Colorado education officials outline lower-cost school finance software contract and request small additional staffing funding

Corey Evans, the Department of Education's school finance executive director, told the Joint Technology Committee on Feb. 5 that the department finalized a contract with San Mateo Data Analytics for $2,750,000 to modernize the state's equalization software that calculates roughly $10,000,000,000 in school finance payments to 178 districts and the Charter School Institute.

Evans explained the current system calculates both the local and state shares of funding and supports audit adjustments and $72,000,000 in transportation categorical reimbursements. After running a statutorily required RFP, the department said bids ranged widely and the chosen vendor offered the lowest-priced, most efficient option. "We finalized a contract with a vendor, in San Mateo Data Analytics for $2,750,000," Evans said.

Representative Pascal noted the committee had received a new estimate "$369,000 down from $3,000,000," and asked whether the reduced amount referred to the additional funds being requested in the next cycle. Evans answered that the primary difference was staffing: "The additional 300,000 is for a project manager. It was not initially in our initial ask. We need someone, a staff member to coordinate the development of the software with the vendor..." He said that person would work over the next three years to coordinate vendor training, help districts upload data, and address bugs during rollout.

Committee members pressed the department on how bids could vary so much. Evans said market research initially estimated much higher caps; the RFP produced proposals from $2,750,000 up to $60,000,000, and the selection committee judged the $2.75 million bid as the best balance of cost and functionality. Representative Titone cautioned that past market-research estimates for IT projects had been "grossly overestimated" and urged future scrutiny: "a spreadsheet replacement shouldn't cost over $3,300,000 in my opinion," he said, adding a broader call for better cost-estimate practices at the JTC level.

Evans described district engagement plans, saying the department will introduce the project to district CFOs and business managers at an upcoming financial policies and procedures committee meeting and provide a front-facing dashboard so districts can run their own projections and see real-time audit adjustments. Madam Chair thanked the presenters and said the committee would finalize prioritization decisions in the coming weeks.

Next steps: the JTC will consider this request as part of its prioritization process; no formal vote on funding occurred during the Feb. 5 meeting.