Schaumburg, Illinois
14,000 Students

Schaumburg School District 54, located in northeast Illinois, has 27 schools with more than 14,000 students. In 2009, Schaumberg chose Infinite Campus for its flexible scheduling, customizable reporting options, and advanced data analysis capabilities. Today, the district uses Tableau to visualize individual student and district-level data. Looking at the ‘big picture’ helps District 54 predict trends and make more informed decisions.

Challenges
District 54 had been using their previous student information system (SIS) for more than 11 years. According to Joseph Tomchuk, District 54 Information Systems Supervisor, “Our previous system was not user-friendly and was difficult to navigate. We needed an SIS that was intuitive so our staff could take full advantage of the system.”

With 14,000 students, scheduling was a timely task. “Our previous system’s scheduling options were not conducive with our principal’s scheduling needs,” said Tomchuk. “And with so many students, we needed a solution that could simplify this task.”

In addition, their previous system did not have customizable reporting options. Tomchuk stated, “Anytime we needed a custom-made report, the vendor would have to format it for us. We wanted the ability to create them ourselves.”

It soon became apparent to District 54 that they needed to switch systems. They considered four vendors. “We brought in a representative from every department in the district to evaluate each system. Then, we took a survey, and 80% voted for Infinite Campus,” remembered Tomchuk.

Solution
By winter 2009, District 54 was up-and-running with Infinite Campus. “After implementing Campus, our data was cleaner and more accurate. It’s fully integrated, so we only need to enter data once, and it spreads across all platforms in the district,” said Tomchuk.

District 54 has taken advantage of Tableau, an optional product allows them to combine data from Infinite Campus such as grades, attendance, behavior and much more, with other common data sources into unified data visualizations.

According to Tomchuk, “We move our data to Tableau every night. Once the template is in place the information gets updated automatically! We can see real-time data at the district level, or they can ‘drill down’ to look at individual schools, students or teachers. By visualizing our data, we can make more informed decisions.”

District 54 benefits from Campus Scheduler, a flexible scheduling option. Using district-defined rules, Schaumburg quickly and efficiently sets up schedules and possible variations in real time.

Campus Scheduler includes:

• Auto-build” a master schedule based on defined needs
• Planning tools to facilitate the building logic
• Mass updating tools for course information
• Color coding to delineate between auto-built sections versus manually added sections

Additionally, District 54 now has custom reporting options to fulfill district-specific needs. “We’re finally up-to-speed with our reporting services,” said Tomchuk. “It’s so easy for us to create our own reports. When generating report cards, we can even covert the data to multiple languages. The customizable options are endless.”

Results
District 54 has seen many positive results from switching to Infinite Campus. Stakeholder communication has increased immensely with the Campus Portal which is included at no additional cost. Parents and students have real-time access to grades, attendance, assignments, schedule information and much more. Additionally, the Campus Mobile Portal is an intuitive app that can be accessed from any Apple® iOS or Android® device.

“During parent-teacher conferences, parents are already aware of their child’s grades and attendance. Since they’re already informed, teachers can focus their efforts on how to help the student, rather than just relaying statistical information,” explained Tomchuk.

District 54 benefits from free, monthly technology updates that are added without disruption. According to Tomchuk, “Infinite Campus is constantly improving their product, and it shows. We know that our district’s money is not only going to the current product, but also to improving the product down the road. I would recommend Infinite Campus to any district currently looking at making a change.”