St. Cloud district outlines multi‑year technology migration to modernize finance, student and personnel systems

Katie Herbold, the district’s executive director of innovation and technology services, told the board the district will undertake several system‑for‑system migrations over the next two years to modernize operations and reduce the number of third‑party tools staff must use.

Herbold said the finance and HR enterprise resource planning (ERP) currently on Skyward’s older SMS architecture will move to Skyward Cumulative, a web‑native SQL platform. “We’re going to be live on February 8th, meaning on February 8th when you log in, you will log into Cumulative,” Herbold said, adding staff will have a sandbox and training window beginning April 27, 2026, and the planned conversion week is Feb. 1–8, 2027.

The superintendent’s technology lead also described a separate student information system migration: the district will move from Skyward SMS to Infinite Campus with an expected go‑live in summer 2027 and school operations starting in Infinite Campus for the 2027–28 school year. Herbold said Infinite Campus was selected after vendor demonstrations, task‑force review and rubric scoring, and that moving to it could eliminate roughly four third‑party systems districts commonly rely on, consolidating gradebook, registration, scheduling, meal service integration and reporting into a single platform.

Herbold outlined training and mitigation steps: district HR and finance teams are in a data cleanup phase, staff will use a knowledge hub for asynchronous foundational training, building‑level coaches and media specialists will provide in‑person support, and the district plans to retain multiple backups and restricted access to legacy systems during the cutover week to ensure families can obtain tax documents if needed.

She also described a planned move from a dual Microsoft/Google environment to an all‑Google district to reduce confusion and subscription costs, while preserving access to Microsoft OneDrive and web‑based Office tools for users who need them. Finally, the district is testing Proerva (a professional learning management system) to consolidate relicensure tracking, observations and mentoring; migration for that product could begin in June.

Why it matters: district leaders said the combined changes aim to improve security, user experience and reporting while reducing administrative overhead and the number of separate systems staff and families must use. Herbold warned that transitions require phased training and hands‑on support and committed to regular communication to staff and families as milestones approach.

What’s next: staff will continue the data cleanup and training work in 2026, build custom forms that do not migrate automatically, and prepare for the February 2027 Cumulative cutover and a summer 2027 Infinite Campus go‑live.