Kirtland Local Schools is a public school district located in Kirtland, Ohio, a small town located outside of Cleveland. The district has about 1,200 students and 70 teachers and staff members spread out across an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school.
The challenge
Like countless other school districts, Kirtland was still relying on paper-based systems to manage forms and policies.
“We were super inefficient,” explains Greg Cosimi, M.Ed., a computer science teacher, SIS coordinator, and webmaster for the district. “Parents and students had to fill out one forms for each sport, forms for field trips, and on and on.”
One day, the district’s Athletic Director approached Cosimi and asked how to eliminate paper and duplication for parents and coaches, who were burdened by outdated processes.
“That’s where the exploration started,” Cosimi explains.
The Solution
Seeking a digital transformation, Kirtland examined two options: DocuSign, an electronic document management system designed for enterprises, and FinalForms, an online forms management solution purpose-built for schools.
After researching both options, the district decided that FinalForms was the best solution for schools.
“The more we learned about FinalForms, the more we liked it,” Cosimi says. “FinalForms was built for schools, by school people, and it was tailored to exactly what we needed to do.”
The Results
Today, Kirtland uses FinalForms to manage its athletic registration, K12 enrollment, and back-to-school forms. While the district was originally drawn to FinalForms for something simple — managing forms online — Cosimi says Kirtland now uses the platform to manage complex processes, too.
For example, when the pandemic shut everything down, the district was able to use FinalForms’ COVID-19 mobile health screening tool to keep staff and students safe.
“The ability to take attendance, complete health checks, and notify parents helped us return to the playing fields and classrooms. The digital paper trail FinalForms created, proving our students were healthy and safe, was super cool,” Cosimi explains.
The benefits of moving to FinalForms don’t stop there. Here are some of the other ways Kirtland has made out with its decision to trust FinalForms for student and athletics form management.
1. Immediate productivity
For Kirtland, the FinalForms launch process was a cinch. Student data was pulled from the district’s student information system in what Cosimi says was a “very, very smooth process.”
Once FinalForms was up and running, students, parents, and staff were immediately productive on the platform.
“Everybody was pretty happy with it,” Cosimi explains. “Users weren’t challenged because FinalForms is an intuitive, user-friendly platform. They just logged in and did what they needed to do.”
2. Streamlined form management
At the highest level, FinalForms delivered much-needed efficiency to the school district.
“We used to hand out packets of forms on the first day of school every year,” Cosimi says. “It would take months to get all these forms signed and returned.”
With FinalForms, the district is now able to collect signed forms from most students before the school year even begins thanks to the platform’s built-in automated notifications.
“It’s the difference between 60 percent and 100 percent compliance,” Cosimi adds. “In just two clicks, I can see which students are missing forms. I don’t know of another system that allowed me to do that.”
3. Digital transformation and cost savings
In addition to streamlining form management, FinalForms also helps Kirtland continue on its digital transformation journey.
“There are literally zero paper forms at Kirtland today,” Cosimi says.
Not only does this help the district use less paper and less ink — enabling them to do their part to protect the environment for future generations — Kirtland is also able to reduce costs associated with procuring paper and ink, as well as the associated postage and printing.
4. Time savings
Thanks to FinalForms, Kirtland staffers reclaimed time they previously spent searching for forms or interacting with parents and students. Per Cosimi, the smaller school district has already saved hundreds of hours of staff time — “and time is money.”
In particular, Cosimi says the district’s athletics department has already realized tremendous time savings.
“Our athletic trainer really finds that this saves her a lot of time and a lot of parent questions,” Cosimi explains. “With one glance at FinalForms, they can easily determine when forms are due.”
5. Empowered employees
By equipping employees with modern tools designed for school districts, secretaries, teachers, and other staff are able to get more done at work — improving the educational experience along the way.
“It allows secretaries to get the answers they need without having to be IT experts,” Cosimi continues. “From my IT perspective, it helps with everything from communication to device management.”
6. Rock-solid support
While the district hasn’t run into many issues since moving to FinalForms, Kirtland did request changes to forms and policies over the summer, and the support team more than rose to the occasion.
“They were responding within hours and completing our requests within a day,” Cosimi says. “They are fabulous. Their response time is exceptional.”
Is your district still using a paper-based form management system?
If so, Cosimi says that moving to FinalForms for online school forms management is an easy decision.
“I would totally recommend it,” Cosimi concludes. “I don’t know what we would do without it.”
For more information on how your school district can streamline forms management while reclaiming time, reducing costs, and improving the parent, teacher, staff, student, and IT admin experience, request a demo today.
