- Organization
- A public school in the New York City Department of Education, located in Staten Island
- Scale
- More than 300 staff members and over 3,000 students
- Industry
- Education
- Processes automated
- Database updates, substitute-teacher planning, student schedule communications, and related school operations workflows
- Systems involved
- Zenphi, Google Sheets, Google Drive, email, attendance and scheduling data
- Results
- 99% less time required for database updates, up to 4 hours saved per day, compliance increased from 46% to 89%, and more accurate data feeding daily planning workflows
The school did not automate one isolated task. It built a set of workflows around the repetitive operational work that was consuming staff time every day. Fresh data can now be dropped into Google Drive and propagated through the systems that depend on it, while student schedules and communications can be generated automatically from current information.
A large public school inside the NYCDOE
Located in Staten Island, the school is part of the New York City Department of Education, the largest school district in the United States. It employs more than 300 staff members and serves over 3,000 students.
At that scale, even routine administrative processes become high-volume operations. Student schedules, teacher assignments, attendance data, database updates, communications, and compliance records all need to stay aligned — often while information is changing from one day to the next.
Manual updates created a chain reaction across school operations
Many of the school’s administrative and record-keeping processes were handled manually. The issue was not just the time spent updating individual spreadsheets. Those spreadsheets fed other processes, so delays or errors in one place could affect scheduling, substitute-teacher assignments, communications, and compliance elsewhere.
Updating information across multiple spreadsheets and folders could take up to four hours, leaving the planning team with less time for the rest of the school day.
Substitute-teacher schedules had to be organized and reorganized as information changed, creating last-minute work for the planning team.
When thousands of students needed individual schedule information on short notice, manual emailing was not a practical option.
One automation platform, multiple school-wide workflows
Robert Mayer, Program Chair, led the school’s automation work with Zenphi. He used the same drag-and-drop workflow approach across scheduling, communications, and database maintenance as new operational problems emerged.
1. Automated database updates
The school redesigned a database-maintenance process that previously required work across multiple spreadsheets and folders. Now the process starts with a much simpler action: a fresh file is downloaded and dropped into a designated Google Drive folder.
From there, the workflow updates the information used by downstream processes. Work that could previously consume up to four hours is completed in only a couple of minutes.
2. Daily substitute-teacher planning
The updated database feeds directly into another workflow that generates substitute-teacher schedules at the beginning of each school day. Because the underlying data is maintained daily rather than weekly, the planning team works from more current information and spends less time scrambling to reorganize classes around outdated records.
3. Personalized student schedule communications
When the school needed to communicate thousands of student schedules with only a few days’ notice, Robert built and published a workflow in about 10 minutes. The workflow uses a single spreadsheet and Google Drive folder as its source and sends each student an individual message containing the schedule, bell times, teacher, and room to report to.
Instead of manually creating and sending thousands of emails, the school can trigger one workflow and distribute the information at scale.
Hours of daily administration reduced to minutes
| Process | Before Zenphi | After Zenphi |
|---|---|---|
| Database updates | Up to 4 hours across multiple spreadsheets and folders | A couple of minutes after a fresh file is placed in Google Drive |
| Update frequency | Data could be updated weekly because of the manual workload | Data can be maintained daily |
| Compliance | 46% | 89% — approximately a 93% relative increase |
| Student schedule communications | Thousands of individualized communications would require substantial manual effort | Workflow built and published in about 10 minutes, then emails are generated automatically |
| Substitute-teacher planning | Hours of scheduling and rework based on changing data | Daily schedules generated from more current information |
Better data improved more than one process
The database workflow illustrates the compounding effect of automation. Faster updates meant the information could be refreshed daily instead of weekly. That more accurate data then fed the school’s scheduling workflows, reducing disruption and last-minute rework for the planning team.
The case study reports a compliance improvement from 46% to 89%. Expressed as a relative change, that is approximately a 93% increase in compliance.
“Zenphi allowed us to achieve a significant efficiency boost with hours saved across daily planning, substitution teachers scheduling, reporting & student communication processes.”
Automation became a way to solve new operational problems quickly
The school’s automation work developed into a broader approach to school operations. The same platform was used to address database maintenance, substitute planning, and student communications without requiring a separate point solution for each problem.
See how the workflows were built
This case study is based on an interview with Robert Mayer about the school’s Zenphi projects and workflow setup. The full 30-minute session goes deeper into how the school approached automation and expanded from one workflow into multiple operational processes.
Watch the 30-minute interview
Hear the story directly from the educator who built the workflows and see how automation was applied inside a large public school.
Watch the interviewWhy this pattern matters for education operations
Schools often run critical processes through spreadsheets because the underlying logic is specific to the institution and changes frequently. The problem appears when those spreadsheets require people to repeatedly copy, reconcile, update, and redistribute the same information.
This case shows a different model: keep the familiar Google Workspace inputs, but automate what happens between them. A file arriving in Drive can trigger updates, refreshed data can feed schedules, and spreadsheet records can generate personalized communications without requiring staff to manually move the information at every step.
Questions about this case study
What did the school automate with Zenphi?
The case covers several workflows: database updates, daily substitute-teacher scheduling, personalized student schedule communications, and related school operations processes.
How much time did automated database updates save?
The previous process could take up to four hours across multiple spreadsheets and folders. With the automated workflow, a fresh file is placed in a designated Google Drive folder and the updates are completed in a couple of minutes. The original case summarizes this as a 99% reduction in the time required for database updates.
How did automation affect compliance?
The case study reports that compliance increased from 46% to 89%. That is a 43-percentage-point improvement, or approximately a 93% relative increase.
How did the student schedule workflow work?
The workflow uses student and schedule information from a spreadsheet and Google Drive folder. When triggered, it sends individualized emails containing each student’s schedule, bell times, teacher, and room to report to. Robert Mayer built and published the workflow in about 10 minutes.
Still maintaining critical school processes by hand?
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