Another information filled day today. I started out with a meeting with Jerry Schultz, Manager of Application Development. We discussed several aspects of software management for school districts, and several important things to consider.
The size of the district. MPS used eSis for student and classroom management. This program was chosen for it's accessibility to large numbers of students. I asked him to compare the program to Powerschool or Skyward, he explained some programs are written and marketed to large districts, others are better for medium to small districts. Skyward was another program he mentioned. Great for a smaller district, and he mentioned the fact that some financial issues can be managed through Skyward as well. eSis was praised for it's connectivity for students and parents.
The MPS DataWarehouse was the next software we discussed. MPS has used it for about 3 years. It is written by a Versa-fit, an Appleton, WI based company. The end-users (teachers) are the ones who enter data; the program has been customized to fit the needs of MPS Administration and Teachers. Because special ed has more legal requirements, there are other pieces of software that apply to that area. SSIMS, otherwise known as Encore, give full support to IEP's and other documentation needs for special education students. PeopleSoft is the Human Relations software, supporting pay, benefits, recruiting, performance evaluations and tracking professional development. iFas is used for the business financial functions of the district, such as accounts payable, budgets and money owed to MPS. The list of software went on for pages, and included everything from enrollment to the recreation department, daily business and accountability to state reporting.
Keeping in mind, on the education side of the software, all of that data entered by the teachers goes to the DataWarehouse server, where the databases are updated every 15 minutes. Just writing about this is getting my mind spinning.
We spent some time discussing the cost - how does MPS pay for all of this software, and keep it updated? Most is purchased software, with yearly service agreements set up for support and maintenance. Jerry did note that over time, trends in educational management software have changed. In the "old days" schools simply leased the software, and payed a yearly fee for support and maintenance. Then the trend turned to purchased software, with yearly maintenance fees. In his case, the maintenance fee was 20% to 30% of the purchase price, yearly. Currently, MPS purchases software, and there are levels of support and maintenance available for purchase. Leases are also coming back into popularity.
I asked what the future of school management software is, Jerry felt that it is in cloud computing, where the school leases, but the vendor hosts the software. I did ask about privacy issues in the case of certain types of software, he felt that this is an area yet to be addressed.
Tomorrow.... a day as a programmer/analyst.
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