Register
 

Contents

History
 
The Michigan Collaborative Administrative Solutions for Education (MiCase) Consortium was started with the vision of addressing information systems needs for school districts in Michigan. In the spring of 2007, Allegan Area ESA, Kalamazoo RESA, and Van Buren ISD created the MiCase consortium, with Lewis Cass ISD coming aboard in December 2007. Mason-Lake ISD and Oceana ISD joined as a single member ISD in April 2009, Berrien ISD in the fall of 2009, followed by Menominee ISD in the spring of 2010 and our newest member, St. Joseph County ISD, joining in fall 2010. The formation of the consortium was influenced by a number of items including:
 
  • A push from the State of Michigan for districts to collaborate and consolidate

  • Southwest Michigan ISD Collaboration Agreement

  • MSBO Statewide Software Initiative

    • Guiding Principles
     
    The MiCase Consortium was created with the following guiding principles in mind:
     
    We desire to maximize the value of the funds that districts put toward information systems
    We desire to maintain uniformity with other districts and with requirements from the state and federal levels
    We desire to achieve a system that is user friendly and easily accessible via the Internet
    We desire to have a level of control over development of new features
    We believe that the highest priority is to develop functionality that will most reduce the level of effort required and maximize the results from the effort invested
    We believe that support for information systems is best provided locally by a district’s parent ISD rather than from an entity further away
    We believe that in working together we can achieve more than each of us might working separately
    We desire to reduce the use of paper as much as possible in order to save on the cost of paper, printing and the labor involved with handling it
    We desire to make information accessible to everyone that can benefit from it including administration, staff, teachers, students, parents, appropriate governmental agencies and other selected partners
     
    Information Systems Software
     
    MiCase provides Financial Accounting, Human Resources, Payroll and Student Information software systems. The basis for these systems comes from the software systems donated to the consortium by Kalamazoo RESA. Currently the consortium software systems are Windows based applications written with Microsoft Visual Foxpro. Future development will be geared toward creating a web-based solution, with a SQL type database. Development is currently centered at Kalamazoo RESA and managed by an Executive Director. Support for consortium applications is provided by staff at Kalamazoo RESA and Van Buren ISD.

     

    Governing Board
    Consortium Staff
    Last Modified on May 9, 2012