School officials need more time, money to complete software overhaul

A massive overhaul of the School District of Manatee County’s software system is facing delays and may require more time and money to complete, auditors reported during a Thursday afternoon meeting of the district’s Audit Committee at school board offices.

Several areas of the overhaul, known as the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Project, are delayed due to the complexity of the process, said Angie Oxley, an internal auditor with Shinn & Co.

Oxley said 15 of 28 areas are stalled, waiting on more than 70 decisions to be made. She said the ERP project is understaffed and project managers have to wear multiple hats. Also, Ciber Inc., the firm leading the transition, declared bankruptcy in April and some key leaders working with the project are no longer with the firm.

Deputy superintendent for operations Ron Ciranna said he would be requesting more money for the project at the July school board meeting, but he said the exact amount had not yet been finalized.

“Any time you have a project of this magnitude you are dealing with a lot of different concerns,” Ciranna said. “One is that the implementation has to follow board policy, it has to follow collective bargaining agreements, and it has to follow best practices and state statutes and guidelines.”

Work began on the transition in March 2016 with a projected completion date of April 2017. In December last year, district officials expanded the scope of the project to include Manatee Technical College and school-based internal accounts. The target completion timeline is now March 2018 for the K12 system and April 2018 for Manatee Technical College, Ciranna said.

School board chairman Charlie Kennedy told committee members it was important for the district to not be “penny wise and pound foolish.”

“Let’s not dig our feet in and say we’re not going to put another penny into it, and let’s get this thing done by March,” Kennedy said.

The committee recommended a new contract with Shinn & Co. to continue monitoring the process that district chief financial officer Rebecca Roberts objected to on the grounds that it was $154,000 on top of what the firm was paid last year.

At a school board meeting earlier this month, district officials asked the board to allow district employees to assist in the internal audit. The board was deadlocked on the decision, with board members debating over whether it was worth saving money even if it looked bad to have district employees performing internal audit functions.

Shinn said the additional money was necessary to complete auditing the project and that initial costs had been based on the school district completing the project on schedule.

Shinn praised the district for a “culture change” taking place, but said he questioned why the district is on a four-day work week when the project was so far behind.

“We are sitting here getting into a really critical piece of the entity that supports the classroom and the staff, and we are on a four-day, 37.5-hour week,” Shinn said. “We are behind the eight ball.”

This story was originally published June 22, 2017 at 7:10 PM with the headline "School officials need more time, money to complete software overhaul."