The boundary planning/redistricting software allows the district's planning staff to analyze alternative attendance boundary scenarios using the data contained in the edulog student database. District staff can use the boundary planning module to analyze current or future students in system-generated alternative attendance boundaries. Users can also simulate user-defined boundary scenarios and determine the effect of the reassignment of students to other and/or new schools.
The system has a report generating capability, which produces student counts by school, grade, and any other relevant information within any area specified by the user. Student counts are tallied for the correct side of the street if the area under analysis is bordered by the centerline of the street. Both sides of the street can also be assigned to the area being tallied. The tally area can be generated interactively using a mouse, bit-pad (digitizer), or the keypad. The user can use sophisticated polygon operations to interactively create the area. For example, the tally area can be defined as that area that is in two boundaries (polygon intersection) or as that area that is in one area but not in the other area (polygon difference).
The programs can provide custom report formats that tally students by user-specified geographic areas and provide statistical summaries by name, school, grade, sex, social and economic status, race, or any other user-specified student attribute stored in the edulog database. The system is capable of generating mailing labels and form letters for students located in a user-defined geographic area.
User intervention is supported during all phases of the boundary planning process. System users have final control of the results and can use their own judgment to make general and/or detailed boundary adjustments. Special considerations such as community interest, PTA membership, and other political realities can be included to maintain neighborhood consistency.
edulog's geographic/demographic analysis software is the best and most complete GIS software developed specifically for school district planning. Closing or opening schools, changing attendance boundaries, or altering school grade configurations can be done quickly and precisely with edulog’s intuitive and interactive graphics tools. And unlike other systems, edulog planning software is supported by an experienced staff of professional demographers that can guide you through every step of your planning project.
- Simulation of new school boundaries and their effect on transportation and classroom balance.
- Evaluation of proposals for changing transportation eligibility criteria.
- Detailed boundary change analysis. A specific address (house) can be located as being in or out of the area.
- Graphic representation of student distribution maps.
- Graphic representation of student density maps.
- Plotter support for producing reports or presentation quality maps of resulting analysis.
- Extensive data selection and query capabilities.
- Standard and user-defined enrollment and boundary reports that can be promptly supplied through the system's powerful report-writer feature.
- Automatic "pin-map" generation of every student enrolled meeting specific selection criteria on any field in the student database such as grade averages, test scores, attendance data, ethnicity, etc.
"The implementation of the edulog planning system at the district and instruction in the use of the software was completed in 2002.
"The nicest thing about edulog's boundary planning software is the time you can save. Being able to use the tools has enabled me to do things with a click of a button that I used to do manually. I have been able to cut back 90% of the manual processes I had before the software. It blows me away how wonderful it is.
"Many of the people on our school board are not transportation people. By using the display features and applying themes and labels in edulog's boundary planning software, we are able to present the board a visual that makes the map more readable and usable for decision making. Looking at the software they are able to say, 'Oh yes, I understand.'
"You can't get any better than edulog's boundary planning support. They are courteous, friendly, and responsive. They don't make you feel like you should know things if you don't and make you feel comfortable asking questions."