St. Paul, Minnesota
40,000 Students
St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS) is a large, urban district in Minnesota with over 40,000 students. In 2000, SPPS needed a student information system (SIS) that could manage a large volume of student data, increase communication among 75 schools, and provided reliable support options. They selected Infinite Campus as their new SIS to help them meet these challenges. Before long, they discovered additional benefits resulting from improved data management for a large, urban district.
Accurate MARSS Reporting
Currently, SPPS requires an SIS vendor that is ‘gold standard’ certified by Minnesota Automated Reporting Student System (MARSS). MARSS collects student data required by more than one area of the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning via one system. Data collected by MARSS is used for a variety of purposes including state aid and federal grant allocations.
According to Joel Swanson, SPPS SIS Coordinator, “It is essential our data is consistent between schools. With the single, SQL database of Infinite Campus, we’re able to achieve this. Campus offers an organized system for managing data between multiple schools.”
MARSS reporting has been simplified with Infinite Campus. According to Patti Michaud, SPPS MARSS Supervisor, “Since implementing Infinite Campus our MARSS reports have been error free for the past four years. We have not had to add staff since Infinite Campus gives us the tools to be more efficient and more accurate with data. We are able to get every eligible dollar available from the state.”
Reliable Customer Support
In addition, when SPPS experiences an issue with Infinite Campus, both phone and online support options are available. “The Campus Support team is very reliable. When we encounter a problem, they listen to us and help us find a solution,” said Swanson.
SPPS is an avid user of the Campus Community, an online support option that is available 24/7. “The Campus Community is great tool,” said Swanson. “We use it quite often.”
With the Campus Community, SPPS staff can find comprehensive product information in the Campus Knowledge Base. They can also connect with other users in the Campus Forums. It’s a great place to ask for help or share solutions to problems.
According to Swanson, “We use the hands-on virtual labs in the Campus Community to help train our new staff. At first, many don’t know what tool they’re looking for, so they can search by their roles and locate the information that applies to their roles.”
Improved Communication
SPPS has increased communication through the Campus Portal. Parents and students have real-time access to grades, attendance, assignments, schedule information and much more. It allows parents and student to track academic progress, stay up-to-date with assignments and increase communication with teachers and staff.
The new Campus Mobile Portal is an intuitive app that can be accessed
from any Apple® iOS or Android® device. The mobile portal provides ‘push notifications’ that automatically alert users of grade, assignment and attendance changes.
“As a large district, it’s difficult to keep district stakeholders connected. School-to-home communication and parent participation play key roles in student success. So, we are reintroducing the Campus Portal to parents and students. Teachers have new standards for entering timely and quality student data. This will create a new level of accountability for both teachers and students,” said Swanson.
Teachers are increasingly using Campus Online Assignment Submissions. This feature allows students to submit text based assignments via the Campus Portal. Teachers can view students’ submissions and provide feedback, scores and grades. Parents and students can view the teacher’s evaluation via the Campus Portal.