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Hillsboro R-3 School District
Steve Murray
Director of Technology
Hillsboro R-3 School District
Hillsboro, MO
3,600 Students

Hillsboro Improves State Reporting and District Processes
After eight years using Win School student information system (SIS), Hillsboro R-3 School District realized it needed a more sophisticated system to accommodate the many requirements of Missouri state reporting. In addition, this system had to be all-inclusive and web-based to cut down on issues of redundancy and accessibility. Infinite Campus was chosen as the best system to ensure improved state reporting, data accuracy and district efficiencies.

Time for Change
Hillsboro found its previous SIS was not flexible to adapt to the increased demands in student data management and required specialized programs to accommodate many of the district’s needs.
 
“Our old system did not have a true relational database,” says Steve Murray, Hillsboro’s Director of Technology. “It required labor-intensive data entry at multiple locations, increasing the likelihood of inaccurate data.”

In-house programs were written to address the shortcomings of the district’s former SIS, causing further problems. “Since the customized systems did not talk to each other, each component had to be manually updated whenever a new student enrolled,” says Murray. “It was far from the all-inclusive product we needed.”

State Reporting Challenges
A larger issue was the inability to create reports to meet the requirements of the state of Missouri.

Reporting requirements can change as often as once a month; announced with very little time remaining in the collection period. Infinite Campus strives to stay ahead of these changes. In addition, Infinite Campus handles reports outside the usual state requirements. Hillsboro participates in the Missouri state A+ program, an in-state program independent of Missouri state reporting, which requires its own custom reports.

“The Missouri Department of Education is constantly changing what data should be reported,” says Murray. “Our former system did not have state reporting options available, creating a tremendous amount of work for our staff.”

Hillsboro found that Infinite Campus has the adaptability to meet the ever-changing state requirements. It also has the capacity to customize reports specifically for the state, drawing from a wide range of student data within one integrated system.

“Infinite Campus has worked hard to keep abreast of the constant changes in Missouri requirements and code lists. We were one of 31 Missouri districts (out of over 540) who had our data certified on time for the October cycle. Coming from an information system where state reporting options were not available, this has proven to be a huge time saver!”

A Complete SIS
The success Hillsboro has found through its partnership with Infinite Campus isn’t restricted to state reporting solutions. Hillsboro sought out Infinite Campus because of its integration and broad range of features.

“It’s an all-inclusive system, which is very important,” says Murray. “The ability to check health information, fees, lockers, attendance, grades, behavior, and special education information, all in one program is awesome!”

High school principal, Cheryl Aylesworth, appreciates the Campus Schedule Wizard. “It’s very useful to set percentages of special education, gender, and students with behavioral problems that will be in each classroom. It has significantly reduced the time and effort it takes to create new schedules.” 

Nicki Russell, A+ coordinator and teacher, appreciates the versatility of the system. “The ability of Infinite Campus to hide dropped students from my roster is very helpful. In addition, for those students who float in and out of a school, the grades are held and can be reactivated when and if the student returns.”

Teachers like how the grade book is integrated with other features. For example, it provides the functionality of being a lesson planner, including a place for objectives and references. The ability to add comments such as missing, late, or exempt is a valuable tool for parents, students, and teachers to be better informed.

Russell also uses Infinite Campus to track student households. “From the student summary page, I can see not only where they live with a mapped visual, I can see the student’s siblings and family structure. This can be important information for understanding a student’s life outside of school and the many influences on academic success.”

Immediate Benefits
Hillsboro already sees great benefit in using Infinite Campus as it faces growing needs for better data access and accountability.

“Infinite Campus has allowed us to streamline our enrollment process, saving us time, and improving community relations,” said Murray. “For example, because registration is now centralized, parents no longer have to travel from building to building, filling out duplicate information for each child.”

Infinite Campus provides counselors, teachers and principals valuable resources to track student progress towards graduation with the grad planning tools, insights into assessment information and current transcript information. The staff can also quickly access information about a student to investigate post-graduation options and provide curriculum advice.

With Infinite Campus, Hillsboro now has access to previous year history without having to close out the program. It can customize reports and provide real-time information to parents. It eliminated several steps requiring manual data entry and extensive training.

The Right Decision
Hillsboro made the change to Infinite Campus easily. “The conversion process was smooth with everyone’s support and cooperation,” said Murray. “Infinite Campus is a very easy program to navigate with all information easily accessible. We implemented the grade book in the first year and had very few problems. It is very intuitive in its menu structure with management at the administrative level down to the student level.”

Hillsboro receives service and support from Computer Information Concepts, Inc. (CIC), an Infinite Campus Channel Partner located in Greeley, Colorado. They have built a strong partnership and Hillsboro serves as a reference and advocate for Infinite Campus.

“Infinite Campus is an all inclusive program that is very user friendly, intuitive in its interface, and easy to learn for all levels of education,” said Murray. “If we had to choose all over again, I would definitely go with Infinite Campus.”