Serving more than 100,000 students, Pinellas County Schools is the eighth-largest district in Florida and the 28th-largest district in the United States.
To adequately address the needs of students, teachers, administrators, and parents, the district needs a robust and modern data platform. District officials have tapped Fearless to lead a data modernization effort for the Enterprise-Resource Planning system and Student Data Modernization.
Creating an instinctive system.
The district runs 70+ application programs to support student growth academically, socially, and within the community. But district employees continually run into the pain point of tracking student demographic data, such as grades, attendance, and safety details, using old and outdated platforms.
“There is nothing more frustrating than trying to use a system that doesn’t easily give you the information you need,” said Fearless Portfolio Director Rob Wainwright. “We want to create a system that's more instinctive. Our dual discovery team is evaluating the full system and identifying redundancies with the 40+ databases the district currently utilizes to see where things can be streamlined.”
The Fearless team is identifying automation opportunities and applications of data science, AI, and machine learning. By doing so we'll be able to develop better systems for managing student data, and their overall ERP processes.
By continually incorporating user feedback, we're identifying trends and themes to ensure an enhanced Pinellas County Schools student data system delivers the most value to the PCS community.
“We are excited to work with Fearless to modernize the multiple siloed platforms we currently use,” said Keith Mastorides, Pinellas County Schools’ Associate Superintendent of Technology and Information Systems. “Connecting our financial, human resource, and procurement platforms, as well as our student data systems, will create efficiencies, eliminate redundancies, and ultimately improve employee productivity, stakeholder satisfaction, and student learning.”
Jennifer Dull, the school district’s Chief Strategy and Impact Officer, added, “While we usually work with consultants within the education space, it was critical to engage a leading data solutions expert to ensure maximum results. By modernizing our student data systems, teachers will have access to actionable data and will be able to tailor individual student instruction in real-time. Additionally, parents and students will have more intuitive access to student data and will be able to make inquiries and necessary changes without having to access multiple platforms.”
Pinellas County’s modernization effort is part of a larger trend of digital transformation moving from the federal to state and local levels.
“We are seeing an increase in states adopting digital transformation leveraging federal assets,” said Fearless’ Chief Growth Officer Greg Godbout. “The use of shared services is the key to success, streamlining processes, improving efficiencies and the user experience, and saving taxpayers’ money.”