Greater Egg Harbor: A model student in the advancement of education
Silanis e-signatures reduce administrative tasks, enabling teachers to spend more time with students
Montreal, QC, May 26, 2005 — Silanis Technology, the market leader in automating business approval processes, today announced how its electronic signature solution is being used by the Greater Egg Harbor Regional High School District as part of a long term initiative to streamline administrative tasks and improve educational processes.
Since September 2004, its Oakcrest and Absegami high schools in Atlantic County have eliminated paper from many of its internal approval processes by substituting handwritten signatures with its electronic equivalent. Eliminating the need to print, hand-sign and route paper documents between the two schools, which are 12 miles apart, has enabled teachers and faculty members to complete administrative tasks faster, and spend more time working with students and improving programs.
“Silanis’ solution is one component of a three-year initiative to make use of innovative technology to create a fully connected, integrated and automated environment,” says Joseph Filinuk, the District Supervisor of Technology of Greater Egg Harbor Regional High School District.
“Our objective for the first year was to keep all internal information electronic, and get teachers and faculty members accustomed to signing electronically,” adds Filinuk. “Next year our goal will be to automatically link that information to our database so that we eliminate duplicate data entry, increase the accuracy of database information, and automate the generation of monthly and yearly reports. By year three, we want parents to electronically sign their child’s IEP (individual education plan) so that we can reduce that amount of paper used in the district”.
Since introducing Silanis’ solution seven months ago, more than 3000 internal forms have been signed electronically. They include requests for leave of absence, student information, class schedules, class lists and reserving the school’s e-learning lab. The school district has seen a 25% reduction in the time to process the approvals, as well tremendous cost savings due to the elimination of paper, shipping and handling.
“Technology definitely helps off-load teachers and staff from doing tedious and time-consuming tasks,” says Filinuk. “Today each time a student cuts class, for example, the teacher has to fill out and sign a truancy form, and then physically walk around the school to check logs in different locations to find where the student was. Next year teachers will spend less time on this task thanks to electronic signatures and a new student ID card scanning system”
An average of 100 truancy forms are filled out each week. To save teachers time, the high school district plans to use the ID cards to scan and log students’ entry into different parts of the building. When a student cuts a class, the teacher will fill out and sign the truancy form electronically, upload it into the database and then do an electronic search to locate the student.
“The key to successful technology integration is ease of use,” adds Filinuk. “That’s why we chose Silanis’ solution. It was easy to deploy because it supported our existing IT infrastructure. More importantly, it was easy for people to use. Not only could they continue signing Word and PDF documents, their electronic signature looked identical to their handwritten signature. We were pleasantly surprised at how quickly people embraced the technology.”
About Greater Egg Harbor
Greater Egg Harbour High School District offers grades 9 through 12 in Atlantic County, NJ, serving the constituent districts of Galloway Township, Hamilton Township, Mullica Township and Egg Harbor City, together with the sending districts of the City of Port Republic and Washington Township (Burlington county). The high school district offers exceptional educational, sporting and extra-curricular programs to support their belief that students are the future. The board of education, administration, faculty and staff work together to provide an educational experience designed to challenge our students and prepare them to become productive adults.
About Silanis
Silanis Technology is the leading provider of solutions that automate the Business Approval Process. The company’s award winning desktop and server-based solutions leverage electronic signature and approval technology to achieve total automation. With over 1,000 customers across government, mortgage, auto finance, insurance, banking and FDA regulated industries, Silanis has over a decade of experience in developing and delivering solutions that work the way organizations do. Government customers include NIH NIAID, USPS OIG, US Mint, and an enterprise license with both the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and the US Army.
Contact
Mary Ellen Power (514) 337-5255 ext. 1117 [email protected]