Client Success Stories

Staff Allocator has become a crucial part of our District planning. The program has saved us time and money in the school staffing process, while at the same time allowing us to quickly identify potential class size or composition problems and review suggested solutions. In addition to the strength and flexibility the program offers, the staff support from Baragar Systems is prompt, friendly, and efficient.

A package of essential operational tools is how our District views the suite of Baragar applications. We use GeoSchool to do in-catchment/out-of-catchment enrolment analyses; to conduct impact analyses on boundary placement; and to create study areas for evaluating such things as program location. While providing important information regarding our enrolment projections, Demographic Dynamics is much more than a simple projection tool. We use it for various historical analyses and we rely heavily on the reports and graphs it provides. It also serves as our single, most accurate source for birth and population data. ThemeMap has proven invaluable in providing us with socio-economic and risk indicator data that we cannot get from any other source. And now, with ThemeMap, we can import our own external data for comparative purposes. Staff Allocator continues to be the most reliable tool we can find with which to conduct staffing and class size analyses. Collectively these tools have become mission critical applications within our district. Not only have they saved us time and resulted in cost efficiencies, but they continue to provide the reliable data we need to make sound decisions.

I had a wonderful time in BC and loved, loved, loved the training!

We use GeoSchool frequently for School Accommodation Reviews. Due to our significantly declining enrolment, we use the Out of Catchment Module to track attendance from in and out of catchments, to give us the ability to redraw the boundaries, and show the impact of consolidating schools.

Staff Allocator has saved us hours of trying to calculate class size averages. The school secretaries provide the latest enrolments online and it takes seconds to punch a button in Staff Allocator to monitor the classes. If they are over the class size average then we address it. We value this software or it would be chopped during our current budget deficit.

Many thanks to you and all of your gang for looking after our program needs. Baragar has one of a kind customer service, nothing is too great and everything is done with a smile.

It has been an absolute blast working with you all and learning the Baragar System. I cannot say enough good stuff about your staff. They are the most professional and dedicated group I have had the joy of working with.

We have found that the Baragar software has improved our ability to predict our enrolment more accurately and help us explain the data in a meaningful and easily understood fashion to our community.

I find the mapping, projection and staffing tools to be one of the most valuable resources we have for forecasting, creating cost projections and solidifying staffing needs across our schools.  Last year we worked with community groups to change boundaries and implement a full day kindergarten program.  The mapping tools were crucial resources that allowed us to show our community in real time the impact of potential changes.  Knowing that we have started a new year with the boundary changes and full day kindergarten in place we can see that the projections and changes were extremely accurate which is crucial for space planning and facility needs.

We showed parents why we need to close a school, using declining enrolment projections from Demographic Dynamics and showed them what would happen in 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years. It contributed significantly to 1) make the decision to close the school and 2) to convince parents that a school had to be closed.

We implemented major boundary changes to our school catchments and GeoSchool and Demographic Dynamics were indispensable in determining how many children would be affected, and based on the projected enrolment, identified the schools that would be over capacity. We made several presentations to parents using the GeoSchool maps and studies and demonstrated the impact to them. The outcome of the presentations was very positive because, although the parents were not happy, they could see that something had to be done based on the data we presented. We moved a significant number of pupils – the equivalent of 2 quarter sections (or ½ sq mile of significant population).

I want to thank the Baragar group for all your assistance over the years. A special thank you goes to you, Carson and Chuck – I’ve really enjoyed working with you, using your programs and appreciate the tremendous support that you’ve provided.

We used GeoSchool to close a school and distribute the affected pupils to 3 other schools by changing the boundaries. We decided to close a school built in 1944 because renovation costs were high, the surrounding area had become commercial and unsafe for the children, and the 3 surrounding schools were newer and not near capacity. GeoSchool helped us determine which pupils were closer to each of the schools and what grades they would be enrolled in and what programs they required, so that we could design the boundaries appropriately. The other 3 schools became more efficient as a result of the increased enrolments.

We love your stuff. It’s amazing! There are so many things we need to do and your software allows us to do them. It’s so useful. Staff Allocator is brilliant, it’s huge! Saving one or two staff members can save $150,000 to $20,000. We’ve been with you a long time and we still use it all the time. It’s worth the money.

School Locator saves our staff time and provides a good advertisement that our district has information that is easy to find.

Demographic Dynamics plays a key role in helping our District develop accurate projection enrollments. In addition to easy to use software, the staff at Baragar are always available to share their insight and have proven to be an invaluable resource!

We used ThemeMap to create a socio-economic profile of the schools in our district, giving weights to certain criteria, in order to identify those schools most in need. We identify the schools because the Ministry of Children and Families required districts to support the allocation of Community Links funds to those students most in need. Using data from multiple reliable sources (census data, CRA data, district data) allowed us to support our case for funding for those students most in need so that we could provide additional services to them.

Baragar went one step further after I explained how I used ThemeMap for this purpose and actually built in the capacity to do this report (called Super Indicators) into new versions of the software so that other users could also do this report.

Our district has been a client of Baragar since 1994 and we continue to utilize their suite of products in all areas of the organization (from staffing, capital planning, boundary changes and enrolment forecasting). Baragar staff are always there to answer any questions that we might have. They provide training and support to new & old users alike. I would highly recommend Baragar to anyone responsible for the efficient planning for the operational and capital needs of your district.

The Business Development Department uses the stats from ThemeMap for funding requests to both the government and to the business community. We were able to provide the Socio-Economic picture of a neighbourhood, using ThemeMap, to a business that donated computers. They wanted to provide the income levels, education levels and ESL numbers in their press release to outline the need.

I have known the principals of Baragar Systems since 1995 and have had the pleasure of meeting many of their clients. The company creates amazing planning software that empowers school district administrators, allowing them to save time, effort and money while increasing credibility. Their customer service is second to none and they conduct their business with integrity and commitment to excellence. I recommend Baragar Systems without any reservations.

We use the low socioeconomic indicators from the 2006 Census data in ThemeMap to determine which schools would get additional funding from our “Socioeconomic Support Fund”. We made the decision to shift funding from one school to another because of changes from the 2001 to the 2006 Census data.

Assistant Superintendents love going into the online folder where I save the District Program Maps from GeoSchool that show where the programs are and where the pupils live that attend the programs. We have been using the Out of Catchment module in GeoSchool for 5 years to determine if we have the programs offered in the right schools or if we need to move it to a school that is closer to where the pupils who attend it live.

ThemeMap data helps our Food Services Department determine which schools will be part of their free lunch program. The Socio-Economic indicators give us the make-up of the student population for each of our schools and helps us identify the schools that have pupils in need. Having this data helps us make an unbiased decision to add or remove a school from the program.

Staff Allocator integrates multiple functions into one simple-to-use tool replacing manual processes and the use of disparate pieces of software. We have realized considerable cost and time saving efficiencies through use of the tool, which is why Staff Allocator has quickly become one of our District’s essential administrative applications.

I am a big fan of the Baragar Software! Demographic Dynamics made producing divisional enrolment projects a breeze, the software is very intuitive and with the proper training you can easily add local knowledge. The knowledge base of the Baragar Team is amazing, and the group is always very willing to help and provide guidance when needed. School Locator has been a huge time saver; the website link has significantly reduced the number of calls from home owners and real estate agents.

GeoSchool has been instrumental in helping our District make boundary changes.  We were able to develop several different concepts based on real-time student data.  Our Community Boundary Committee really appreciated how easy it was to “visualize” these changes as they worked to refine their models.

Staff Allocator enables us to react very quickly in a rapidly changing environment and has really helped us meet our primary class size initiative targets. The first year we used Staff Allocator the Ministry included a provision to the Primary Class Size Initiative that allowed 10% of all classes to exceed the class size cap. We were scrambling to come up with scenarios. When we originally ran the numbers we had 280 classes that were over the cap and had to get the number down to 115. Staff Allocator helped us do it by highlighting where we would get the most Bang for the Buck.

I want to let you know that I was recently using GeoSchool for looking at school closure, consolidations, etc., and I just wanted to let you know how easy I found it to use to get to the goal that I wanted to, and I thought I should pass that on.

So, personally I am very happy to have had the chance to work with you all here. I remember reading a report years ago as it related to work at the city and thinking “why are they using a demographer from BC????” … I feel silly now for thinking that after learning so much of what you all do. The work you do, the intelligence you provide, and the way you educate our team is amazing.

Staff Allocator is an invaluable resource when making classroom staffing decisions. It saves the District both time and money, and allows us to use our classroom staffing resources in the most efficient manner. In addition, the support for Staff Allocator from Baragar Systems is excellent.

I’ve been using Baragar Systems software for over 10 years now, and can no longer imagine doing the planning aspect of my job without it. Both GeoSchool and Demographic Dynamics have been instrumental in providing the necessary data related to boundary changes, school closures and our Long Range Facilities Plan, while the housing module in Demographic Dynamics has been particularly useful for its ability to estimate enrolment yields from new housing developments. Also, with the uncertainty caused by imminent changes to class size and composition requirements, Staff Allocator has allowed us to react quickly and plan for the impact on our staffing and related space needs.