1
of 5— Gather Your Data Before Opening the AI
What you'll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you'll have a repeatable system for turning raw school data and notes into polished board report sections in under an hour — instead of the 2–3 hours most administrators spend assembling them. Your board will receive better-formatted, more data-rich reports without the Sunday-evening scramble.
What you'll need
- A free Claude or ChatGPT account
- Your monthly data exports from PowerSchool, FACTS, or your SIS (CSV or copied table)
- Notes on key events, decisions, and updates from the past month
- Your board report template (if you have one) or a description of what your board expects
- Time needed: 30 minutes first time; 45–60 minutes per monthly report after that
- Cost: Free (free tier works); Claude Pro helps with longer reports
How-To Guide: Use AI to Prepare Monthly Board Reports
Step 1: Gather Your Data Before Opening the AI
Before touching Claude, pull together:
- Enrollment numbers (current vs. prior year, vs. same month last year)
- Attendance rate this month vs. last month
- Discipline incident count (by category if available)
- Any major events, decisions, or announcements this month
- Financial update (if you provide that to the board)
- Any staff changes
Export these as numbers/bullets in a text file or Google Doc — you don't need charts yet.