School board tables Frontline time-and-attendance and recruiting contract after questions on data access, cost and oversight

The Prosser School District Board of Directors on Aug. 13 tabled consideration of a contract with Frontline Education for time-and-attendance, recruiting and hiring software after the vendor and district staff answered detailed questions about data ownership, termination rights, implementation and supervisor oversight. Board members moved to table the item for answers to outstanding legal and operational questions; the board set the item to return to its Aug. 27 meeting for final action. Board members and staff described the district’s current payroll and hiring process as heavily paper-dependent and prone to error. District presenters said Frontline’s time-and-attendance tool would shorten the district’s payroll processing window from a monthly, post-facto model toward weekly review and allow supervisors and finance staff to see overtime and budget impacts earlier in the payroll cycle. District staff noted the product integrates absence management and recruiting and would replace manual printing and scanning of applicant files. “We are dying on the vine, and we don’t have enough help to do everything we’re doing, so we have to be more efficient,” a district presenter said, describing the staffing burden. Frontline representatives answered technical and contract questions in the public meeting. A Frontline presenter described IP blocking and geolocation options for the mobile clock-in app, saying the company’s mobile app “requires that if you are clocking in on the mobile app, you are required to be on the district Wi‑Fi,” and that the company can set exceptions for employees who travel on field trips and cannot use district Wi‑Fi. A company representative also confirmed the district “owns the data, so you’re able to get that back” if the contract is terminated, and said Frontline would work with its legal team to add language the district requested about retrieval timelines. Board members and staff pressed for operational details: how and when supervisors must review and approve timesheets; whether alerts can be sent before an employee reaches overtime; what devices employees would use to clock in; and whether geofencing or IP controls are the best defense against clocking from off-site. District staff described real-world problems the system is intended to solve: complex pay codes for bus drivers who also work in food service and athletics, per-minute pay calculations, and the need to reconcile substitute and absence records with timesheets. Several board members asked about contract termination and “out” clauses in Frontline’s master services agreement. Frontline staff pointed the board to section 8 of the MSA (term and termination) and agreed to work with the district’s legal team on specific language, including a requested provision to return district data within a short, negotiated timeframe. The board also discussed price estimates and implementation timeline. During the meeting one board member referenced a rough cost range for the time-and-attendance module “is 10,000, $11,000 by itself,” and staff said implementation would take several months. The district said it is also weighing whether to use Skyward’s built-in recruiting module, or another paid product, because records-retention obligations affect what solutions are feasible. Because multiple operational and legal clarifications remained outstanding, a board member moved to table the item and the board voted to table the Frontline order form to the Aug. 27 meeting. The district asked Frontline to provide written answers to questions on termination notice, data return timelines, and the specific configuration options (IP blocking, geolocation exceptions, supervisor alerts) before the next meeting. District staff said the vendor demonstration was useful and that they intend to return documented answers and a recommended implementation plan when the item is brought back.