Case Study: Eagle County School District

The Challenge

Fragmented Systems and Manual Workarounds

Before adopting Touchpoint and Red Rover, Eagle County School District used absence and substitute management software from one vendor and time tracking software from a competing vendor. The two platforms didn’t communicate well, requiring manual reconciliation to prevent overpayment or underpayment.

“We don’t just pay people when they’re absent—we need to verify every hour worked,” Amy Moreno explained. “And those systems didn’t always talk to each other.”

The inefficiency mainly burdened school office managers, who were responsible for syncing records with complicated spreadsheets, leading to risks in payroll accuracy and increased oversight demands on Amy as the Payroll Specialist.

Clock Failure and Emergency Kiosk Mode

The situation worsened when the district’s aging biometric time clocks suddenly stopped being supported by their vendor—what Amy described as clocks having “dinosaur-ed themselves.” The district pivoted quickly to a temporary solution using old Chromebooks as timekeeping kiosks.

While effective in the short term, kiosk mode relying only on ID/PIN entry opened the door to buddy punching and time theft—risks the district had historically prevented through biometrics.

“Moving to the kiosks, we knew that there wasn't a whole lot of security involved with that. People could buddy punch with no problems. We use employee numbers for everything, and it was easy enough to ask your buddy, ‘Hey, can you key in my number?”

The Solution: Red Rover + Touchpoint K12

Integrated, All-in-One Platform

Even before their old time clocks lost vendor support, Eagle County’s Business and HR teams had become increasingly frustrated by the inefficiency of disparate time and absence systems.

“The big talk at our district was: can we have timesheets and absences be in the same house? We wanted a company that could maintain our biometrics, and could house both the timesheets and absence management and subs.”

Red Rover offered the opportunity to unify employee time tracking with absence and substitute management in a single software solution. This streamlined payroll operations and eliminated the need for cross-platform verification.

“This was something our teams had asked for—everything in one place. Red Rover gave us that. Red Rover has your worked time plus your absence time right there, one screen.”

Biometric Precision with Redundancy

Red Rover partner Touchpoint provided biometric SmartClocks, fully integrated with Red Rover Time Tracking, that re-established the reliability and accountability Eagle County required. The clocks came equipped with:

• Biometric fingerprint scanners
• 4G cellular backup
• Local data storage (offline caching)

These redundancies proved crucial in a region with frequent power outages and network instability.

“I tell employees: if the clock’s on, use it—even if the building’s in the dark.”

Strong Vendor Partnership

Red Rover and Touchpoint worked closely with Amy to map out a tight implementation timeline. Clocks were shipped early so the district could complete biometric enrollment before summer break. When new buildings came online unexpectedly, additional clocks arrived within days.

“Support was fast. A few emails and we had a replacement or new clock in no time.”

Implementation: Fast, Focused, and Collaborative

With the previous timekeeping system decommissioned, Eagle County had no fallback and needed Touchpoint and Red Rover fully live before the next pay cycle. The implementation included:

• Coordinating a district-wide enrollment blitz for biometric registration
• Aligning Red Rover Time Tracking exports with Eagle County’s payroll system
• Rolling out new hardware across all school buildings

“It was fast and furious—but the vendors made it manageable. They asked for what they needed, and we got it done.”

Results and Impact

Post-implementation, Eagle County immediately began reaping efficiency and accountability benefits of the new, integrated system.

Improved Payroll Accuracy and Efficiency

• Minimal manual adjustments required
• Faster import into the payroll system
• More trust in data accuracy across departments

Fraud Mitigation and Redundancy Protection

• Biometric clocks helped curb time theft
• 4G and offline storage ensured punch reliability despite power/network issues
  
  “Around here, things go offline a lot. These clocks capture punches no matter what—that matters.”

Scalable Support

• Responsive vendor coordination for software and hardware questions and new deployments
• Flexible setup that continues to scale with district growth

Lessons Learned & Considerations

Addressing Staff Resistance

One surprising hurdle was internal resistance from staff who preferred the looser accountability of the Chromebook kiosk model, even though typing in an employee number had been much slower for employees than a quick fingerprint scan. The reason was obvious: kiosks had inadvertently opened the door for buddy punching. Amy led the communication effort to highlight the necessity of time tracking precision and accountability with the new biometric SmartClocks.

“There was a decent amount of, ‘Hey, why can't we use our number anymore?’ Which was pretty telling that they had been a little dishonest with the Google kiosks.”

Advice to Other Districts

Amy has become a champion for system quality and accountability: “Push for the right tools—even when budgets are tight. Fraud and inefficiency cost you more in the long run.”

Amy emphasized the importance of:

• Planning ahead for enrollment before staff go on break
• Advocating internally for the long-term savings of dedicated time clocks
• Working closely with HR and IT for smooth rollout

Conclusion

Eagle County School District’s implementation of Touchpoint SmartClocks and Red Rover Time Tracking showcases how a district can successfully modernize critical systems even under pressure. By prioritizing accuracy, accountability, and operational resilience, Eagle County turned a crisis into an opportunity—and emerged with a future-ready timekeeping system.