Agency of Education cites lessons from eFinance rollout as uniform chart of accounts achieves near‑universal use

At a March meeting of the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee, Agency of Education officials summarized the history and current status of the statewide school enterprise resource planning project known as SSDMS and the eFinance contract, and said the Uniform Chart of Accounts has delivered most statewide data comparability benefits even though the statewide ERP rollout stalled.

The presentation, led by Ted Gates, education finance manager at the Agency of Education (AOE), said the legislature originally mandated a single statewide system in 2018 but rescinded mandatory implementation in 2023. “Adopting the uniform chart of accounts kind of got us to the 1‑yard line in terms of consistency and comparability and better quality of data,” Gates said, adding that the software choice was secondary to achieving a common coding standard.

AOE officials told the committee that roughly 54 school districts exist in Vermont; 21 initially converted to PowerSchool eFinance, two later dropped off after the mandate was lifted and 19 remain on eFinance (about 35–40 percent of districts). Gates said the PowerSchool contract is currently under extension…