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Bennington board votes to adopt Synergy student information system for 2026–27 rollout
Summary
After a committee review and vendor demonstrations, the board approved a plan to replace the district’s long‑running student information system with Synergy, citing better user experience, integration and reporting; the contract and migration plan were approved by roll call.
Bennington Public Schools staff recommended and the board approved on Aug. 11 a multi‑year contract to adopt Synergy as the district’s student information system, with an implementation target of the 2026–27 school year. A staff committee ran a request for information, evaluated four vendors with a rubric and brought two finalists onsite; Synergy scored 48.1 out of 60 versus PowerSchool’s 43.6, and the committee recommended Synergy for its user interface, integration capabilities and scalability.
Staff described major implementation considerations: rebuilding and migrating historically customized reports, potential costs for document storage if the district decides to fully digitize cumulative files, and a migration plan that would pull five years of historical student data into the new system so transcripts and records remain accessible. Projected first‑year implementation costs were presented at about $69,000, with recurring costs in years 2–5 near $53,000–$58,000 annually and an estimated five‑year total of about $290,764; staff compared that with a projected five‑year NexSys (current vendor) cost of roughly $319,000 under modest annual increases.
A motion to approve Synergy passed by roll call (Allison, Jeremy, Tim, Carol, Joe, Steve recorded as "Yes"). Staff emphasized the multi‑month implementation runway (the district expects to spend the 11 months before rollout configuring reports and data), cautioned that some upfront time will be required to rebuild custom reports, and said vendor implementation support resources would be used to reduce disruption. The board’s approval authorizes staff to proceed with contract finalization and implementation planning.
