BURKEonBOARD

(Oct. 6, 2008) – I received a note from an anonymous school district employee over the weekend who commented on the difficulties the school district is having converting from the old student information system to a new one called Infinite Classroom which was to have been up and running for the start of this school year. It is still not fully functional, including Family Web Access (FWA), the module that gives parents access to their students’ academic records.

I wrote last evening to the district’s director of administrative services, Rosalyn Pautzke, who has responsibility for overseeing this project:

I am forwarding to you an excerpt from a recent email (not included here) by my correspondent which seems to shed a little extra light on the “running behind schedule a bit” explanation I’ve heard more than a few times about the delays with the new Infinite Campus Student Information System and why I can’t access my kids’ records.

I found out at a student-teacher conference last week, for instance, that one of mine had failed to hand in a couple of assignments and had a mid-semester F in one class. We normally keep close tabs on her through her online record to be able to stay after her and do our part at home. So you can see that this “running behind” thing is having an actual impact on learning or at least grades.

As we are six weeks into the school year with the SIS still not functional, and at least one person thinks that there is some culpability with the Director of Administrative Services, perhaps this is an issue that could be addressed to and by the board at the its work session on the October 13? I would especially like to know if we (the district) are bearing any additional costs because of the switchover difficulties.

Ms. Pautzke called about this message and offered an explanation. I suggested she write that explanation and I would post it here. She has done so.

Teachers, secretaries, and other staff members are successfully using the new student information system, Infinite Campus, daily.  The system is functional and meeting the district’s immediate needs. Parent access has been delayed until we are confident that the parent portal portion of the system will properly handle private data on students. Currently, several dozen staff members with children attending ISD 192 are testing the parent portal in order to identify problems prior to a roll out to thousands of families. We are in the process of expanding the test group of parents and will soon send emails to all parents with an invitation to view their students’ information online.

In weighing the risks of a mistaken release of private student data online against the burden of parents and teachers communicating without the benefit of Family Web Access, the district decided to wait until testing demonstrates the integrity of the online system. We realize that parents have come to rely on electronic access to their children’s records and we regret the delay in achieving the level of confidence desired.

The data converted from the district’s previous student information system, SASI, was not as accurate as we would have liked. Although the majority of the conversion went well, the integrity of the “households” was compromised because (1) SASI and Infinite Campus employ different mechanisms to define households; (2) each parent each has a “separate” household in Infinite Campus; (3) previous SASI conversions performed by Infinite Campus have been building-based not district-based as ours; and (4) Infinite Campus technical staff were overextended due to a large quantity of new customers.

The assertion that secretaries have been at the district office entering data for weeks is false. Traditionally at the beginning of every school year secretaries update student records based on parent corrections submitted on the “emergency forms.” This effort proceeded as usual with the additional component of working in concert to review household data. The assertion that Student Profiler made the conversion more difficult is also false. Student Profiler is the data warehouse that makes Family Web Access possible. Student Profiler data was not involved in the conversion.

Thank you for the opportunity to clarify the information you received from your “source.”

Truly,
Rosalyn Pautzke

I asked Ms. Pautzke for budget information on the new Student Information System, whether the district was incurring any additional costs because of the switchover difficulties and if the contract with the vendor provides for any penalties for failing to deliver a working system on time. She says she has asked the finance director for that information and I will report on that when it is made available to me.