District Time Saver – How North Kansas City School District modernized their record management and won favor with students and parents

Learn how North Kansas City Schools moved from an outdated, cumbersome, and manual process for records requests to a seamless process that satisfies both staff and students.

North Kansas City School District had an outdated process for fulfilling transcript and verification requests. They were in need of a solution, but it needed to be cost effective and accommodate the unique needs of their district. Enter Parchment.

Recognizing Challenges

North Kansas City School District is full of dedicated, hard-working staff members. The Registrars were no exception. In fact, the dedication of the Registrars masked an underlying inefficiency with how transcripts and verifications were processed. For Janelle Porter, Executive Director – Student & Community Services, it was imperative that they find a solution to alleviate the workload of the Registrars. Janelle explained, “Our Registrars were amazing at their jobs and they didn’t complain, but when we heard about Parchment we decided to look into it. It became clear very quickly that there was frustration with our current process.”

The challenges were clear: the process was paper-based and manual. Students and parents grew increasingly frustrated that they didn’t know if their records were sent and when they were delivered. And for Registrars, the process was time-consuming and manual. Records were mailed and faxed without an adequate “paper-trail” that they could communicate to families. To make matters worse, enrollments were growing and the problem was only becoming more evident. “For us, we still have one Registrar at each high school and we are a growing district. We had a choice, we either have to make this more efficient or we are going to be struggling very soon”, Janelle said.

Selecting Parchment

Identifying the problem was a big step forward, selecting a partner to solve the problem was another. Janelle knew that to get district leadership to buy in, they had to make the business case. “We started with a cost-benefit analysis. How much do we spend in paper, ink and postage?”, Janelle said. “More importantly, how much time did this cost us? It became evident very quickly that this was going to save us time and money and when you’re working at a school district, that’s exactly what you’re looking for.”

After seeing Parchment’s network of electronic receivers and their ability to track a document to the destination, it was obvious that Parchment was the clear leader in district-wide credential management. According to Janelle, what separated Parchment was the ability to manage all requests, for all credentials. At North Kansas City School District, the district office handles the majority of alumni requests, while the school Registrars handle current students. The ability to get the right requests to the right people made it easy to say yes. Janelle explained, “The beautiful thing about Parchment is that it allows us to route certain requests to the district and other requests to the schools. Using that smart [order] routing is so nice because it allows our district admin to handle alumni and third-party verification requests while the schools handle all current students.”

Rolling Out Parchment District-Wide

Anyone working at a district knows that selecting a partner is one hurdle, rolling it out is an entirely different story. Some schools are eager to change, while others may be resistant to yet another implementation of new technology. “To be perfectly honest, we had one Registrar that held out because she was wary of using a digital platform,” Janelle explained, “When she saw and heard from the other Registrars, she jumped on very quickly.”

Throughout the implementation process, the North Kansas City School District team was appreciative of the ongoing support of Parchment’s Customer Success team. “One of the things I found incredibly beneficial is the customer service aspect. If we’ve ever had a question, Parchment responded very quickly. I’ve never felt like we didn’t have support or that we didn’t know who to talk to. When implementing new software, I think that’s critical.”

Reaping the Benefits

The goal was to have a tool that made the communication with students and parents less stressful, while creating a more efficient process for Registrars. In short, Parchment delivered. Jennifer Long, Registrar from Staley High School, detailed what Parchment has meant for her, “It’s unreal how much it helps your relationship with students and parents. Before, there was so much stress around getting the transcript where it needed to go, on time. Now, all of that is efficient and transparent. We have an answer for them when they ask. I can’t say enough how much this has changed the game for us. It’s made my life so much easier.”

For North Kansas City School District, Parchment was a win for everyone. Students and parents are happy, the process for requesting and sending records is efficient and the staff couldn’t be happier with a supportive administration. Janelled described the moment she knew that Parchment was a success, “The Registrars actually thanked me for bringing Parchment on board. They were grateful to have a tool that made their lives easier and less stressful. The building administrators have given me positive feedback as well. Overall, we couldn’t be happier as a district.”

There’s always more to learn.