Mesa County Valley School District 51 saves countless hours and improves student safety with Smartsheet and 10xViz

Mesa County Valley School District 51 is the largest on Colorado’s Western Slope and the 15th largest in the state, serving 21,000 students across 46 schools and programs. Stretching from the Utah border to Palisade, the district is a cornerstone of the community, with nearly 3,500 employees working each day to support student success. Beyond academics, the district focuses on professional learning for teachers and staff, ensuring classrooms have the resources they need while fostering innovation, inclusion, and lifelong learning skills.

Originally, district employees relied on third-party software to track processes and approvals. These systems were difficult to learn and navigate. When the product was discontinued, the search for a replacement began. Deanna Vandermeer, Curriculum Financial Analyst and Administrative Liaison at Mesa County Valley School District 51, knew that going back to paper forms and endless email chains wasn’t an option. Determined to modernize, she tested platform after platform, but most couldn’t handle the workflows or automation the district needed. Vandermeer recalls, “Finally, I stumbled across Smartsheet and started a 30-day trial. Within 15 days, I was hooked. I thought, ‘this is amazing—where has this been my entire career?’” Smartsheet’s familiar, spreadsheet-like layout made it easy for staff to adopt, while powerful features like automation, reminders, and task tracking sealed the deal.

Learning through doing

Vandermeer first connected with Smartsheet Platinum partner 10xViz after attending a webinar showcasing a solution they had built for another school district. Impressed by their approach, she soon reached out. “From there, an amazing collaborative relationship formed,” she recalls.

That partnership especially took off when Vandermeer began attending 10xViz’s three-day, hands-on Efficiency Live Bootcamps—intensive sessions where customers build real solutions with guidance from 10xViz. 

“By the end, participants walk away with a working solution they can bring back to their office,” says Jennifer Jones, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of 10xViz. “This method accelerates adoption—Smartsheet really takes off when people return with a solution that works.”

Onboarding teachers faster

The first solution Vandermeer focused on at the bootcamps was a platform to streamline teacher induction and onboarding. Before, the process relied on a patchwork of Excel files, SharePoint logs, paper contracts, and Google Sheets—none of which connected. Staff members spent countless hours re-entering data, chasing signatures, and validating attendance, which often led to errors and delays. With strict state requirements for new teachers to earn licensure within three years, the manual system had become a heavy administrative burden.

The new Smartsheet solution allows mentors to log hours through simple forms and captures attendance automatically. Real-time dashboards bring everything together, giving administrators a clear view of progress. 

“The teacher induction Smartsheet solution basically runs itself through automation,” says Vandermeer. “Thanks to 10xViz’s guidance, it’s robust, efficient, and I’m really proud of it. It saves our induction team about 40 to 50 hours every week.”

To make teacher induction smoother, 10xViz improved electronic memorandums of understanding (MOUs) that now handle stipends end-to-end. What used to mean chasing paper forms, retyping data into spreadsheets, and struggling to meet payroll deadlines is now a fully automated process. Mentor contracts, new-hire orientations, professional learning days, and more are all managed electronically—saving time, reducing errors, and ensuring staff are paid on schedule.

Making schools safer

In addition to teacher induction, the district also turned its attention to another priority—student safety. At another bootcamp, Vandermeer’s colleague Cassandra Geske-Ross built a Smartsheet dashboard for the Safe2Tell platform—an anonymous reporting system that allows students, parents, and faculty to report concerns. The solution was created to overcome delays caused by staff having to previously analyze submissions manually.

With the new solution, DataShuttle automatically imports Safe2Tell incident reports. The dashboard categorizes reports by incident type, monitors active cases in real time, and automatically notifies the appropriate staff. "This allows us to align with our District's Strategic Plan for safety and security, by notifying our teams in a more efficient manner. With the current dashboard, we can now contact a student within one to two hours of a report being submitted," says Cassandra Geske-Ross, Executive Assistant to the Chief Academic Officer of Mesa County Valley School District 51. 

“It’s more than a tracking tool—it’s become part of the district’s safety infrastructure, ensuring every anonymous report is taken seriously, acted on quickly, and documented thoroughly,” Vandermeer adds.

From paper-based to automated processes

Beyond induction and safety, the district has rolled out multiple other Smartsheet solutions with 10xViz, each targeting a different operational challenge. Special events like district-led staff professional learning no longer depend on paper sign-in sheets with unreadable handwriting—attendance is captured instantly through QR codes and forms, making payroll and reporting faster and more reliable. Renovations and school transitions are easier to manage too, with dashboards that track resource movements in real time and eliminate the guesswork from scheduling and inventory. And project management is now consistent district-wide, with shared templates, role-based dashboards, and a dynamic calendar that keeps IT teams aligned during summer computer transitions.

Together, these solutions save time, reduce errors, and give leaders clear visibility into the work happening across the district. “We’re giving time back to employees and making their jobs easier,” says Vandermeer. “Induction specialists should be out in schools working with teachers and mentors, not stuck behind a desk recalculating hours.”

A proud legacy

Together, Smartsheet and 10xViz have become essential to how the district works every day. “Without Smartsheet, I honestly don’t know how I’d get it all done. I’m grateful for Smartsheet, and especially grateful for 10xViz for helping us make every solution better,” she shares. “They take the time to truly listen, understand our needs, and adapt to what we need.”

With retirement on the horizon, Vandermeer hopes her coworkers—especially those who gained hands-on experience at the bootcamps—will carry the torch. “I’m really proud of all the solutions we’ve built, and I want to see them live on after I retire. That, to me, would be my legacy—not personal recognition, but creating efficiencies for the district,” she says. 

“I carry decades of institutional knowledge: why processes exist, what problems they solved, and why changes were made. By capturing these in Smartsheet, those processes will continue long after I’m gone.”

For more information about this story, please see our case study.