Over $1.5 million and 1000s of hours invested thus far, Plano ISD’s latest switch to a new, all-encompassing software program for Employee Resource Planning (ERP) and Student Information System (SIS) has been a myriad of confusion and frustration.
Skyward was finally released to go live on July 22, 2024, three weeks before the start of school, which was nothing short of a huge headache for parents and staff.
Popular school related social media sites had hundreds of complaints such as:
- “….School starts tomorrow, and I still can’t click on any of the options for Skyward. I put in a help request a week ago, and it was never answered.”
- “…My kids still don’t show up on mine I emailed the support and they blew me off and just said contact the school.”
- ”…the registrars are just learning the system as well. I am sure they’re trying their best to get back to parents as soon as they can but imagine they are backed up from being out after multiple days of training.”
- “I am getting error message every time I submit for registration. Calls are not answered at schools, PISD main office and help desk. Still waiting for email reply from help desk. What to do.”
- ”I have reached out to the help link numerous times I can not gain any access…No contact in almost 2 weeks that can help us.”
- “…Contacted Helpdesk last Friday, emailed and phoned several times since then, couldn’t get hold of any one, it simply goes to voicemail after few mins.”
- ”This is a mess – the option to complete the annual registration forms is missing for all of my kids…and multiple emails have gone unanswered.”
- ”I created an account but neither of my students are visible. No response to emails sent.”
Bid request for ERP & SIS, 2022
“Budget Impact: The funding source will be 2022 Bond funds. The estimated annual expenditures are as follows:
- Year 0 – Estimated installation date through 6/30/24 – $1,657,350
- Year 1 – 7/1/24 through 6/30/25 – $1,874,209
- Year 2 – 7/1/25 through 6/30/26 – $1,051,884
- Year 3 – 7/1/26 through 6/30/27 – $1,051,884
- Year 4 – 7/1/27 through 6/30/28 – $1,089,895
- Year 5 – 7/1/28 through 6/30/29 – $1,129,292 “
Give or take, it looks like Plano ISD has already invested approximately $1.7 million into this. Are we getting the best bang for our buck given thus far this roll-out has been a fiasco? Is Skyward a sub-par product? Are the challenges experienced due to a poor implementation schedule?
Skyward implementation schedule
Drop us a line and let us know what your experience – positive or negative – with Skyward has been.
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