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Huntley District advances plan to replace payroll and finance systems with Skyward
Summary
After a months-long review, district leaders told the Board they plan to replace legacy payroll and finance systems (ADP/SBS and SDS) with Skyward, projecting lower ongoing costs and a phased implementation beginning this year and extending into next fiscal year.
Huntley Community School District 158 administrators told the Board they plan to move forward with a multi-year implementation of Skyward, a school-focused enterprise resource planning (ERP) system intended to replace the district’s current payroll, timekeeping and finance platforms.
District officials said the change is intended to reduce recurring costs and simplify payroll, human-resources and financial reporting functions. Administration provided a timeline that would begin implementation this year and aim for an April 1 “go-live” test window the following year, with full conversion and savings materializing after the implementation period.
Why it matters: The district currently pays for multiple legacy systems that staff said require manual work-arounds. Administration said the combined annual cost for ADP and the current finance system is about $258,000 a year; Skyward’s ongoing license was presented as roughly $48,000 a year once implementation is complete. Officials said upfront implementation costs will increase near-term but that the district expects operational savings thereafter.
District staff described the migration as a heavy lift that will require department-by-department data cleaning, vendor project planning and substantial staff time for testing and training. Administration said it anticipates a roughly 12-month implementation timeline and expects to split some of the upfront costs across two fiscal years.
Finance staff said Skyward’s built-in reporting and paperless expense workflows are a key advantage. The district also described plans to migrate historical payroll and HR data and to test payroll runs in the vendor environment before cutting over.
Board members asked about migration risks, vendor support, parallel runs during transition and cloud security. Administration said Skyward provides a project-planning team, has widespread K-12 adoption among neighboring districts, and that the district’s IT team will apply layered security protections during and after conversion. The vendor quote referenced a cloud hosting component and included an enrollment estimate the district said will be verified before contracting.
Next steps: Administration asked the Board to approve moving the procurement and budget-decision process forward; board members signaled support for continuing the purchase process and reviewing contract details and implementation budgeting at upcoming meetings. Final contract approval and the allocation of implementation funding will be brought back for formal board action.
Ending: Administration said it will continue to consult neighboring districts that have already implemented Skyward, and that implementation milestones, costs and training plans will be shared with the Board as part of the FY2026 budget process.
