Education Week - March 6, 2013 - 10

EDUCATION WEEK

MARCH 6, 2013

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INDUSTRY & INNOVATION > Tracking business trends and emerging models in K-12
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Wisconsin Data-Contract Fight
Goes Public With Ad Campaign
By Sean Cavanagh

not unusual. “Everybody thinks
they should win. That’s just
human nature,” Mr. Gallt said. Yet
“the magnitude of this contract is
what’s drawing more attention,”
he pointed out. “That’s a pretty big
number.”

A fight over a lucrative contract to create a statewide student data system in Wisconsin
has generated an official protest,
public campaigning, and a dispute between two companies over
which is better suited to create Border Rivalry
and manage an electronic warehouse of information for schools.
Wisconsin’s legislature approved
Earlier this month, the state the creation of a student-informaannounced its intention to award tion system in 2011, in what was
a contract to Infinite Campus described as an effort to streamline
Inc., a Minnesota-based company, and simplify the collection of data
to build and administer the sys- on student test performance, attentem for more than 440 school dis- dance, health records, discipline,
tricts and charter schools.
and special education services. The
That decision has drawn the idea was to establish a faster, more
objections of a losing bidder, Sky- consistent, and less costly model
ward Inc., a Wisconsin company for gathering and storing that inthat recently took out advertise- formation than having individual
ments in the state’s largest news- districts do it on their own.
papers warning readers that the
Last year, the state issued a recontract decision could result in quest for proposals to undertake
the business being “pushed out of the project. A panel reviewed
the state.”
seven proposals and eventually
The battle underscores the high gave the highest-scoring proposal
financial stakes for companies at- to Infinite Campus, beating out
temping to secure the rights to Skyward and other vendors. On
operate statewide school informa- Feb. 1, the department of admintion systems, which have become istration issued a notice of intent
increasingly essential to state gov- to award the student-information
ernments over the years, as states contract to Infinite Campus.
and districts attempt to collect
Skyward later filed a protest
and manage reams of education with state officials, arguing that
data. Wisconsin has initially bud- a “non-Wisconsin company” had
geted $15 million for its system. been awarded the contract after
The overall size of the contract a process that was “plagued with
could run as high as $90 million irregularities” and scoring errors.
over time, Skyward officials said,
Specifically, the company said
though an Infinite Campus official evaluators had made mathematical
offered a lower estimate.
mistakes that gave Infinite Campus
“Information technology systems too high a score, and improperly
tend to be the big-ticket items in inflated Skyward’s cost proposal—
most states” today, said Jack which the Stevens Point, Wis.-based
Gallt, the executive director of company said was in fact $14.5 milthe National Association of State lion lower than Infinite Campus’
Procurement Officials, based in over the life of the contract.
Lexington, Ky. States are making
Skyward officials noted that
major investments in those tech- they currently operate student
nology systems for not only educa- information systems in about 220
tion, but also health care, public Wisconsin school systems, and
safety, and other areas.
forcing those districts to incur exIn one sense, disputes over the penses by switching to a different
BI_3.75x3.125_BI_Ad 2/6/13 are vendor—Infinite Campus—would
awarding of those contracts12:21 PM Page 1

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bring new costs to taxpayers.
The Wisconsin company also
took issue with the removal of one
of the evaluators during the review of company proposals. That
individual was removed after a
subject-matter expert observing the
process warned that the evaluator
could be perceived as coaching or
assisting one of the vendors during
a question-and-answer session. An
independent report commissioned
by the state found that the decision
to remove the unnamed evaluator
was made out of an “abundance
of caution,” and was “reasonable
under the circumstances.”
That report, produced by a Wisconsin law firm, concluded that
the overall evaluation process revealed “no bias in favor or against
any bidder.”

Statehouse Action?
Skyward officials disagree. In addition to filing a protest with the
state, they’re taking their case to
the public. The company took out
ads in a number of Wisconsin’s
largest newspapers urging residents to contact the state’s elected
schools superintendent, Tony
Evers, and Republican Gov. Scott
Walker, presumably to take action
on Skyward’s behalf.
“We felt it necessary to get a
message out to the state,” said
Raymond Ackerlund, Skyward’s
vice president of marketing and
management. “Because we’re
based in the state of Wisconsin,
this is more personal to us.”
The extent to which state officials could help Skyward is
unclear. Stephanie Marquis, a
spokeswoman for the department
of administration, said the vendor selection process is purposely
designed to be “shielded from the
political process,” and based on
which company can provide the
best services at the best price.
But this month, a bipartisan
group of state legislators, including Sen. Julie Lassa, a Democrat
who represents Stevens Point,
filed a bill that would require the
state to choose at least two vendors to operate its student-data
system, on a competitive basis.
The legislation would “save
school districts millions and prevent the loss of hundreds of goodpaying jobs in Wisconsin,” the
lawmakers said in a statement.
Skyward’s complaint will go to
the department of public instruction, and if the response does not
satisfy the company, it can appeal to the department of administration, said Patrick Gasper, a
spokesman for the state education agency. The agency will conduct a “fair and comprehensive
review of their protest,” he said
in a statement.
Eric Creighton, Infinite Campus’ chief operating officer, said

the idea that his company’s work
would cost millions more than
Skyward’s is “not based in reality.”
“They’re cherry-picking the information and using it to support
an otherwise unfounded claim,”
Mr. Creighton said. The process
of awarding the contract was “fair
and open and transparent.”
The operations of both Skyward
and Infinite Campus extend well
beyond Wisconsin and the Midwestern United States. Skyward
provides services to about 1,600
school districts nationally and
internationally with studentinformation and human-resource
systems, Mr. Ackerlund said. It
currently has 280 employees
in Wisconsin, and if its future
growth occurs out of state, “it is
only prudent to locate our company in an optimal location to
better support that growth,” he
said in an e-mail.
Infinite Campus, located in the
Minneapolis suburb of Blaine,
describes itself as the largest
American-owned manager of
student-information systems,
and estimates its products serve

Data company Skyward Inc.
has run ads in Wisconsin’s
largest newspapers
to protest a state decision
on a data-services contract.

5 million students in 43 states.
While its presence in Wisconsin
districts is smaller than Skyward’s, it operates statewide student-information systems, similar
to those envisioned in Wisconsin,
in a number of states.
While Infinite Campus supports its rival’s right to protest
the state’s contract decision, Mr.
Creighton said Wisconsin officials
created a sound process designed
to obtain low-cost services without political interference. State
lawmakers did not envision the
student-information system as “a
jobs bill,” he said.
Coverage of the education industry and
K-12 innovation is supported in part
by a grant from the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation.

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Education Week - March 6, 2013

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