Planning is underway for the replacement of a database system used for tracking students’ personal information in School District 47.
Steve Hopkins, school district secretary treasurer, said that a decision will be reached soon over which database software will be chosen to replace British Columbia enterprise Student Information System (BCeSIS), which will be decommissioned in 2016.
BCeSIS was set up in 2005 and cost the province $16 million to develop and about $11 million per year to operate and maintain.
Since September 2013 the school district has been evaluating a locally-coded, open source database software system called OpenStudent as a possible option. The system is being created by School District 63 (Saanich) and would have approximately half the operating costs of BCeSIS.
In November the ministry of education announced it had finalized a $9.4-million annual contract with Fujitsu Consulting, for a new Aspen student information system called ConnectEDBC. The new software system is web-based, can be accessed on mobile devices and is robust enough to support personalized learning, group collaboration, special needs and flexible scheduling, the ministry said in a news release.
“The new service will make it far easier for parents to engage in ongoing conversation about their child’s progress and for teachers to gain better insights into their students,” said Peter Fassbender, BC minister of education. “It will also deliver powerful collaboration tools to better engage students in their own learning and help educators share learning strategies and materials with their colleagues across the province.”
The ministry of education has said that the ConnectEdBC system will cost school districts the same per student as BCeSIS at $10 per student each year, but give more functionality. The new system would allow for a single student record to stay with a student from kindergarten through to graduation. It would also allow parents and students to access records, monitor student progress and communicate with teachers.
Hopkins said that while the school district has been looking at both options it has not yet chosen a direction. He estimates that a decision will be made early in the new year. “It represents a big change regardless of which software we go with,” he said.
