Finance

I had the opportunity to meet with the Finance Department today to learn about how they use the Student Inofrmation System and needs that they may have in the kind of data reports that they might need to pull from a potential system.

As with each of these sessions, I presented them with this slidedeck


And here was their wish list and particular items of note:

• SAP Interoperability
• When a student is admitted to Harker, Admissions sends a Contract to the parents, and then the parents need to submit a deposit and (potentially) the ACH form. The receipt of those items goes through the SIS and informs Finance of their next steps. What kinds of systems are in existence for other SISs that allows the notifications of forms and deposits of this sort?
• How are log records accessed (who did what and when?)
• Is there a billing portal? How easy, or difficult, is it to use?
• What kind of data control is there? For instance, in our current system, if a parent is changing their address and accidentally types their name into the zip code field, our system does not catch this error, and allows it. This information is then pulled in reports and has to be hand-checked before importing into Financial systems (SAP).
• How easy, or difficult, is it to pull or create different demographic data reports?

Office of Communications & Schedulers

Today, as part of the SIS Focused Feedback Sessions to investigate our needs here at The Harker School, I met with the Office of Communications and the Schedulers as two distinct user groups. Take a look at their awesome feedback and questions!

As will be with all the meetings, we reviewed this slidedeck

Then, we discussed how each of these groups use our current SIS to develop the criteria by which we'll review our SIS options. This spreadsheet will be made available by request and ultimately made widely accessible across The Harker School staff and faculty. 

In short, here are the highlights:

The Office of Communications:

• In some ways, ideas may pop up after seeing others' suggestions
• Finalsite interoperability is a wish
• Ease of searching anything (i.e., teachers' schedules, students' schedules, etc.) would be nice
• Is the base code updated or outdated? Can templates easily be customized?
• API and culture of openness - how open are they with their collaboration interests?
• What kind of UX (user experience) and QA (quality assurance) teams do they have?
• Parents may be interested in being able to see their child's past grades

Schedulers:

• What is the customer service team on staff and how responsive are they?
• What professional development materials are available and what kinds of PD will be available to users?
• What is the communication protocol (i.e., how are updates communicated?)
• What currently exists in terms of stock or template reports and can reports be created by users, or must they run through the company?
• What is the ability to toggle on and off views for different user groups (students, parents, teachers)? Are those capabilities able to be discreet between divisions, or must settings be configured Harker-wide?
• How do they handle special schedules? Can those schedules be easily built within the SIS?
• When students change schedules, how does the SIS handle transporting the grades to the new teacher/class?
• What kind of access is there to view (or change) previous grades, and for whom?

Introductory Letter to All Staff & Faculty

Good Afternoon, Esteemed Colleagues,

As you may be aware, we are interested in looking at all our options to PCR. PCR is a brand of what’s commonly referred to as a Student Information System, or SIS. In our ongoing efforts to ensure that we are using the most appropriate and best tools available for The Harker School, we are embarking on a process that will first look at our needs. As such, I’d like to provide you with our plan for evaluating and exploring all our SIS options.

Here are a couple norms I’d like to set-up at the onset:

• First, seek to understand. While no single system will ever solve all our woes, we will absolutely make a best-faith effort to ensure that all voices are heard and respected.
• Transparency is king. I will be ensuring that you are given as much transparency into the process and choices as possible.
• As such, there is a blog located at: https://greatsisadventure.blogspot.com/ This blog will not be sent to you on a regular basis (so as to avoid email onslaught), but it will be regularly updated to track the progress for your review and reference.
• The process of reviewing and potentially transitioning SISs is largely agreed upon as the single most complex process to undertake.
• Most of all, if you have a question, concern or suggestion, PLEASE reach out.

When: Mid-October - December

What: SIS Focused Feedback Sessions will be held on all campuses, for all interested parties

Why: SIS Sessions are focused so that we can discreetly hear from different groups who use the SIS in different ways. The results of these feedback sessions will be made available to the rest of The Harker School Staff and Faculty; again, in the interest of transparency and so that we all can see the priorities of each group.

How: A schedule of sessions will be forthcoming in the next two weeks. Debrief notes will be shared via the blog if you cannot make any of the meetings.

Intended Outcome(s):

1. to educate and inform everyone on what exactly an SIS is and its intended use using some common language
2. to create a wish-list of characteristics or criteria for an ideal SIS at The Harker School

You will receive another email from me in the coming weeks with a schedule of times and dates for you to participate in one of these SIS Focused Feedback Sessions.

Additionally, you will hear from me again in mid-December as to our progress in these meetings and potential next steps.

I appreciate everyone’s participation and positive energy around ensuring that we are providing and offering the very best!

Sincerely,

Liz