Business & Adminstrative

Twin Cities School District Consolidates Administrative Functions

• By Michael Hart
• 02/24/15

Shakopee Public Schools (SPS) in suburban Minneapolis has consolidated all of its administrative functions into a single system.

The 7,600-student school district now has a single administrative suite, provided by Infinite Campus, which accommodates its student information system as well as its finance, human resources, payroll and business functions. A one-time mix of independently operated functions, some of them managed by third parties, now provides reports and functions from a single source, streamlining procedures and increasing efficiency.

Using the Infinite Campus student information system along with Campus Finance, HR and Payroll should allow district officials to share more data across the district.

"We used to spend a lot of time massaging data to make it useful," said SPS Finance Director Mike Burlager. "We no longer have to do that."

Likewise, the district no longer needs to send e-mails notifying staff of administrative updates. Instead, changes can be made immediately available throughout the system.

"Now,” Burlager said, "if human resources adds a teacher to the system, the information is instantly available to everybody. Campus integration keeps information accurate and timely."

At the same time, many more staff members can have access to information and create and share reports that package information in more meaningful ways for them.

"This means our business office no longer receives calls to pull specific reports," Burlager said, "a big benefit of using one system."