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LAUSD slammed with $80 million bill for MiSiS data system repairs
File photo: Jefferson High School students walked out from classes in August 2014 to protest a broken class scheduling system. The cost of continuing repairs to the system are rising.
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Benjamin Brayfield/KPCC
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Los Angeles Unified is asking for $79.6 million in school construction bond funds to repair MiSiS, the student data system that failed to schedule classes, record grades and track attendance when it debuted last summer.
At its meeting Thursday, LAUSD's bond oversight committee unanimously approved the expenditure. The school board still has to sign off before the funds are released. If approved, the amount would bring the cost of building and repairing the district's customized Microsoft student data system to more than $130 million.
Last December, Superintendent Ramon Cortines warned the board that MiSiS repairs would continue throughout 2015, but this week, the district officials announced they were extending the timeline to June 2016.
In a press release Thursday, LAUSD spokeswoman Shannon Haber said the district restructured its contract with the Microsoft Corp. to prevent “the vendor from receiving full payment until functions are working at schools.”
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On Tuesday, Cortines announced the appointment of Shahryar Khazei as the district's new chief information officer. His predecessor resigned abruptly last year as problems with MiSiS created havoc with class scheduling and other issues at Los Angeles schools.
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