School Board Votes to Move Forward With Implementing New District Management Software

BRADENTON – A vote to approve contracts that would set the district in motion to begin switching over to a new management software system was approved at Tuesday's school board meeting, after a lengthy discussion over whether the process for the contracts should be thoroughly audited before the board takes a vote on it.

The vote to approve the contracts effectively kick starts a 13-month long process where district staff, and consultants from the contractors, will work to implement software from Oracle that would help manage various large district functions, such as H.R., payroll, inventory and transportation.

One of the district's long-stated reasons for wanting to make such a system-wide change is to improve communication within departments as well as move past outdated software that does not meet the district's modern needs.

"My feeling is that we very much need to move along with getting a system (that's 21st century)," said school board member Dave Miner, who added that for the district, "the right hasn't always been knowledgeable about what the left hand has been doing."

Patrick Fletcher, the district's Chief Information and Technology Officer, said finding a product that has experience in a K-12 Florida school system was at the front of the minds of district staff when looking for potential contractors. "We've been very diligent to seek out products and vendors that have a track record in Florida," he said.

Miner, who felt more time was needed before voting, moved to table the matter, saying he wanted the district's internal auditor, Shinn & Co., to give what he called a detailed report into the district's process that led them to recommend the contracts–citing their collective cost of nearly $10 millioin and the scope of the changes that the software implementation would bring to the district's inner workings–and then give that report to the district's volunteer audit committee for review before a board vote.

Audit committee chair Joe Blitzko told the board he felt such a review was still needed. "Before you had the meeting tonight, you should have had a detailed report from the internal auditor," said Blitzko, who added that if the board felt comfortable with the one-page summary that had been provided by Shinn & Co., then they could go with voting for the contracts.

Board member Bob Gause said he never viewed such a process as something that requires audit committee approval. "We should not ask the audit committee to look at a contract and recommend whether to implement a contract that staff has recommended," said Gause, adding that he still wanted the audit committee to look at the process and provide thoughts or ideas on it.

For his part, Byron Shinn of Shinn & Co. said he felt his company's role in internal auditing would be overstepping its boundaries by reviewing the process behind district staff's work on a contract before the school board had taken a vote on the matter.

Miner's motion to table the vote eventually died for lack of a second, and the board decided to unanimously approve both contracts.

"I feel confident that we're going to make it ... I also feel confident that it's going to be a rough 13 months," said Fletcher, who added that staff from the Lee County School District, who have already gone through the process of changing over to the same management software, would be coming up to Manatee County during the process to provide assistance and advice during the change.