School Board seeks system

• By MARSHA SILLS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Jul 7, 2009 - Page: 1BA

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LAFAYETTE — The Lafayette Parish School Board will meet twice this week to hear pitches from vendors vying to implement a new student information software system for the district.

The Lafayette Parish School System’s student information system dates back to the 1980s. Though the system has been updated, it still doesn’t provide the efficiency or capabilities of newer technologies, schools Superintendent Burnell Lemoine said.

According to the request for proposals, the system should include a common Web browser interface and menu system to chart demographics, discipline and attendance data. It also should provide a grade book, automated scheduling, a master schedule builder and other reporting capabilities.

Eight vendors submitted proposals. A school systems committee selected four vendors to make presentations to the board based on executive summary, corporate background and experience, proposed team and project staff, approach and methodology, and price.

Presentations by Tyler Technologies and Excelsior Software are scheduled at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the board room. At 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sungard and Infinite Campus are scheduled to make presentations.

Here is a breakdown of the five-year total cost by company:

• Tyler Technologies —$816,206, with $385,625 for the first year.
• Excelisor — $593,933 lease price, with $293,933 for the first year; or $833,933 purchase price, with $353,933 for the  first year.
• Sungard — $714,944, with $322,302 for the first year.
• Infinite Campus — $1,494,950, with $600,950 for the first year.

Last year, the School Board budgeted $500,000 for the purchase, which it carried forward to this year’s budget. The new budget includes $200,000 for a “student information system software addition.”

This isn’t the first round of proposals for a new student information system to face the board in the past few years. Two companies, Pearson Education and EDgear, submitted proposals earlier this year, but neither was selected to make a presentation to the board.

In March 2007, the board was set to make pick a new $430,000 system — which was expected to be the Pearson Education product, PowerSchool, but the board did not go forward with the selection.

In 2008, Pearson’s PowerSchool was selected by the proposal selection committee, but in May 2008 the board instead selected a system developed by EDgear.

Pearson challenged the board’s decision and the process was found to be in non-compliance with the public bid law.

In July 2008, the board rescinded its selection and the board hired the Baton Rouge firm, Hammond and Sills, to prepare and review a new proposal for the software purchase.