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Office of Public Instruction

The Mission of OPI is Putting Montana Students First through Montana Hope, which is the whole child approach to education; Montana Teach, which promotes teacher leaders; Montana Learn, which focuses on academic achievement; and Montana Ready, which prepares students to be community, college, and career ready.

Goals

Agency Goals and Objectives

State Strategic Plan Goal Reference: Goals of digitization, being business consultants, and partners

Objectives

  • • Improve the data maturity - through improved systems and interfaces
    • Enhance information collection strategies - by consolidating collection tools and systems
    • Improve data quality - by ensuring data validity and integrity
    • Improve the data sharing process with other agencies

    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Citizen/Partner: Improve the Human Experience
    Internal Process: Improve Service Delivery
    Work Force Capacity: Build a People First Culture

State Strategic Plan Goal Reference: Be Business Consultants and Become Business Partners

Objectives

  • • Implement a data workforce training plan to develop a full understanding of the data collected
    • Establish a cohesive data skills program to improve data tool usage and efficiencies
    • Build capacity for data visualizations and storytelling to improve data understanding and what it means

    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Improve Digital Transformation, Security, and Delivery

State Strategic Plan Goal Reference: Be Business Consultants

Objectives

  • • Create value through the data analytics platform by improving the data flow timing and data presentation.
    • Consolidate the number of systems and data sources to simplify data streams
    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Workforce Capacity Improving Strategic Business Partnerships

State Strategic Plan Goal Reference: Innovate through digitization and security

Objectives

  • • Build out a community engagement platform for public data to be easily accessible
    • Expand the Comprehensive Data Inventory throughout the OPI
    • Implement tools for analytic and data visualization tools implemented through the modernization project
    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Built to improve the human experience and streamline customer interactions to include security by design

Information Technology Resources and Capabilities

Number of FTE: 10

Executive office provides the leadership and legal guidance for the Office of Public Instruction agency.

Number of FTE: 43

The Finance office provides budgetary support to the agency. School finance provides budgetary and grant management services to Montana public school districts.

Number of FTE: 33

The IT team provides IT support services to OPI. The Data team provides data collection, delivery, and quality assurance services to OPI and Montana public school districts as well as Federal reporting obligations. This group also provides project management services to the agency.

Number of FTE: 117

Program provides direct support to schools for Teaching and Learning, Student Support Services, School Improvement and Engagement, Education Innovation, Accreditation, Licensure, and Educator Preparation.

Number of FTE: 13

The Accountability unit provides human resources to the agency along with agency support services.

Projects

Division Finance
Project / Program Purpose and Objectives Update and improve the grant system processes and consolidate functional areas with in OPI.
State Strategic Plan Goal/Objective Reference Streamline customer interactions, Improve Service Delivery, Improve Digital Transformation.
Estimated Start 7/1/2024 Estimated Delivery 12/31/2025
Estimated Cost 2,100,000 Comment Purchased through NASPO agreement.
HB 10 Request No Funding Sources ESSER: 2,121,000 - Comment:
Annual Costs Upon Completion 113,745 Comment Annual maintenance and hosting costs above
Status of the project as of March 31, even numbered years. Indicate % completed and status of funds expended. Project will begin in June/July 2024

Division Data & IT
Project / Program Purpose and Objectives Data Modernization project purchased PowerSchool tools Connected Intelligence, Analytics and Insights, and Community Engagement to allow for better data flow for some schools, visualization and analytics tools for data driven decision making, and updated public visualization tools for better data understanding.
State Strategic Plan Goal/Objective Reference Improved Service Delivery, Improve Digital Transformation, design for the human experience.
Estimated Start 7/10/2023 Estimated Delivery 11/29/2024
Estimated Cost 8,295,843.48 Comment
HB 10 Request Funding Sources ESSER Funding : 8,295,843.48 - Comment: Funding over a three year period for the project
Annual Costs Upon Completion 2,633,114.41 Comment Cost increase annually by 3.8%
Status of the project as of March 31, even numbered years. Indicate % completed and status of funds expended. Project has been moving along and as of March 31 it was at approximately 35% complete.

Summary of Hardware

I have reviewed all of my agency's systems in Assurance CM and certify that it is accurate: Yes

Total Number of Appliances 0 Not applicable
Total Number of Physical Servers 0 OPI does not have any physical servers
Total Number of Virtualized Servers 0 All OPI virtual servers are hosted by SITSD
Total Usable Storage Space 0 TB
Device Type Quantity Estimated Replacement Value Comments
Laptops, Desktop, Printers, Cameras, Cellphones 396 425,000

Agency Contact Information

Agency Director / Administrator
Elsie Arntzen
(406) 444.5644
Elsie.Arntzen@mt.gov
1300 11th Avenue, Helena MT, 59601
IT Contact (CIO / IT Manager)
Chris Sinrud
(406) 444.4451
christopher.sinrud@mt.gov
1300 11th Avenue, Helena MT, 59601
Information Security Manager
Alan Grover
(406) 444.3502
agrover@mt.gov
1300 11th Avenue, Helena Mt, 59601