Saturday School & Attendance Recovery
Santa Ana USD — Ed Services
Santa Ana USD — Ed Services
A comprehensive analysis of Santa Ana USD's Saturday School program — costs, operations, and opportunities. Prepared by Attendly for Michele DeJournett and the Ed Services team.
Interactive cost analysis — MOU rates, salary schedule, break-even by site, flat rate comparison.
Interactive 📅Sep–Apr calendar with triple-time warnings, semester splits, and auto-fill scheduling.
Interactive ⚙️The full Saturday School workflow — every stakeholder, every handoff, every pain point mapped.
Analysis 💼MOU negotiation brief, banking visualization, and the financial argument for change.
Analysis 📥Negotiation brief, data exports, and board-ready materials for offline use.
DownloadsInteractive cost analysis showing MOU rate structures, salary schedule impact, break-even thresholds, and flat rate comparison scenarios.
Plan your Saturday School schedule with automatic triple-time detection, semester splits, and holiday-adjacent warnings.
The complete Saturday School workflow — from data pull to CALPADS submission — with every stakeholder touchpoint and pain point mapped.
The 10-step process from data pull to funding recovery — every stakeholder, every handoff, every pain point.
Orlando manually pulls absence data from Aeries SIS, identifies students eligible for attendance recovery based on absence thresholds, and builds rosters per site.
Orlando downloads data from one system and uploads to ParentSquare to send RSVP invitations. Messages go out from Orlando's name — a person parents don't know.
Responses trickle in. Orlando must compile headcounts and deliver to Josefina's Nutrition Services team by Tuesday — she needs counts to order and prep food for Saturday.
Facilities needs room assignments by Wednesday to arrange AC, custodial coverage, and setup for Saturday. Orlando provides the list of which sites are running and which rooms are needed.
Kids arrive and check in. The site lead assigns students to teachers by grade level on the spot based on who actually shows up — not who RSVP'd.
If not enough kids show up, teachers may be sent home. This decision is made at the site level with no central visibility. Creates union fairness issues — who stays, who goes?
4 hours of instructional time. Teachers paid at MOU instructional rate (0.000833 × salary placement). Leads at flat rate (~$61.81/hr). 240 minutes = 1 recovered absence day.
Lead collects paper attendance forms with wet signatures. Forms must match IT's exact upload spec format for Aeries SIS mass upload. Formatting errors mean rejection and rework.
IT mass uploads attendance data to Aeries SIS, changing absence codes to "R" (recovered). The recovery is applied to the student's first chronological absence — not the Saturday date.
Recovered days are submitted via CALPADS for LCFF funding. Money comes back in the second apportionment season — months after the cost was incurred. At ~$92 per recovered day (1/180 of an ADA), each recovered absence has real revenue impact.
Orlando touches 7 of 10 steps. He pulls data, sends comms, compiles counts, submits room lists, and coordinates across Nutrition, Facilities, and IT. If he's out, the entire Saturday operation stalls.
Data moves between systems via download-upload, paper forms, and verbal coordination. Each handoff introduces delay, error risk, and format incompatibility.
Michele and district leadership can't see costs, attendance, or recovery status in real time. Everything is known after the fact — when it's too late to change course.
Wet signature attendance forms, manual Aeries SIS uploads, and format-sensitive batch files can be replaced with digital check-in and automatic SIS sync.
Site leads and APs asked "let us help." Giving sites their own communication, rosters, and real-time attendance data distributes the load Orlando currently carries alone.
With real-time data, per-site go/no-go decisions can be made before Saturday — not at the door when it's too late and teachers are already on the clock.
The same 10 steps, streamlined. What changes when Saturday School runs on Attendly.
Orlando manually pulls Aeries SIS data every cycle, builds rosters by hand
Automated eligibility flagging from SIS sync. Students auto-identified. Rosters generated per site.
Download from Attendly → upload to ParentSquare. Messages from Orlando's name.
Built-in communication with auto-reminders. Site leads send from their own names. Escalating message cadence.
Orlando compiles counts manually by Tuesday. Facilities gets room list by Wednesday. Separate emails.
Real-time RSVP dashboard. Auto-notifications to Nutrition and Facilities when thresholds are met. Live count updates.
Paper check-in. Wet signature forms. Format-specific for IT upload. Weeks of processing delay.
Digital check-in on any device. Attendance captured instantly. Auto-sync to SIS. Recovery codes applied same day.
No visibility into per-site costs or ROI. Decisions made after the fact. No go/no-go data.
Real-time cost dashboard. Per-site break-even indicators. Proactive go/no-go recommendations before each Saturday.
The full cost picture for one Saturday at one site — every person, every dollar. This is the breakdown nobody has put on paper.
× ~30 sites × 19 Saturdays = the real $3M
The costs Michele currently tracks
"I didn't even put nutrition services and facilities in there"
Support staff costs can add 40–60% on top of the instructional budget Michele currently tracks. Across 30+ sites and 19 Saturdays, untracked costs represent hundreds of thousands of dollars that have never been part of the Saturday School ROI conversation. This is why no prior ROI analysis has told the full story.
When a Saturday falls adjacent to a holiday (Friday before or Monday after), all instructional staff are paid at triple time. A single triple-time Saturday can cost 3× the normal rate — a senior teacher goes from ~$444 to ~$1,332 for 4 hours. Orlando accidentally scheduled one last year.
The 2-week countdown for every Saturday — who sends what, when, and to whom. Every deadline, every handoff, every message mapped on a single timeline.
Identify eligible students by absence threshold. Build per-site rosters manually.
Download from Attendly, upload to ParentSquare. Messages go out from Orlando's name — parents don't recognize him.
Responses trickle in slowly. Orlando manually tracks who has responded, sends reminders. No escalation cadence — same message, same channel, same unfamiliar name.
Josefina needs counts by end of day Tuesday to order food and schedule prep staff for Saturday. Counts are estimates based on incomplete RSVPs.
Facilities needs to know which sites are running and which rooms to open. AC, custodial coverage, and setup must be arranged by Wednesday.
Last-chance reminder goes to parents. Orlando sends finalized rosters to site leads so they know how many to expect. Teacher assignments still can't be made until day-of headcount is known.
Students check in. Lead assigns to teachers on the spot. 240 minutes of instruction = 1 recovered day. Attendance captured on wet signature paper forms.
Leads submit wet signature forms to IT. Ricky mass uploads to Aeries SIS, swaps absence codes to "R" (recovered). One formatting error and the batch is rejected.
This entire 2-week cycle repeats for every single Saturday. Orlando runs it alone, from his personal name, across every system — Aeries SIS, ParentSquare, email, paper. Any one missed deadline cascades downstream.
The same countdown, orchestrated by the platform. What's automated, what's streamlined, what stays manual.
SIS sync auto-identifies eligible students. Invitations sent from site lead's name — not Orlando. Parents see a familiar face.
Auto-reminder with adjusted language. "Just a reminder" becomes "Spots are filling up" — escalating urgency Michele asked for.
Different message to non-responders only. Parents who already confirmed don't get spammed.
Real-time RSVP count auto-shared with Josefina's team when Tuesday hits. No manual compilation. Live updates if late RSVPs come in.
Site and room data auto-generated from RSVPs. Facilities gets exactly what they need in their format — no email back-and-forth.
Confirmed families get time, location, and what to bring. Site leads get final roster with student details. Go/no-go recommendation per site.
No paper forms. Attendance captured on any device. Recovery codes applied to Aeries SIS same day — not weeks later.
Today, Orlando is the communication system. Every message, every data handoff, every deadline reminder flows through one person using 4+ disconnected tools. With Attendly, the platform becomes the system — site leads own their communication, data flows automatically to Nutrition and Facilities, and Orlando shifts from operator to overseer. The 2-week cycle that currently consumes him becomes something he monitors, not something he manually executes 19 times a year.
The financial argument for MOU renegotiation — negotiation brief, banking visualization, and board-ready analysis.
Attendance recovery works like a bank account — hours are deposited through summer programs and Saturday School, then drawn down as absences accumulate. Each recovered day is worth ~$92 in LCFF funding (1/180 of an ADA unit worth ~$16,525).
July bridge program for TK/K and summer AR sessions bank recovered hours before school starts. These banked days create a head start — recovered absences applied to the first chronological absence on record.
As the school year progresses (Sep 1 – Apr 1), absences accumulate across the district. Simultaneously, Saturday School sessions (10 first semester + 9 second semester) and weekday AR sessions recover days, growing the banked total.
After April 1 cutoff, recovered attendance data is finalized and submitted via CALPADS. Each recovered day converts an absence code to "R" (recovered) — applied to the student's first chronological absence, not the Saturday date.
Money comes back in the second apportionment season (October following year). At ~$92 per recovered day, the revenue impact is significant — but it arrives months after the cost was incurred.
SAUSD spends ~$3M on Saturday School between September and April, but LCFF apportionment doesn't arrive until October of the following year. This 6–12 month gap means the district is financing attendance recovery out of current-year budget with no ROI visibility until the money returns. A real-time banking dashboard would show Michele and the board exactly where they stand — how many days are banked, how much revenue is projected, and whether each Saturday is paying for itself.
The financial case for renegotiating the Saturday School instructional rate — data-driven, board-ready, and grounded in what Michele's team has lived through.
The current MOU ties Saturday School teacher pay to each teacher's salary placement on the district schedule. The formula:
This means a senior teacher (Step 20+, Column V) costs up to $111/hr — or $444 for one 4-hour Saturday. The teachers who volunteer most at elementary schools are these senior teachers. The kids who show up least are at these same elementary sites.
SAUSD ran 19 Saturdays last year and spent approximately $3M. No prior analysis has ever broken down what that bought on a per-site, per-student basis. Here's the picture:
Replace the salary-linked instructional formula with a flat hourly rate for Saturday School. This is common in neighboring districts and supported by California labor law.
Depends on seniority mix and site count. Savings increase as more senior teachers participate. See the ROI Model for interactive scenarios.
California Senate Bills 153 and 176 expanded the definition of instructional time that qualifies for ADA recovery, including Saturday School and attendance recovery programs. Key provisions:
For Michele's use in board presentations and MOU negotiation sessions (target: Sep/Oct 2026).
The previous consultant delivered participation counts in PDFs. No one has connected cost-per-student to revenue-per-student until now.
Senior teachers who cost $444/Saturday volunteer most at elementary — where only 10–12 kids show up. The per-student cost exceeds the revenue recovered.
Neighboring districts pay flat rates for Saturday. Teachers still volunteer. The savings can fund more Saturdays or more support for the students who need it most.
Orlando accidentally scheduled a triple-time Saturday last year. A senior teacher goes from $444 to $1,332 for 4 hours. The calendar planner prevents this.
LCFF apportionment doesn't arrive until October following year. The district needs visibility into whether each Saturday is paying for itself — in real time, not retroactively.
This analysis, combined with the interactive ROI Model and Calendar Planner in this microsite, gives Michele the data foundation to bring to MOU negotiations in September/October 2026. The full negotiation brief is available for download as a Word document on the Downloads page.
Board-ready documents and data exports for offline use and internal distribution.