Human Resources
Rapid City Schools Streamlines Contract Renewals with Automation
Rapid City Area Schools has adopted a new tool to automate contract renewals for
teachers and other staff members.
The district, with more than 24 campuses, about 14,000 students and more than 1,000 teachers and contracted staff, was using a manual
process that had issues with management, accuracy and tracking. Each May, the district's HR department ran a report from its business suite
for each employee based on their type of employment and compensation to determine appropriate contracts for each individual. Those contracts
were then printed and shipped to each school via internal mail to each school, where staff had to retrieve their contract from the main
office, review, sign and return it to the principal to be processed.
"Our manual process could take more than two weeks to complete and affected our HR staff productivity," said Valerie Brablec, director of
human resources at Rapid City Area Schools, in a prepared statement. "Tracking missing and completed contracts was a tedious process. We would
have to manually call or email employees one at a time to follow-up."
The district selected Contract Automation from
Advanced Processing & Imaging (API), a company that was already providing a tool to
manage electronic student records.
Using the new tool, "Rapid City will be able to perform this annual process more quickly, with less staff involvement and at a lower cost,"
according to a news release. "Once the contracts report is run utilizing API's Query to Workflow Automation feature, it will feed directly into
API's Contract Automation system and electronically distribute all contracts via email to teachers and staff. Employees will then be able to
review the contracts online and sign them electronically, eliminating the time and cost of printing and mailing. Completed contracts are
returned to HR electronically making the process easier and faster for employees as well. All executed electronic contracts will be stored in
API's OptiView document management system for archiving and data protection purposes."
"We're so excited to partner with API on this important project," said Shane Daniel, director of information technology at the district, in
a prepared statement. "We'll be able to shorten the process, more easily track all 1000+ contracts and save money."
About the Author
Joshua Bolkan is contributing editor for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe. He can be reached at jbolkan@gmail.com.