Wake County completes Oracle 12.2 upgrade; staff reports successful phase‑1 rollout of twice‑monthly pay with phase‑2 delayed to fall

District technology and payroll leaders updated Wake County Schools trustees Tuesday on the completion of an Oracle enterprise resource planning (ERP) upgrade to Oracle Release 12.2 and the district’s rollout of twice‑monthly payroll for some employee groups.

Sashi, a district presenter for technology services, told the board the upgrade addressed an end‑of‑life Oracle environment and eliminated roughly $250,000 in annual extended‑support fees the district had been paying for earlier Oracle versions. "We don't have to do that anymore," Sashi said, adding the upgrade reduced operational compliance and hardware risk.

Jeff, a technology project lead, said the district installed new servers, storage, networking and operating systems for the upgrade and met a January 1 go‑live target. "We met all of the business technical objectives for this upgrade," he said, and reported the system is now in a stabilization period with printing and performance optimizations underway.

The presentation covered the district’s phased move to twice‑monthly pay. Phase 1, which went live in January, included bus drivers, safety assistants in transportation, school‑based Child Nutrition Services (CNS) staff and substitute teachers. On the first twice‑monthly payroll about 3,390 employees were processed and approximately 49 employees had payroll errors (about 1.4% of those processed); staff said the errors were swiftly corrected in the next payroll cycle.

District leaders said many of the initial payroll issues were related to timing, keying differences and payroll formulas in Oracle that required adjustments. They have added validation checks to reduce error rates and are continuing collaborative work among tech services, accounting and compensation teams.

Phase 2 — which would include a broader set of hourly and classified positions (other than certified staff, school administrators and certain central office employees) — had been targeted for a July 1 go‑live. Staff recommended postponing phase 2 until the fall of 2025. Reasons cited: (1) the district is migrating student data to a new student information system, Infinite Campus, with a July 1 go‑live; (2) many year‑round schools begin their school year in July; and (3) the district wants time to roll out an online time‑entry module and gather feedback from phase 1 employees. The postponement is intended to reduce concurrent learning curves for school and central staff.

Board members asked several operational questions. Mr. Hershey praised staff work and supported the delay. Trustees asked whether employees in phase 2 could opt out of twice‑monthly pay; staff said widespread opt‑outs would create operational complexity and a two‑tier payroll practice would be an operational nightmare. Staff also said an online time entry tool, targeted for fall implementation, will mitigate but not eliminate the additional workload of proofing payroll twice per month.

Staff said they will bring periodic updates to the board over the summer, including an Infinite Campus update on May 20 and follow‑up reports on online time entry and phase‑2 planning. The district also surveyed employees in phase 1 (bus drivers, CNS staff and substitutes) to gather feedback and said it will share results with the board.

Why this matters: The Oracle upgrade reduces operational risk from an aging system and enables payroll modernization, but the district must balance system changes with school‑year calendars and other large IT transitions to avoid disruption to payroll and school operations. Delaying phase 2 reduces the chance of overlapping major changes during the summer months when year‑round schools and Infinite Campus go live.

Board next steps: Staff will present updates on Infinite Campus on May 20, report survey results from phase‑1 employees, and return to the board with a revised implementation plan and timetable for twice‑monthly pay for remaining employee groups.