, but reports and insights are built for the full leadership team. Many districts bring cabinet or board members into report share-outs.

Participating districts should expect to spend about one week pulling two data files. After that, there will be one to two short data conversations with ERS, and one to two 60-minute analysis share-outs.

Districts providing data by 10/1 receive current-year comparisons in December. If you require an accelerated timeline for your report share-out (within 4-6 weeks of data receipt), please let us know ASAP as we have limited slots to accommodate these requests. Note that districts on the accelerated timeline will be benchmarked against comparison data from the prior school year.

ERS’ Staffing Analysis and Benchmarking process is a $10,000 fixed-fee cost. Because this falls below most procurement thresholds and involves no personally identifiable or student-level data, most districts proceed with a purchase order alone. ERS can also support a formal contract, data sharing agreement, or board approval if required.

All district data is uploaded securely to ERS and shared only at the aggregated, anonymized level with peer districts.

HOW DO I SIGN UP?

Spots are limited and reserved first come, first served through October 15, 2026. To express interest or commitment, please fill out this form and a member of the ERS team will follow up.