School Operations Collective: share playbooks, templates, and vendor‑neutral integration recipes

Calling school operations leaders, IT directors, and consultants: what proven practices, templates, implementation stories, and vendor‑neutral tool combinations have you used to streamline day‑to‑day school operations (scheduling, attendance, billing, HR, communications, compliance, facilities, data integrations)?

Please share first‑hand, searchable contributions using this short template so others can reuse what worked (and avoid what didn't):
- Context: K‑12 or higher ed; public/private; district size/enrollment; existing tech stack (SIS, LMS, ERP, identity, rostering).
- Problem: one concise problem you solved (e.g., manual daily attendance entry across 12 schools; delayed vendor invoices; complex FERPA reporting).
- Steps taken: chronological actions, integrations, scripts/configs, and teams/roles involved.
- Tools & combos (vendor‑neutral): which components you used (SIS + RPA + middleware + identity), why, and any vendor alternatives you evaluated.
- Artifacts: attach or link playbooks, CSV templates, sample SQL, API scripts, Zapier/Make/Integromat recipes, config snippets, or orchestration manifests.
- Outcomes & metrics: time/cost saved, staff FTE impact, error rate reduction, compliance time, timeline to value.
- Suitability: best for K‑12/higher ed/both; prerequisites and scale limits.
- Privacy & compliance notes: data lifecycle, consent, encryption, logging, and any district/institution policies needed.

What to prioritize in your post: plug‑and‑play configs or scripts, low‑cost automation patterns, vendor‑neutral comparisons, and explicit reusability notes (what to change for different sizes or regs). Short case studies (problem → steps → outcome → artifact links) are the most helpful.

Start by pasting your submission using the template above and tag it K‑12 or HigherEd. If you have downloadable artifacts, include a link or Git repo. Looking for real examples, not hypotheticals—please indicate your role (operator, vendor, consultant) and whether you can be contacted for follow‑up.