The DeKalb County School District estimates that it has documents stored in thousands of boxes or preserved in microfiches spread across the district that it will begin trying to digitize.
That’s student transcripts, employee files and documentation about facilities, transportation, school nutrition and operations. They’re sometimes difficult to locate if needed and are currently at risk of loss, damage or unauthorized access.
The board agreed at a meeting Monday to hire Docufree Corporation, which has its headquarters in Alpharetta, to digitize these records. The company will scan, index and securely store the files using a cloud-based application that will be new to the district.
The cost: $6.1 million, coming from a mix of the district’s general fund and its sales tax money. DeKalb is allowed to use some sales tax funds for technology improvements. The company will set a timeline once it evaluates the physical records.
DeKalb’s record-keeping habits came under scrutiny recently, after auditors were unable to locate about 3,000 documents needed to evaluate how the district has been spending its sales tax funding. Older records auditors wanted to go through were stored incorrectly, lost in moves, never digitized or destroyed sooner than they should have been due to confusion over retention schedules. It meant the district had to pay more money to finish the audit, which is more than a year overdue and still ongoing. The cost of the project now tops $1 million.
Some more recent files are already digitized, but physical copies from further back are not stored digitally.
The project will bring the state’s third-largest district into the 21st century, said board member Vickie B. Turner.
“I think this is an aggressive move for this district and quite meaningful for this district,” she said Monday.
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