Unsung Underdogs: Jared Butler, Norristown Area School District

This is the first in our new “Unsung Underdogs” series, highlighting the stories of behind-the-scenes educators and leaders making a real difference in their school districts in partnership with Touchpoint.

For most of us, when we complain about headaches at work, we mean the annoying, perhaps even maddening, challenges that may or may not result in actual cranial discomfort. 

But for Jared Butler, a 20-year veteran Special Education teacher at Norristown Area School District, the headaches are painfully real. Like at the end of April, when he was trying to intervene with a struggling student in an art classroom and got literally head butted. 🤕 

Jared serves in a multiple disabilities classroom in Norristown with a rotation of 5-7 hourly paraprofessionals every day. Most Norristown hourly employee groups scan in with Touchpoint SmartClocks, but until recently, those parapros were contracted through a staffing agency still using manual time cards that Jared had to collect and review to ensure accurate pay. With a full plate of special ed priorities, he told us that the last thing he had time for was confirming the validity their paper timesheets each week. So, it was no small relief this year when Norristown decided to put that paraprofessional team on the district’s Touchpoint SmartClock time collection system for easy, reliable badge scanning to clock in and out, freeing up much-needed prefrontal space for our hero to keep safely educating his students. 

SmartClocks can’t relieve all the pain school leaders experience (metaphorical, let alone physical), but today, Jared Butler has one fewer headache when it comes to tracking employee time. And his students and team receive the undistracted focus they need.

If you’re an unsung underdog struggling to manage employee time collection and accurate payroll in your district, we’d love to help – contact us below!