Jeffrey Shields Innovation in School Business Operations Award

This award recognizes NBOA member schools that have demonstrated innovation in school business operations, through approaches, programs and/or practices that may serve as a model in our independent schools community. Innovation may be demonstrated in the areas of strategic finance, long-term sustainability, tuition modeling, fundraising, information technology, human resources, facilities, operational efficiency and expense reductions.

Criteria

Awarded projects will demonstrate:

• The innovation’s long-term effects for recipient schools and their constituents, which could be students, faculty, staff, community, parents or the campus itself.
• Projects that positively "shake up" organizations by implementing new ideas, creating new models of management, and transforming organizational culture.
• Potential for far-reaching impact, appeal to multiple stakeholders within and across the organization and/or the community.
• The measurability of benefits in terms of current and future marketplace demands as well as school needs.

Nomination Questions:

• Share in your own words why this nominee program is deserving of the Jeffrey Shields Innovation in School Business Operations Award. Please make sure to include how impactful the innovation has been on the school or its constituents and how the innovation serves as a model for other schools to replicate. Please give specific examples.

Recipients

The award may recognize multiple schools in any given year. To accompany the award recognition, each school will be given a monetary prize in support of their annual fund or selected gift category. The award(s) will be presented at the NBOA Annual Meeting.

2026 Recipients

Aspen Academy

Greenwood Village, CO

AI Strategic Plan

Aspen Academy, a PK-8 day school enrolling 450 students in Greenwood Village, Colorado, developed an AI strategic plan designed to implement automation and AI tools across the school. The plan has increased institutional capacity and shifted work from repetitive “laundry” to strategic interventions. In just four months, Aspen completed 39 automations, saving nearly 3,000 hours of work, while strengthening internal controls and creating the operational bandwidth to open a new campus without hiring additional operations staff. All of this work was done in house, with involvement from senior leaders, the IT director, and parents and alumni working in AI. A task force generated more than 150 possible use cases and then applied an impact-scoring rubric to prioritize opportunities that aligned with institutional strategy and translated results into an execution roadmap with quarterly goals.

Read more about this work in NBOA’s Net Assets magazine: “Byte-Size AI: Automating Processes, Elevating Strategy.”

Pine Crest School

Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale, FL

Leveraging AI to Drive Operations Excellence

Pine Crest School, a PK-12 day school enrolling 2,700 students, with campuses in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton, Florida, has comprehensively integrated AI across school operations. Using robotic process automation and system integration, Pine Crest streamlined hundreds of repetitive tasks, reducing processing times in finance and human resources by more than 25% across multiple functions. Automation of invoice entry alone saves six to eight days each month. Pine Crest began its AI work with a consulting partner but has since moved much of it in house, and as employees retire, the school is hiring strategically in new roles. A key strength of Pine Crest’s approach is its schoolwide AI governance plan, organizational chart and emphasis on responsible implementation. Ethical oversight and transparency have been embedded into the school’s AI implementation since it began.

Read more about this work in NBOA’s Net Assets magazine: “Byte-Size AI: Planning, Integrating Systems and Predicting.”

Past Recipients

NBOA has given out the Innovation in School Business Operations Award since 2021. View the award's past recipients.

Sponsors

The following business partners have generously sponsored the award:

About Jeffrey Shields

Jeffrey Shields, FASAE, CAE, has served as President and CEO of the National Business Officers Association (NBOA) since 2010. Jeff, an active member of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), is a member of the 2008 Class of ASAE Fellows (FASAE) and earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation in 2002. Under his leadership, NBOA has expanded its membership, strengthened the breadth and depth of professional development programs and cemented its standing as one of the most prominent associations serving business officers, controllers, human resource professionals, facilities professionals and other business office staff at PK-12 independent schools. He currently serves as a director for the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), as well as, a trustee for One Schoolhouse, an innovative online school offering supplemental education to independent schools, and he formerly served as a trustee for Georgetown Day School. He holds a BA from Shippensburg University and an MA from The Ohio State University. In 2020, the NBOA Board of Directors created this award to recognize his 10 years of exemplary leadership of the association.