How a cloud transformation aims to improve one school district’s operations
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The Chicago Public Schools District is undergoing a cloud transformation to improve business processes, and, ultimately, better serve students.
One of the nation’s largest school districts is embarking on a modernization journey to replace its decades-old enterprise resource planning system with cloud technology.
Chicago Public Schools is the fourth largest school district in the U.S., with 325,305 students enrolled in the 2024-2025 school year across 634 schools, and its IT systems are in dire need of a makeover, according to Kimberly Thomas, executive director of business transformation for CPS.
For the past 20 years, the district has been relying on 20-year-old on-premise ERP systems that have made workflows complicated for staff, limited end-to-end business processing and incurred increasing technical debt, she said.
The current legacy systems lack critical capabilities the district needs to effectively meet district-wide goals, leverage technological advancements and serve employees, students and their families, Thomas explained. Plus, the “imminent obsolescence” of the district’s on-premise infrastructure poses significant security risks.
Since 2023, CPS has been collaborating with the cloud technology company Oracle to to support its ERP system transformation to enhance the district’s finance, human resources and supply chain management. The district’s Department of Information and Technology Services received $44 million from the Chicago Board of Education in 2024 to support the initiative, which officially launched in March.
Earlier this year, DTS also requested an additional $11 million to replace the district’s enterprise data and analytics systems to support integration among the district’s information and data tools with the new Oracle ERP system.
“We will deploy the solution incrementally with a focus on efficiency and quality assurance,” Thomas said. “We are also focusing on the people side of transformation by prioritizing organizational and cultural alignment through a structured change management approach.”
With the cloud system, school officials aim to improve user experience for school staff, streamline and standardize business processes, and leverage artificial intelligence and automation capabilities to reduce manual, time-consuming tasks, allowing CPS employees to prioritize better serving students, Thomas said.
“At large, state and local governments and K-12 school districts are increasingly embracing the cloud to modernize their applications and better serve their employees, communities and students,” said Justin Apotheker, head of Oracle application cloud sales of state and local government. “By consolidating disparate applications onto a single, integrated cloud platform, districts can rationalize their applications and eliminate technical debt, while improving operational efficiencies.”
“Ultimately, cloud adoption empowers districts and educators to improve operational efficiencies, respond quickly to new challenges, and deliver better outcomes for their districts and their students,” he said.