LAUSD BORROWS TO LAUNCH GLITCH-PRONE TRACKING SYSTEM.

Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer

Despite a serious financial crunch, the Los Angeles Unified School District is borrowing heavily to launch a $43.5 million student information system, even though there have been major glitches in its performance at some other local school districts.

The LAUSD has signed a three-year contract with Reston, Va.-based Maximus Inc. to implement Schoolmax, a Web-based system, to track student demographics, grades, attendance, class schedules and other vital information. The deal is being financed through certificates of participation - a form of borrowing repaid from operating funds - at a time when the district has slashed $360 million in expenditures to balance its budget.

The system, which has also been adopted by school districts in Glendale, Simi Valley and Oxnard, is criticized by some as not living up to its promise.

In Glendale and Oxnard, employees had problems with attendance record-keeping and class schedule changes. They also struggled to compile graduation lists and academic transcripts needed for college applications.

More than a year after the Glendale Unified School District launched Schoolmax, district officials are still working to address a list of 143 concerns raised by staffers, according to a district report released earlier this year.

``A year and a half into it, I am disappointed and embarrassed our staff is still struggling,'' said Glendale school board member Pam Ellis, a parent whose children experienced problems with changing class schedules and retrieving transcripts for college applications.

``I think everybody who has to work with it - from the principals ... down to the clerks - are not crazy about it. They just keep hoping it will be OK tomorrow.''

Maximus' spokeswoman, Rachael Rowland, did not return calls for comment.

Ellis said when her daughter needed to make a change to her class schedule, a glitch wiped out the girl's entire schedule and her counselor had to start from scratch, turning what was once an easy process into a big headache.

Ellis' son also had problems obtaining his high school transcript for a college application. Ultimately, the district had to use the district's old system to retrieve a printed copy.

Problems at Oxnard

The Oxnard Union High School District, which launched Schoolmax in the 2001 school year, has had to relaunch the attendance component, which frequently crashed because too many teachers were signing on simultaneously to do roll calls.

Attendance tracking problems were so severe the state refused to certify the Oxnard district's numbers - the basis for the bulk of school funding - and special legislation was required to straighten out the mess.

Nancy Baker, an Oxnard school attendance clerk, said the system was supposed to make educators' lives easier, but it has instead created a lot of stress.

``I hope and pray that everything is corrected. It's been a very hard year,'' she said. ``It seems like everything we do on this software has taken us longer to do.''

Enrolling a student using Schoolmax requires calling up as many as eight different screens on a computer.

Los Angeles Unified officials defended their selection of Schoolmax - one of three systems considered - saying it best matches the district's needs, without requiring substantial customization.

Shahryar Khazei, director of information technology for the LAUSD, said Schoolmax has a track record in California, where 35 districts have adopted the system. Khazei said the district is aware of the problems some districts have experienced.

``We definitely listened to them. We highlighted those concerns,'' he said. ``We made sure there is language in the contract that protects the district.''

Under the district's contract with Maximus, the company does not get paid unless it meets a series of implementation goals. Because LAUSD is Maximus' largest client in California, district officials said the company has a tremendous incentive for success so it can dominate the market.

``There is a lot at stake for them,'' said Khazei. ``We feel they want this more than anybody else to be successful.''

Profit sharing 

If Schoolmax is successfully implemented at LAUSD, the district would get a share of the profits from future sales of the system to districts with average student attendance of 40,000 or higher.

Khazei said district staffers are well aware of the potential for catastrophic failure and therefore have broken implementation of the project into smaller, more manageable phases with firm benchmarks. District officials also say they will introduce the software program in a limited number of schools before widespread implementation.

``There is a high failure rate, if you don't manage risk and write the contract this way - small phases, deliverables, payment schedules. These are key factors, key elements of the contract,'' said Khazei.

But even school board members who voted for the system say they are nervous. The history of government agencies adopting ambitious, high-tech information systems in the name of efficiency is one filled with cautionary tales.

California State University's troubled computer management system intended to track personnel, student and financial records exceeded original cost estimates by several hundred million dollars. The cost overruns, delays and glitches have led to an audit by the state Attorney General's Office.

And the city of Los Angeles' new $22 million state-of-the-art procurement, inventory and billing system was also a flop. It failed so badly that vendors were not paid, sale taxes were miscalculated and crucial supplies ran out.

The LAUSD itself experienced major problems when it installed a $45 million administrative computer system in the late 1990s.

``The past history has been to put a lot of money into our computer system and not really getting even close to our money's worth,'' said Los Angeles school board member Julie Korenstein, who voted to purchase Schoolmax. ``Of course, we were told by staff we are going to fix it this time.''

In addition to Schoolmax, the district is also planning to implement a human resources and financial/procurement computer systems to streamline operations.

Altogether, the three systems for the first three years would cost $88.3 million. During the next 15 years, the district anticipates spending $208 million to support the systems, pay for upgrades, install software and hardware and personnel training.

The startup cost of $88.3 million is being paid by certificates of participation. COPs are repaid using the general fund, which pays for teachers, psychologists, nurses and other crucial day-to-day operating expenses.

`Institutional Prozac'

``It makes you wonder if you are forking over $100 million, what you can buy in additional clerks and training, additional counselors and psychologists' time and all the things that the overburdened system doesn't say it has the money to purchase, '' said Los Angeles school board member David Tokofsky, who also voted for Schoolmax but opposed the debt-financing plan.

``Then somebody comes up with a miracle computer system and everybody says 'Let's take it.' It's sort of like institutional Prozac.''

Tokofsky said even if the system works and lives up to its promise, he questions how many would actually make use of it to improve student achievement.

``I think there is a possibility the system doesn't work and the possibility it could work and nobody uses it,'' he said. ``They don't invest any amount of money in the reality of the working people. You could be a teacher and you already have 200 kids a day. When are you going to do this other (data) input?''

Oxnard, Simi and Glendale district officials all defend Schoolmax, despite problems they have endured, insisting that there is nothing on the market that is perfect. They add that when you make a transition to a new system, problems inevitably come up.

Oxnard has since fixed its attendance tracking system, but Judy Warner, assistant superintendent of education services, has some warning for Los Angeles Unified officials.

``They are in for a huge challenge to implement a software system for a system that size.''

Helen Gao, [phone]

helen.gao(at)dailynews.com