How Achievement First reclaimed 75 hours a month with smarter scheduling

Achievement First, a charter school network serving over 15,000 students across the Northeast, needed a better way to manage internal scheduling. Its IT team was stuck coordinating onsite and remote support across dozens of schools — leading to many back-and-forth emails and frequent meeting no-shows. After adopting Calendly, they cut scheduling-related communication by up to 60% and reclaimed time to focus on schoolwide tech initiatives.

Challenges

IT time lost to manual scheduling

As Achievement First scaled operations across dozens of school sites, the IT team found itself spending too much time on scheduling logistics. “We noticed a lot of ticket engagement, but most of it was just about finding a time to talk,” said Marques Stewart, Managing Director of Technology. “It made our interactions seem longer and less efficient than they really were.”

Staff and educators experienced delays in their issues being resolved, and IT team members lost valuable time waiting for walk-ins or rescheduling no-shows that could have been spent on other in-person IT initiatives.

Solution

Automate the scheduling experience

Calendly gave the IT team a smarter way to manage their time — no spreadsheets, no guessing, no inbox ping pong. By creating booking pages for both onsite and remote support sessions, IT team members could proactively set their availability and let school staff choose the time that worked best.

“Calendly helps us protect our team’s time and make every support interaction count.”

Marques Stewart

Managing Director of Technology at Achievement First

The team uses Calendly Workflows to automatically send meeting reminders, reducing no-shows and helping busy teachers stay on top of appointments. “In a school environment, people are always on the move. Just being able to send them a reminder without someone manually emailing them makes a huge difference,” said Stewart.

Beyond IT, other teams at Achievement First quickly took notice. The data systems, recruiting, and facilities teams adopted Calendly for external and internal scheduling, and some schools even use it for parent-teacher conference bookings.

Features in action

Stewart uses Collective events to book meetings as a team and ensure the right teammates are included for cross-functional meetings like budget meetings and cross-department projects. He also relies on the Outlook and browser extensions to access Calendly without having to leave his email or toggle between tabs. Plus, he uses Slack and Zoom integrations to simplify meeting logistics.

“Calendly meets people where they are. Whether you use Zoom, Teams, or WebEx — it just works. That flexibility leads to better conversations.”

Marques Stewart

Managing Director of Technology at Achievement First

In a standout use case, the IT team streamlined laptop pickups. Instead of waiting throughout the day for someone to show up, school staff scheduled their pickup slots and received automatic confirmations and reminders with Calendly Workflows. This means everyone could better plan their day and get to other priorities.

“If no one signs up, no one’s going to be there — and now we can use that time for other work,” Stewart explained.

The results

60% fewer emails. 75 hours saved. Greater focus where it matters.

With Calendly in place, Achievement First’s IT team has cut unnecessary back-and-forth emails and communications by as much as 60%. Meetings that used to take multiple emails to schedule now happen in a single step, and automatic reminders mean fewer no-shows.

The result: faster support, fewer missed connections, and more time for the IT team to focus on strategic projects, mentoring teammates, and tech planning.

Most importantly, the user experience has improved across the board. It’s easier to schedule support, everyone gets a reminder so they don’t miss a meeting, and teams at Achievement First can make the most of their time with more productive conversations.

“We were wasting time playing calendar tag. Now our support team’s time is respected, and issues get solved faster.”

Marques Stewart

Managing Director of Technology at Achievement First