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Jefferson County Public Schools
Cary Petersen: Executive Director of Information Technology
Craig Garrison : Advanced Systems Manager
Louisville, Kentucky
98,000 Students

Jefferson County Public Schools Sees Scalability Benefit
Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), serving more than 98,000 students with 154 schools in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, needed a web-based student information system (SIS) with functionality and scalability to accommodate growth, improve ROI, streamline business practices, and support a staff of nearly 14,000. Infinite Campus® filled these needs and helped JCPS achieve cost savings.

The Right Size
As a Great City School District and the largest in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, JCPS has data management needs that are in direct proportion to its size. Tracking academic progress, attendance and transportation in a large district could prove to be a logistical nightmare.

With Infinite Campus, the district has all of this data in real-time, so when communicating with individual schools, everyone has the same information. In addition, Infinite Campus allows JCPS to see multiple years in one system, has customized screens, fields and reports, and to work in SQL database, which is more farmilar to staff.

According to Cary Petersen, JCPS Executive Director of Information Technology, “We now have data that is the same at the school, district, and state level almost instantly, which was rare using the previous distributed system.”

“With our old system, district information was a day old,” says Craig Garrison, JCPS Advanced Systems Manager. “Now, when we talk to schools, we all see the same data at the same time. It has allowed us to streamline business process and take advantage of a modern system. If there is any doubt about Infinite Campus managing a district of our size, be assured that Infinite Campus is very scalable.”

JCPS serves nearly 28,000 Homeless Education, ESL and ECE students. Nearly 60,000 students are transported over 85,000 miles per day in 843 buses. And the district is still growing. Through Infinite Campus, JCPS has a SIS that is the right size to manage these complex data requirements today and for years to come.

As JCPS increases enrollment, Infinite Campus is prepared. To keep pace with this growth, internal software architecture must be designed correctly as retrofitting features after the fact can be costly and time consuming. Infinite Campus system designers have developed and adapted technologies that permit growth without undue cost.

Business Processes Streamlined
End-of-year processing for JCPS previously took up to six weeks and required as many as 18 staff members working full time for a week incurring unnecessary cost. With Infinite Campus, two people accomplish the same process in less than two days.

Prior to going live with Infinite Campus, JCPS had to assign staff to set up computers with client software to access its student information system. Mac users required special software that had to be purchased and installed separately. Thanks to the functionality of the web-based system, set-up costs have been eliminated and all employees can access the system.

“Home access and web-based access for employees has been appreciated by our staff,” says Garrison. “They can do their work after hours or even during basketball games.”

Comparing the reliability of Infinite Campus to their previous system, Petersen states, “We no longer have a backup process that takes 12 hours and had many failures. We haven’t had to shut down schools because of database corruption, which happened over 65 times during the last year of our previous system.”

With Infinite Campus, JCPS enjoys a system that is available without time lost for a system “roll over” during the summer. District year-round schools always have a system to use and regular schools can
start early.

JCPS Improves ROI
In a large district such as JCPS, waste is inevitable unless its SIS is web-based, integrated, and capable of growth as necessary. Unnecessary system redundancy means reduced ROI, delayed communication, the use of unnecessary personnel and inefficient data management.

“We have already saved millions in maintenance and support costs with Infinite Campus,” acknowledges Garrison.

Through the scalability of Infinite Campus, JCPS no longer maintains two different databases for their 154 schools. Infinite Campus enabled JCPS to completely restructure their school year without a major system change.

“The biggest savings has been seen with support,” says Petersen. “We had staff assigned to setting up computers with client software for access to the SIS and since Infinite Campus is web-based, we no longer need to send staff out to schools and offices for setup.”

Scheduling 98,000 students, nearly a third of whom are enrolled in special programs and necessitate additional tracking for district, state and federal reports, requires a system adaptable to constantly changing needs.

“The design of the student management system is important. It must have all the parts of the system work as one,” says Petersen. “Not having integration throughout the system can mean double entry or missing data. With Infinite Campus, we have a comprehensive system. We have 24x7 access to information; even the ability to locate a student using a wireless device. It is helping everyone do their jobs better.”

First in State Implementation
As the first district in Kentucky to go live with Infinite Campus, JCPS is looked to for leadership about Infinite Campus process and initiatives.

Recommendations to other districts include taking time to clean the data and centralize enrollment. “With our 154 schools, that has been almost impossible under the old system. With some help from Infinite Campus, we will improve that process greatly,” said Garrison.

“Infinite Campus staff have shown a commitment to getting things right,” said Petersen. “Our actual data conversion process took less than six months from start to go live. This was extremely fast.”

Garrison also reminds districts that this isn’t the system they previously had. “You will find there are process changes that must occur to be successful. It may take as much as a full year to change from the old methods to the best way to use Infinite Campus. But these changes will be positive when completed.”

Realizing the Benefit
During the years since going live in July 2007, JCPS has benefited from the functionality of Infinite Campus. Among these benefits, Garrison lists the ability to see multiple years in one system, to customize screens, fields and reports, to easily integrate legacy systems and to offer home access to students, parents and staff.

According to Garrison, “We had none of these benefits in our previous system.” Now that the transition time for staff and administration is in the past and Infinite Campus is an integral part of the district’s business operation, JCPS acknowledges that the challenges of a large district presented no difficulty for the developers, trainers, and support staff at Infinite Campus.

“I have worked with and have reviewed many different SIS and, looked at feature for feature, none of these systems are better than Infinite Campus,” Petersen says. “Infinite Campus has been an outstanding organization to work with from the Campus Project Manager to the CEO. They have helped us succeed in a very difficult situation. I am sure the benefits will be noticed by all districts in Kentucky in a very short period of time, whether it’s a district of 100 or 100,000 students.”