Beyond Spreadsheets: Fixing Student Support with August Schools

Your school has a counselor, a nurse, a dean, a learning specialist, and a dozen advisors — but are they actually working with the same picture of each student?

For most independent schools, the honest answer is no. Student support data lives in spiral notebooks, unsecured Google Docs, disconnected email threads, and the memory of whoever happened to be in the room. That's not a technology problem. It's a student care problem.

In this episode, Bridget Johnson sits down with Pete Russell, co-founder of August Schools, and Victoria Bush, product manager at August Schools, to explore what a truly connected student support system looks like — and what it costs schools when they don't have one. From continuity of care to behavior management, from documentation and legal risk to the potential of AI-informed workflows, this conversation gives school leaders a framework for thinking about student support infrastructure in a new way.

What you'll hear isn't a product pitch. It's a practitioner-level conversation about why students are slipping through the cracks, what data schools are sitting on but not using, and why the nurse's office is often the first place student distress shows up — and the last place that information travels.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Why disconnected support systems create gaps in student care — and how schools can start closing them

• How continuity of care breaks down at school transitions, and what that costs students and institutions

• What role-based data access looks like in practice — protecting privacy while giving leaders the context they need

• Why proper documentation isn't just good practice; it's a school's best legal protection

• How one school's data revealed an 80/20 gender split in counseling visits — and what they did about it

• What attendance patterns actually signal about student belonging and disengagement

• How AI-informed student support tools may reshape school workflows in the next five years

Featured Guests:

Pete Russell is co-founder of August Schools, a platform built for student health, wellbeing, and support in K–12 independent schools. He holds an MBA from Yale and spent over a decade in strategy and product development before founding August in 2021 in response to the collapse of school support systems during the pandemic.

Victoria Bush is a Product Manager at August Schools who works directly with school counselors, nurses, learning specialists, and deans to build tools that reflect how schools actually support students. She holds an MBA from Yale School of Management and brings a background in product marketing and health tech.

Recommended Resources:

August Schools: https://augustschools.com

Visit the Deans' Roundtable: https://deansroundtable.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/deans-roundtable

Email: [email protected]

The Table Podcast Series: Where student life professionals and K–12 educational leaders connect, learn, share, and grow together.