Faith Lutheran automates processes, increases
efficiency with integrated technology

Faith Lutheran Middle School & High School is the largest Lutheran school in
the United States and the largest non-public school in the state of Nevada.
While pursuing excellence in Christian education, it seeks innovative
strategies, resources, and tools to give its students the best experience
possible.

Tasked with identifying solutions to help drive the school forward, Jonathan
Orr, director of innovation and continuous improvement, searched for
software that was seamless and automated, and easier to manage. “Our
former legacy school management system created a manual, laborious
process that was time-consuming and prevented us from being efficient,” he
explained. “Blackbaud’s education management portfolio is more unified and
streamlined, and the integrated core database forges a lot of different
options and possibilities.”

With Blackbaud’s suite of education management solutions, Faith Lutheran
has robust, integrated technology with secure single sign-on convenience.
Additionally, the school has the flexibility to add applications provided by
Blackbaud partners, such as BrightArrow and Turnitin, through the Blackbaud
Marketplace.

Innovation that Benefits Everyone

A key benefit for all is the secure single sign-on login that creates a unified
experience for parents, faculty, and staff. Students and parents no longer
have to use multiple systems to access school news and resources, and they
realize the benefits from the start. “Not having to deal with multiple systems
throughout the enrollment process significantly improves their experience,”
said Orr. “Parents and students will use the same login and system from the
time they submit an application to post graduation.”

Faith Lutheran relies heavily on the Resource Board to securely communicate
with parents and staff. Counselors use it share everything from social news to
personal support tools to tutoring resources.

The school also houses links to other valuable resources such as HR software
and professional development opportunities for faculty. “The Resource
Board has become our central hub for disseminating essential information
that people need to access often,” said Orr. “We were diligent about driving
parents to it, which then made it a lot easier for our front office staff and
saved a lot of people time.”

Blackbaud’s Student Information System™ enables K-12 private schools to
easily manage attendance, academic records, schedules, grading, and much
more. Orr explained that 75% of assignments are collected digitally through
Blackbaud’s solutions.

As a result, Faith Lutheran teachers saw an approximate 50% time-savings
in completing daily class activities. “Teachers no longer have the burden of
handling the papers and can simply type the grades online. It really makes
grading more efficient,” he said.

Maximizing Time and Effort

Faith Lutheran’s admissions and registrar departments have also gained
efficiencies. Before Blackbaud’s education management solutions, staff had
to manually upload CSV files and send student files to other offices. “We
run on a lean administrative staff so we have to optimize our efforts. Having
these solutions automate unnecessary manual work saves us a lot of time,”
Orr said.

With Blackbaud School Website System™, Faith Lutheran can seamlessly
build, manage, and share the school’s message on a responsive platform.
Orr shared that because the website is data-driven, their school is more
efficient, as they no longer have to input data and content in multiple
systems. “Blackbaud’s solutions automating content management literally
eliminated a redundant task, which in turn, saves us money because
otherwise we would’ve needed additional headcount.”

Faith Lutheran continues to innovate and leverage technology to remain
forward-thinking. Most recently the school hired an alumni coordinator to
expand their use of the alumni engagement capabilities and realize even
more benefits. “I’m really looking forward to expanding our use of the
solutions to drive more impact across our school,” Orr said. “The added
bonus is that with Blackbaud SKY API, we can easily integrate with thirdparty vendors to maximize our efforts to the fullest. ”