Student Data Technical Assistant

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform the essential job functions satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the primary job functions herein described. Since every duty associated with this position may not be described herein, employees may be required to perform duties not specifically spelled out in the job description, but which may be reasonably considered to be incidental in the performing of their duties just as though they were actually written out in this job description.

GRPS MISSION: Our mission is to ensure that all students are educated, self-directed and productive members of society.

STUDENT DATA TECHNICAL ASSISTANT

Department: Student Data Services

Bargaining Unit: Grand Rapids Association Education Officer Personnel (GREAOP)

Hourly Rate: Based on the collective bargaining agreement

JOB SUMMARY

The Student Data Technical Assistant for Student Data Services (SDS) is responsible for a wide variety of technical and support functions on behalf of SDS customers - school-based staff, central office staff, students, and parents. The SDS Student Data Technical Assistant has wide knowledge of and expertise in pupil accounting processes and procedures, student information system (Synergy) data integrity and analysis, online registration, project facilitation and management, training, student scheduling and grading. Student Data Technical Assistants collaborate and troubleshoot with all SDS customers via SDS Call Center phone, e-mail, on-site consulting, and professional development to ensure exemplary data management, therefore earning maximum pupil FTE funding per building. The SDS Student Data Technical Assistant reports to the Director of Student Data Services.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

Essential functions under the Americans with Disabilities Act may include any of the following duties, knowledge, and skills. This list is illustrative only and is not a comprehensive listing of all functions and duties performed by employees in this position. Regular on time and in person attendance is an essential function of this job. Other essential functions may include, but are not limited to the following:

• Collaborate with school-based staff and executive directors for a set of assigned schools to ensure the entire Count Day Pupil Accounting Audit process is accurately completed including creating timeline and support documents, training, data clean up, completion of ISD forms, internal building FTE audits, final submission to the State, and Section 25 process.
• Responsible for conducting pre-audits for a set of assigned schools to identify invalid and/or missing data. Act as a liaison between System Analysts and school-based administrative assistants to result in correction and clean up.
• Engage in all assigned building Field Audits. Function as liaison between the auditor and school-based staff, communicating any questions and required items for follow up that will reduce potential FTE losses.
• Utilize and understand the MiPSE program regarding Special Education FTE as listed on Count Day Audit reports. Collaborate with the Office of Special Education on integration of MiPSE and Synergy to ensure accuracy of programming FTE.
• Actively participate in state conferences, workshops, and professional development for Pupil Accountants. Ensure that all learning resources that build upon professional learning though formal Pupil Accountant training.
• Understand and communicate district policies and state guidelines on graduation requirements to school-based staff with the entry, maintenance, processing, and reporting of student course history to produce accurate transcripts.
• Collect Graduation and Dropout appeals and audit documentation from school buildings and perform data quality analysis to ensure that submitted documentation meets requirements for acceptable documentation.
• Collaborate with school registrars, counselors, and teachers to enforce district business rules and maintain a standardized process for recording and publishing grades using Synergy TeacherVUE in coordination with published timeline. Provide extended support coverage and analytic reports that identify sections missing grades and/or teachers who have not posted during the last three days grades are due of each Marking Period.
• Transfer teacher posted grades to transcripts and formatted report cards. Collaborate with building staff to approve and then produce final report cards to be printed and mailed to families in coordination with the published timeline.
• Support families and staff with advanced issues and duplicate accounts encountered during the online registration process.
• Review all requests to merge student data submitted by building staff or identified during the quality control process and review duplicate records before merging student data in Synergy SIS.
• Actively participate in department established project management and facilitation roles when encountering new projects. This includes facilitation, validation, testing and support.
• Provide guidance with analyzing report data, master schedule balancing, clean up and all Synergy scheduling functions, in coordination with district guidelines to ensure student staff and district success.
• Process Synergy user access in correlation to employee onboarding, exiting, leave of absence, temporary and non GRPS employees as notification is received from Human Resources.
• Conduct a semiannual system audit to ensure Synergy user access is accurately mapped as pertaining to specific roles and assignments in order to maintain consistency and high level of system security.
• Create and apply testing plan with each system upgrade or major Synergy function roll out. Test commonly used functions to identify potential errors and resolutions.
• Conduct training sessions in conjunction with Training Facilitator and Managers. Create various media, resources, and materials for reference and support in the following core business areas of SDS department: scheduling, online registration, grading, pupil accounting, Synergy basics, and other areas as assigned.
• Coordinate the processing of the district's household supplemental survey process from production though parent notification and State audit including the scanning of meal applications and loading of information to Synergy.
• Receive, assess, and resolve inquires and issues via Helpline phones, email, voice mails and user groups, both internal and external, that use our SIS system.
• Provide high levels of customer service for co-workers, central office staff, school-based staff, students, parents, and the community.
• Carry out all job functions in compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and district policies to include but not limited to FERPA, PPRA and IDEA.
• Other duties as assigned

QUALIFICATIONS

Education and Experience:

• Associates degree in Business Administration, Data Analysis, Computer Science, or related field.
• Demonstrated intermediate working knowledge of a student information system and technical proficiency utilizing MS Office Suite, Good applications, and Adobe.
• Demonstrated ability to proactively process multiple projects and priorities, troubleshoot issues, meet deadlines, and communicate project risks to supervisor.

Preferred Qualification:

• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with principals and other school-based staff on scheduling, attendance, and enrollment issues supported by excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated advanced working knowledge of Synergy student information system and MiPSE

• Knowledge of scheduling processes and formats (block scheduling, traditional, family, etc.), graduation requirements and transcripts, attendance procedures, FERPA, and Pupil Accounting law in the state of Michigan.

• Pupil Accounting Specialist MSBO certification or commitment to complete within the first three years.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Demonstrated ability to work well with others.
• Demonstrated excellent attendance and punctuality.
• Demonstrated ability to represent the district and the department professionally and courteously.
• Demonstrated respect for confidentiality and professionalism
• Demonstrated ability to work in a diverse environment.
• Demonstrated ability to work as part of a team and support staff decisions.
• Ability to deal with high stress situations.

ADA REQUIREMENTS

The physical demands, work environment factors, and mental functions described below are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to stand, walk, sit, use hands to finger, handle, or feel, reach with hands and arms, climb or balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl, talk, hear (in a quiet or noisy environment). The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 40 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision and ability to adjust/focus.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

MENTAL FUNCTIONS

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to compare, analyze, communicate both orally and in writing, copy, coordinate, instruct, compute, synthesize, evaluate, use interpersonal skills, compile, and negotiate.

Non-Discrimination

The Grand Rapids Public Schools will not discriminate against any person based on race, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and expression, height, weight, color, religion, national origin, age, marital status, pregnancy, disability, veteran, or military status.

Americans with Disabilities Act accommodations: Assistance with the application process may be requested through the Human Resources Department at (616) 819-2022 or humanresources@grps.org.