Harnett County Schools Goes Digital For Records Management, Enrollment, and Choice With Multiple Scribbles Products To Serve Students of Military Families
Fast Facts
Enrollment: 20,000 students
Operates 28 schools and programs
Employs 2,200 staff and teachers
Monthly revenue generated through Scribbles: $1,200
Scribbles solutions used: ScribOrder, ScribChoice, ScribTransfer, ScribEnroll, ScribOnline, ScribForms
Harnett County Schools serves one of the most diverse student populations in the Coastal Plains region of North Carolina. The district strives to serve its mission of “nurturing our students in their social and academic development by providing them with high-quality instruction, and establishing partnerships with our families and our communities.” With this effort always in mind, strategic plans to find efficient records management and enrollment solutions were accelerated to meet student and family needs when the district was faced with the challenge of keeping up with over 20,000 students and an increasing number of records requests, owing to the pandemic and a significant military presence.
We spoke with Jermaine White, Assistant Superintendent of the district, to hear how his office has been using a full suite of Scribbles Software products to eliminate fax machines, modernize district processes, and keep things on track for students, families, and staff.
Can you tell us about yourself and your role at Harnett County Schools?
Jermaine: I'm the assistant superintendent of student support services for our school district. I've been in that role now for about a year. Our department consists of school counselors, social workers, school nurses, success coaches–which are also our dropout prevention coaches–and a number of other itinerant staff. We're a school district of about 20,600 students, located south of Raleigh and right next door to Fayetteville. We're a pretty large county from a land-area perspective, and our district is surrounded by nine others that all serve roughly the same region.
Tell us what Harnett County Schools uses and how the team is using Scribbles tools.
JW: We use a suite of Scribbles products. We use ScribChoice. We use ScribTransfer. We use ScribOrder. We use a lot of the scanning services right now, and in a couple of weeks, we'll transition to ScribEnroll for our district.
We're a community with a high military population, so our military parents frequently come in to request transcripts from their schools or their schools have to get information from us. We're able to use the program to facilitate that as well. I can't tell you how much time that saves us to be able to process things that way. I really do believe in the product because of what it has saved us from a time perspective, and the ease of use and the things that we're going to be able to do for the upcoming school year are going to be amazing.
Prior to last year, we were sending faxes, and we were mailing transcripts to folks. That can be tedious because you can't really track it most of the time. Records could sit on somebody's desk for days or weeks at a time. By switching over and doing the process electronically, we can verify every step of each process we have. That just makes life a whole lot easier for everyone. There was some apprehension in the beginning, but as we've gotten into it, people have gotten used to doing things the way we do them now. People are really excited about the ease of use and other benefits we get.
How did your team respond to using Scribbles?
JW: My core team kind of knows me by now, and so they know that if it's something new and exciting and innovative, we're just going to try it. And if it fails, then I'll take the blame for it failing. But if it works, then we all take the credit for it working. And so, realistically, in the beginning, because of the company that we used previously, we were doing things a la carte. And so, from a cost perspective, we were spending money where we felt like we could be a bit more efficient and get more bang for our buck.
We started searching, and then lo and behold, Scribbles came and visited our superintendent, who dropped them by my office, and we got to know each other. We got to talking about the offerings that Scribbles has for districts like ours. And when we looked at the entire suite of products, it just made more sense for us to go in this direction. With Scribbles products, we could have everything in one place versus having to pull things together on paper cards. I can have one customer service representative or two customer service representatives that I could talk to and develop a good working relationship with. I can talk to one product developer who is going to sit with me and walk me through a new process, versus me having to talk to multiple people and never really know what's going on.
What advice can you give other school districts or those trying to find solutions for their school district right now?
JW: You can't be afraid to look to what the future may look like as far as your district is concerned. We did have some conversations with other districts around us that were already involved in the ScribOrder process, just to do our due diligence. I think you definitely want to reach out to those who already have the program so you can find out if it's going to work for you. I think everybody's situations are unique. One thing I do like, however, is how the platform can be [configured] to wherever you are, which is similar to what we do for our students. You know, we try to meet them where they are and take them to the next level.
What do you see the future looking like for Harnett County Schools based on what's happening right now and where you're headed?
JW: Well, I'm very thankful to have a superintendent who's a visionary and a school board that is innovative and full of visionaries as well. We're all looking at this as an opportunity for us to grow. We're looking at things that were probably going to take place in 2022 or 2023 but that have now become a priority for us to do right away. So my mind is almost in 2025 because I want to be able to know what this looks like for us as a school district several years down the road.
If your district is ready to go paperless, make records more accessible to students and families, and even generate revenue, fill out the form below to contact our team today.
