Across the country, school districts are grappling with a near-impossible equation: shrinking budgets, expiring ESSER funds, and declining enrollment, paired with growing numbers of students with disabilities and multilingual learners. Edgewood Independent School District (ISD) was no exception.

Rather than defaulting to across-the-board cuts, Edgewood leaders made a bold choice: leverage the master schedule, and the power of optimization technology, as a strategic lever for change.

Through a partnership with Timely Schools, Edgewood ISD transformed secondary scheduling into a driver of both efficiency and innovation. The results were remarkable:

• 15 vacant teaching positions optimized through strategic reallocation
• $1.05 million in projected cost savings, captured without layoffs
• 18:1 return on investment for every dollar spent on Timely’s solution
• Instructional improvements that ensured inclusive services and on-time student schedules

Perhaps most importantly, as Deputy Superintendent Dr. Kimberly Madkins noted, “…ultimately, instruction was the priority and for the first time ever, every kid got their schedule before the end of the school year!”

This case study demonstrates how modern scheduling technology, combined with expert guidance, can unlock significant budget savings while improving educational outcomes and operational efficiency.

As ESSER funding expired, Edgewood ISD found itself in a position familiar to many districts across the country. The district had strategically used ESSER funds to close achievement gaps through more intensive interventions and smaller class sizes, but needed to transition to a more sustainable staffing model. “We knew we were over-staffed based on how we were supporting kids after ESSER funds expired and we needed to figure out how to sustain or improve our support to students with a more efficient approach to staffing,” explained Dr. Kimberly Madkins, Deputy Superintendent of School Leadership. 

The district also confronted long-standing scheduling challenges that compounded the staffing strain:

• Special Education and Emergent Bilingual (EB) Programming Challenges
  • The district specifically needed efficiencies with special education and emergent bilingual scheduling, which had traditionally been “scheduled separately in a very incoherent manner.” 
  • This fragmented approach made it difficult to implement inclusive, co-teaching practices with fidelity and ensure students received appropriate services.
• Limited Visibility and Coordination
  • Principals struggling to make sense of complex scheduling requirements
  • Lack of clear data to support strategic staffing decisions
  • Challenges with staff sharing across schools and programs
• Transition Support Needs
  • The district recognized that students in transition years (6th and 9th grade) needed additional support, but existing scheduling constraints made it difficult to create strategic cohorts and targeted interventions.

Unless Edgewood found a new approach, both students and staff would bear the brunt of cuts.

Edgewood ISD leaders realized that the master schedule, which governs 70–85% of a district’s budget, was their most powerful untapped resource. What had once been treated as a logistical exercise became the strategic centerpiece of their recovery.

Partnering with Timely Schools, Edgewood deployed AI-optimized scheduling to uncover efficiencies invisible to even the most experienced schedulers. The technology evaluated thousands of possible scenarios, balancing staffing, student needs, and instructional priorities.

Working collaboratively with Timely, Edgewood ISD established four key strategic objectives:

1. Ensure consistent access to core and elective courses across all district schools
2. Automate scheduling for greater efficiency, reducing administrative burden and time investment
3. Reduce conflicts to maximize instructional time and improve student schedule satisfaction
4. Use real-time data to inform decisions about staffing, course offerings, and resource allocation

Timely’s team of scheduling experts provided hands-on guidance throughout the process. They worked side-by-side with district leaders and principals, translating complex data into clear, actionable insights. This combination of cutting-edge technology and expert partnership ensured that leaders not only saw where efficiencies existed but also had the confidence and support to act on them.

The partnership between Edgewood ISD and Timely Schools delivered exciting results, driving both financial savings and instructional improvements.

Financial Impact

• 15 vacant teaching positions optimized through strategic reallocation
• $1.05 million in projected cost savings identified and captured
• 18:1 return on investment for every dollar spent on Timely’s solution

Instructional Improvements

• Enhanced Special Education and EB Programming: Timely enabled Edgewood to implement co-teaching models with fidelity, align services across schools, and ensure consistent access to supports.
• Improved Student Experience: For the first time in district history, every student received their schedule before the end of the school year.
• Strategic Capacity Building: Weekly collaboration facilitated by Timely built principal capacity to manage complex scheduling and staffing decisions with confidence.
• Enhanced Creativity and Flexibility: The platform gave principals greater visibility into their schedules, enabling more effective staff sharing between schools, the creation of student cohorts in transition years, and better identification of under-enrolled courses for resource optimization.

Edgewood ISD’s experience demonstrates what’s possible when districts move from technical scheduling to strategic scheduling. By combining strategic leadership with AI-optimized solutions, the district avoided layoffs, saved over $1 million, and reinvested in student learning.

In an era of shrinking budgets and rising student needs, Edgewood shows that the master schedule is more than an administrative tool, it is a blueprint for both financial sustainability and student success.

As Dr. Madkins put it: “Instruction was the priority.” And with strategic scheduling, Edgewood proved that districts don’t have to choose between efficiency and student outcomes, they can achieve both.