School district negotiations with teachers unions can be challenging. School business officials not only have multiple stakeholders to work with and keep informed — including the school board, administration and staff, and the surrounding community — they are also tasked keeping the district solvent in the long term. Without a solid picture of the districts’ financial status both now and projected into the future, it’s hard to know how dollars should be allocated in union negotiations.

In this conversation with Kim Knight, Executive Director of Business Services at Dieringer School District in Lake Tapps, Washington details the role that analytics play in providing that financial picture, and how she and her team prepare to come to the collective bargaining table. She describes:

• The questions they ask and the data they look at to answer them
• How they prepare and present data to teachers unions, the school board, and the community, to tell the story of where the district’s finances are today, and where they expect them to be in the future
• How clear, solid data and analytics helps to build trust between parties during collective bargaining
• How the use of analytics ultimately helps their business office decide how to put funds to the best use to serve students