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Committee approves long‑sheet reductions tied to PowerSchool to Infinite Campus transition
Summary
Lawmakers and NDIT discussed reductions to Edutech licensing and support staffing tied to the K‑12 student information system migration from PowerSchool to Infinite Campus; the committee signaled changes on the long sheet for licensing and two FTE reductions in the second half of the next biennium.
House Appropriations members discussed staffing and license changes tied to the Department of Public Instruction’s planned migration from PowerSchool to Infinite Campus and directed NDIT to reflect phased savings on the long sheet.
Greg Hoffman (NDIT) told the committee that PowerSchool licensing is currently perpetual (owned by the state), which "means because it's not subscription, on June 30, if everything isn't rainbows and unicorns, we can leave a server on and the licensing and a teacher can still have access to that PowerSchool server" for reference. Hoffman said because the new Infinite Campus system is cloud‑based and subscription‑licensed, the state will not own a perpetual license after the migration and that licensing funding for the second year of the next biennium is appropriate to remove from Edutech’s base.
NDIT and DPI estimate 12 FTEs currently support PowerSchool. The department proposed retaining a subset of those staff to support integrations and transition work. Hoffman and Representative Bosch described a compromise to show a reduction of two FTE positions on the long sheet for the second half of the next biennium and to leave funding for four staff in place to support any residual work; committee members and NDIT agreed to keep a contingency if transition work extends.
NDIT proposed removing roughly $1.4 million in licensing costs for the second year (reflecting the end of PowerSchool licensing obligations) and proposed a $2,527,781 reduction tied to staffing/operating changes that would be recognized in the second half of the biennium. The committee instructed staff to include the two FTE reduction and the licensing savings in the amendment and to provide a salary/operations breakout for the staffing change.
Ending
The committee directed staff to amend the long sheet to show the PowerSchool license reduction and a phased reduction of two NDIT FTEs in the second half of the next biennium, and to work with DPI to ensure service continuity during the migration.
