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Duane Peck
Director of Technology and Assessment

January 14, 2004 – ISIMS Update                               

Dear Phase 1 Superintendents:

We again want to thank you for your time and feedback during the regional visits this week.  As discussed, the intent of this letter is to clarify the support that can be expected from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation (Foundation), State Department of Education (SDE), and the ISIMS’ team during the eSIS transition phase.   As we gain additional input and work through outstanding issues, we will continue to update you.

Maintaining eSIS

The ISIMS team will continue to support districts using eSIS throughout the 2004-2005 school year.  Service desk, implementation, training, as well as necessary functionality enhancements for report cards, transcripts, and ADA reporting will be delivered and supported during this time. 

Scheduling in eSIS will be available.  For those who choose to complete scheduling activities in eSIS, pre-scheduling activities will start in February/March to prepare for student course requests.  These course requests will then be the basis for the later spring scheduling activities. After the scheduling activities in April/May the schools will have their 2005-2006 student schedules complete.  Schools that plan to use eSIS to complete their scheduling activities for the 2005-2006 school year must register for upcoming training with Karen Carlyle at Karen.carlyle@isimsproject.org or 208-332-6862.

The shutdown of eSIS will be coordinated to align with the timeframes to allow districts to complete transition and conversion activities. 

Transition to a New Student Information System (SIS) Package

While some districts want to quickly transition off of eSIS, others want to take more time in evaluating package alternatives.  In alignment with the ISIMS original vision, we strongly encourage you to make regional choices, where possible, to ensure that we can best leverage a smaller number of SIS vendors.  Additionally, we believe that whichever package you select, it should be a proven product currently being used in Idaho.  The three packages for consideration are (not in priority order):

• Power School version 4.0
• SASIxp version 6.1.3 (Pearson has committed to the Foundation in writing that they will continue to support SASIxp through 2009.)
• School Master version 5.24

We encourage you to review and select a new SIS as soon as possible.  Vendors have estimated that it will take at least 60-90 days to complete the transition to a new SIS.  With the potential for increased software vendor backlogs this could be longer.   

 

Below are some additional items to consider related to the SIS package transition:

Package Evaluations – The ISIMS team provided a functionality assessment questionnaire to the three vendors.  These assessments have been completed and have been emailed to the Phase 1 Superintendents.  If you did not receive this information, please contact Nissa Crawford at Nissa.Crawford@isimsproject.org or phone 208-332-6847.  This information is intended to be used by each of you as a starting point.  It remains each district’s responsibility to determine the priority of requirements based upon your district’s needs and to confirm the vendor’s response in how they satisfy those requirements.  We encourage you to contact other districts currently using these packages for further feedback.  Please make sure that the package capabilities promised already exist and can be demonstrated to you before you make your decisions.

• Package Modules - The modules selected should at least provide you with the level of capability you had before eSIS.  We encourage each district to include parent access and gradebook functionality if you choose to support those activities on a go forward basis.

• District Transition Intentions – In an effort to provide efficient support and communication, the ISIMS team developed a District Transition Intentions questionnaire (attached) for districts to complete.  This is intended to gather information on your expected usage of eSIS through the end of the school year and your new SIS package selection status.  Please complete this questionnaire no later than January 21st and return to Nissa Crawford at Nissa.Crawford@isimsproject.org or fax in at 208-338-7703.

• Software (SW) & Hardware (HW) Negotiation Support - Based upon the results of the District Transition Intentions questionnaire, the SDE and ISIMS team will provide negotiations support at the state level to help reduce license and maintenance fees, and lower conversion, training, and support costs to obtain a consistent rate across the districts.  This process will occur during January.  We advise all districts to comply with bidding statutes.  The Foundation is prepared to assist if your SW and HW purchases are estimated to exceed the $25,000 limit.

• Package Implementation Responsibility - The following table represents the anticipated organization(s) responsible for completing the SIS transition activities.  Given that each district will be managing their own SIS implementation locally, the centralized model for testing, training, etc. that was the responsibility of the ISIMS team with the eSIS rollout will not continue with the new SIS package(s) implementation.  It will be the responsibility of the software vendor to coordinate these activities directly with the districts.

	Responsibility
SIS Package Transition Activities	District	SW Vendor	ISIMS
SIS Project Mgmt	X	X
ISIMS Support*			X
Training		X
Development		X
Testing	X	X
eSIS Data Extracts for Conversion	X		X
Data Conversion to New SIS	X	X
Data Conversion Support			X
Hardware/Software Implementation/Sizing	X	X
Implementation Support	X	X
Operations/Helpdesk	X	X
Organization Change Management	X

*Refer to Page 4 for a definition of ISIMS Support

Common State Components

A key benefit of the ISIMS vision is the development and consolidation of common Idaho business policies, procedures, data, and reports used across all districts.  While this would be easier to achieve and manage using a single, statewide SIS system, the State Department of Education’s go-forward goal is to converge to a small set of SIS packages that would accommodate the common state components.  As such, the SDE is taking a leadership role in formalizing and documenting these common components.  We anticipate a preliminary draft to be completed by January 21st with subsequent reviews and prioritizations to occur in January and early February. 

We recognize that this will likely require a phased implementation for the vendors to accommodate Idaho’s common components.  Where possible, the SIS vendor will be encouraged to pre-configure the system prior to local implementation to include the common components.  We recommend you address this need with the vendors directly.

Orion Deployment Approach

One of the assets of ISIMS is approximately 25,000 Orion software licenses paid for by the Foundation.  It has been suggested to the SDE that these licenses be made available on a priority basis to the Phase 1 districts.  Districts deciding to implement Orion would be responsible for the costs associated with training, implementing, maintaining, and hosting the application. 

Although many districts have a high interest in leveraging the curriculum management and standards-based reporting as originally intended, this is considered a lower priority item to be re-evaluated moving forward.  The transition of the Phase 1 districts to an operating SIS system package is the highest priority.

Special Education

Given that the special education module of eSIS cannot run independently, this module is no longer a viable solution.  The SDE is evaluating alternatives to support this important need moving forward.

Data Warehouse (DW) / Reporting & Analytics (R&A)

The SDE continues to view the DW and R&A as a high priority.  Although there is not currently funding allocated to continue these initiatives, both the Foundation and SDE agree on the value of these components.  Moving forward, additional consideration will be given to continuing development and implementation toward a centralized data warehouse, common state components, and analytic reporting.

Foundation Transition Funding Support

The Foundation funding to support the eSIS transition are identified below.  

• Software License and Maintenance Fees – The Foundation will only fund the initial set-up, licensing and maintenance fees (or version upgrade fees) for the first year for one of the three aforementioned SIS vendor packages.  Supplemental license fees associated with obtaining parent access and/or gradebook functionality will also be funded by the Foundation through 12/31/05.  We expect that the amount of funding will be determined on a dollar per student basis for each district.  As part of the negotiations support, we will require the conversion and training costs be included as part of this per student cost.  

Hardware – The Foundation is committed to funding new HW equipment required to operate the SIS package selected by the district.  Reasonable requests for needed, one-time new hardware costs must be pre-approved and will be funded at the sole discretion of the Foundation.  The required HW equipment will need to be itemized with costs and supported by vendor estimates/proposals. 

• ISIMS Support – ISIMS will be available to provide support to your transition activities through 9/1/05.  Support activities may include:

• Conversion extract and support
• Vendor SW/HW negotiation
• Package selection information
• Business transaction test cases to leverage
• Common state components

District Staff Support – We understand that time and effort has been expended by district staff to support the eSIS implementation and ongoing day-to-day use.  We do appreciate the efforts of all involved in the ISIMS program.  However, the Foundation will not reimburse districts for district personnel costs expended to support ISIMS.

The ISIMS team will complete a template with each district to define and document the specific financial support and responsibilities required from the ISIMS team for the SIS package transition once a final decision and cost estimate has been completed.  Once ISIMS and district responsibilities are defined, a contract will be delivered to each district for approval by the district, Foundation, and SDE. 

Given the uncertainty of potential future state funding, the desire to satisfy the needs of the ISIMS Phase 1 Districts, and the desire to cost effectively manage this process moving forward, we feel this is the most prudent approach.   

Please contact me via email at twilford@alscott.com if you have any questions or would like to further discuss the go-forward approach.    

Sincerely,

Thomas J. Wilford

J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation

Chief Executive Officer