Implementing a Student Management System A Case Study: East Syracuse Minoa Schools

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Implementing a Student Management SystemA Case
Study East Syracuse Minoa Schools

• Kieran O'Connor
• East Syracuse Minoa Schools
• Executive Director of Planning, Development
  Technology
• koconnor_at_esmschools.org
• [phone]

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About the Presenter

• Middle and High School Social Studies Teacher
• Central New York RIC (Syracuse) Consultant
• Executive Director of Planning, Development
  Technology

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District Overview

• Central NY State borders Syracuse
• 3,800 students
• 350 teachers
• Comprehensive High School

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Implementing a Student Management System Overview

• System was Winschool and in use for 8 years.
• Only used in offices in elementaries. Middle and
  High School used by teachers, but limited.
• No work had been done on upgrading or moving to a
  new system
• Major task for IT starting January 2008

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Implementing a Student Management System Create
a process

• How will we choose the final vendor? We set up a
  list of organizational and user requirements. It
  became the basis for judging all the
  possibilities with the goal to get to 1.
• Issued RFP (Request for Proposals) from
  requirements document.
• 1st level weed did the vendor currently do
  business in NY State? If not, eliminated.
• 2nd level weed our Database Administrator
  eliminated those systems she felt were not
  appropriate database design, etc.

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Implementing a Student Management System Process

• 3rd level weed
• We set up a core team building levels, job
  types, key players.
• The core team then got to see demos of the
  possibles.
• The core team eliminated system down to 2
  contenders

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Implementing a Student Management System Process

• We had a full bake off for the final two
  systems
• After, surveyed staff about their opinions about
  each system
• We then interviewed the 2 finalists. The core
  team came to consensus
• Next step--implementation

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Implementing a Student Management System

• We set up an implementation plan for the cutover.
  
• Looked at data cutover, data validation,
  training, user needs, companion systems (food
  service, reverse 911, transportation, Special Ed,
  library)
• Sent out for feedback/reality check
• Set up a Student Data Verification Letter
• Be ready for spin offs student registration
  process, report card comments, etc
• NEXT TIME readiness assessment
• NEXT TIME Who needs what/when document

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Implementing a Student Management System

• Set up your training schedule.
• Make it just in time and just whats needed.
• We have a 2 year plan. Year 1 is the basics,
  year 2 goes more advanced
• NEXT TIME Master schedule training should be
  done earlier, AND master scheduling as a concept
  will be done. Part of the readiness assessment.

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Implementing a Student Management System Lessons
Learned The Good Stuff

• Data cutover was good
• Core team worked well
• Process worked well
• Bake off well received. Lots of stakeholder
  involvement
• Integration with companion systems went well
• Training for teachers done by turnkey process
• On site live support good PR and valuable
• Post Mortems are a good process

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Implementing a Student Management System Lessons
Learned Next Time

• We didnt do a readiness assessment. It would
  have helped with nurses offices and with master
  schedule implementation
• Some training done too early e.g some admins and
  office staff.

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Conclusion

• Questions/Comments?
• Thanks for coming
• Please take a moment to fill out the evaluation

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