Barbers Hill ISD in Texas has been using School Tech solutions for over six years and recently migrated from Skyward SMS 2.0 to Qmlativ in 2024. We sat down with Kristen Davis, the Technology Director, who has been with the district for 20 years to hear how Barbers Hill ISD is using their School Tech solutions and how the solutions have evolved over the years.
Customizing Credentials Across the District
Barbers Hill ISD uses ID Badging for Student and Staff. They print on basic cards for students, proximity cards for staff, and temporary sticker badges. When they first explored badging solutions for their district, Kristen said, “We picked School Tech because of the relationship you have with Skyward. We were using Skyward and planned to continue to use Skyward, so we want to go with who they endorse or partner with.”
Barbers Hill ISD has different user permission templates set up for their ID Badging software, so staff only see the parts of the software that apply to them. “We have a template just for HR. So, they don’t have to always weed through the students. They can just see the staff.” Regarding the custom badge design creation in the software, “We recently changed our staff badge design due to the expanded door access system at our district. Proximity badges are very expensive and it’s common for staff to change positions or locations. Now, we don’t print titles or locations, that way staff can keep their same badge.”
When asked about her favorite part of using our ID Badging solution, Kristen said, “I love that your support can always help us with what we’re imagining. For example, we have different colors printed on the badges for different student alphabet groups at the high school but then there are different colors by grade at lower campuses. School Tech support was able to provide us with the tools to accomplish this since the ID Badging design center is very flexible.”
When asked about the migration process for ID Badging, Kristen said, “It was a straightforward integration process. There were a few hiccups with data entry as staff learned the Qmlativ fields. For example, we put the homeroom teachers on the badges for the younger kiddos. The data wasn’t entering into the spaces needed for the badge software, but once we worked through those hiccups and got training down, it was good.”
Improving Employee Time Reporting
Barbers Hill ISD started with School Tech’s Legacy clocks with biometric readers to improve the accuracy of their time-in and time-out data. Recently, they have been phasing out the older Legacy models replacing them with the current TT10 Time Clocks. They chose to have biometric readers built into the clocks for the convenience, “It makes it faster. They place their finger on the reader and boom, you’re clocking in. With a computer it takes a lot longer because you also have to log into Google for a single sign on, etc. But with the time clocks, you don’t have to worry about all of that.”
Comparing the new TT10 Time Clock models to the old Legacy G2 models, “Everything’s just easier on the new TT10 clocks, there’s a lot less steps with the setup and it looks sleeker and is less bulky. The user interface is so much better; just sign in, sign out, and submit. Staff want to use the new ones over the old ones, and with our phase out being completed this summer, everyone will be using the new clocks this coming school year.”
When migrating the Time Clocks, “During the rollover to Qmlativ, I would book a time with staff and they would all meet me at the clock and we would go over the enrollment process… The setup of the clocks can be very intricate with all the little steps you need to take but they work great. School Tech’s support throughout the process is outstanding,” said Kristen.
When asked what she would recommend to districts looking at Time Clocks, “It’s a useful tool, your campuses are going to really like the ease of use and the efficiency of it. I would suggest really sitting down with the principals and paying attention to which staff need to clock in, where they enter the building, and where they work. There’s lots of things to talk through with departments to make sure that you have a successful rollout.”
Automating Student Tardy Tracking
On Skyward SMS 2.0, Barbers Hill ISD used our Tardy Kiosk solution that was tied to the automated disciplines in Skyward. When a student reaches so many tardies, a discipline would be assigned and emails can be automated to send out. “The Tardy Kiosks were good, we had them throughout the district.” When they migrated to Qmlativ, SchoolTRAK is needed for the Tardy Kiosk features from SMS 2.0. SchoolTRAK is School Tech’s latest web app solution for Skyward Qmlativ and has many new features and customization that weren’t available in Skyward SMS 2.0. “We started using SchoolTRAK at just the high school last year because they have the most kids that come in and out by themselves. So, we started with making sure they can sign in and out.”
Barbers Hill ISD is working on rolling it out for the whole district at the start of the next school year, “We’re really looking forward to how it integrates with Skyward and are still working on ironing out all the settings for the different buildings… I’m just looking forward to helping our campuses be more efficient and simplify their jobs. This is really going to help the attendance clerks. I’m excited about that.”
Migrating from SMS 2.0 to Qmlativ
When asked about what advice she gives to any districts looking to migrate to Qmlativ, Kristen offered three key words of wisdom:
- “You’re going to have people say, ‘I love these features and I’m mad that we don’t have these anymore,’ but it’s going to be OK.”
- “We’ve had so many hands in the cookie jar; you’re going to have to expect that it’s going to have some issues. Check your data, no data is clean.”
- “Things might happen on a slower scale but it’s going to be OK. We worked through it, and now, we’re rocking and rolling. It’s a good move.”
For more information on School Tech’s Skyward integrated solutions or on what to prepare if you have School Tech solutions that need to be migrated, reach out to us at sales@k12sta.com.
