The everyday operations of a school district depend on a network of people, including students, teachers, staff, and administrators. However, the ancillary services staff are really responsible for making the school day run smoothly. They are often the first employees that students see in the morning, either on the school bus or in the cafeteria,…

This paper explores the fault-tree analysis approach to isolating failure modes within a system. Fault tree investigates potentially undesirable events and then looks for failures in sequence that would lead to their occurring. Relationships among these events are symbolized by AND or OR logic gates, AND used when single events must coexist to…

A survey of the use of eight decision-science techniques was conducted in a stratified random cample of school districts in the United States. The purpose of the study was to determine the relative use frequency of these techniques in 14 application areas and the potential uses of the techniques in the school districts. The amount of formal…

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is used in the U.S. Marine Corps task analysis program for occupational field studies. Scheduling sequential tasks, estimating time requirements, determining staffing needs, and locating checkpoints for control all can be accomplished using PERT. Examples of operational aspects of PERT, PERT…

The intent of this document is to describe approximately 30 management science and organizational behavioral techniques with practical applications in school business management. Each technique is described by the mechanics of using the technique, specific applications of the technique, and requirements and constraints in the use of the technique.…