HEBISD staff recommend Skyward SIS/ERP after year-long RFP process; phased rollout planned
Summary
District staff recommended Skyward's cumulative platform for student information and enterprise resource planning after a year-long RFP evaluation. Skyward was highest-scoring in committee review; staff proposed SIS rollout by July 2026 and full ERP by end of the 2026–27 school year and discussed reporting and migration questions.
Dr. Hopkins and procurement staff summarized a year-long RFP process to replace the district's student information and enterprise resource planning systems. The evaluation produced three finalists and staff recommended Skyward (cumulative platform) as the highest-scoring, best-value vendor based on multi-team scoring.
Procurement staff explained the tabulation considered product features, implementation services and hosting; the recommended Skyward solution is cloud-hosted. Dr. Hopkins said the timeline would put student information (SIS) live in July 2026 (students checking grades and scheduling) and the ERP onboarding to continue during 2026–27 with a target for full ERP implementation at the end of the 2026–27 school year.
Board members asked about continued reporting capabilities previously available via Cognos and whether existing Cognos reports would be recreated or otherwise replaced. Staff responded that some reports will need to be rebuilt in the Skyward platform and that district programmers will inventory existing Cognos reports and plan for necessary custom reports and training. Staff also noted concerns raised about alternate vendors (for example, roadmap and support continuity) and explained committee scoring assignments clarified some score differences.
Dr. Hopkins and procurement staff said Skyward’s cumulative platform is used by a substantial number of Texas districts and that district leaders will prepare communication and training plans for teachers, students and parents as part of onboarding.
