San Jose, California
9,960 Students

Franklin-McKinley, in San Jose, California, serves nearly 10,000 students. For Franklin-McKinley, a trusted partnership with its data management vendor was important. Personalized service, ongoing support, and open communications to the district were expectations that Franklin-McKinley valued.

“I strongly believe in developing close relationships with vendors; where we have a partnership with loyalty to each other,” said Delma Juarez, Franklin­McKinley Director of Information Technology. “With Infinite Campus, we have that partnership relationship. We know they are committed to the K12 market and providing customer service is a top priority.”

Challenges
In 2006, after 21 years with SASI, Franklin-McKinley realized the system could no longer provide adequate service and support to meet the needs of the district and the increasing demands from the California Department of Education.

Franklin-McKinley defined the “must have” criteria for a new student data management system that would overcome the shortcomings of SASI. Those criteria were:

• A Web-based system with real time information, anywhere, any time.
• A truly integrated system for administrators, support staff, teachers, parents and students.
• A system that eliminated the need for several costly third party programs.
• One system to house student data.
• One-time data entry.
• The replacement of multiple servers with one database that was always up-to-date.

Solution
The selection process for a new vendor took a year and a half and was narrowed to three choices. After several demonstrations for a cross section of district users, Franklin-McKinley chose Infinite Campus. “Infinite Campus had everything we were looking for,” said Juarez. “After a thorough evaluation, it was our number one choice by far. Besides the high quality of the system, the passion and commitment of the company to develop the best product for districts set Infinite Campus apart from the others.”

The ability to manage state reporting requirements was extremely important to Franklin-McKinley. The old system had multiple data entry points across the district with no clearly defined processes. And as more state reporting data points were required, the product did not evolve to easily accommodate the changes. “Infinite Campus created a thoughtful method for entering state required data,” said Juarez. “We do not have to enter it here, there and everywhere. It is entered in the state reporting area only – one time. It provides accurate, current data that is easy to use. Fall and spring submissions can be done in a snap!”

California customers benefit from Infinite Campus receiving the California Department of Education (DOE) California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) capable designation. This acknowledges that Infinite Campus District Edition can manage and exchange student and staff information for the California DOE through CALPADS. In their first year on the product, Franklin McKinley successfully submitted both fall and spring 2008 California CALPADS extracts with Infinite Campus and they’ve been doing so ever since.

Results
Within two years of choosing Infinite Campus, the district realized cost savings in many ways, including the ability to drop two small programs used to enhance SASI, since it was available within Infinite Campus, and by eliminating consulting fees used to help them previously with state reporting. Also, because there is only one server to upgrade, not 16, the district saved a lot of staff time on upgrades and routine maintenance. Calendar rollovers, once taking days, now are completed in minutes.

The positive partnership, personalized service and support, and a modern student data management system are now a reality for Franklin-McKinley. “Our users love the browser interface and the anywhere, anytime access,” said Juarez. When asked what she would say to potential Infinite Campus customers, Juarez said, “Go for it. Infinite Campus has it all. It’s the best product on the market.”