Skyward®'s 2023 Leader in Excellence Award
TWO individuals were chosen from IL for this year's Skyward® Leader in Excellence Award! Congratulations to Kevin Orton and Kenneth Surma! They will be honored at iCon in March!
Congratulations to all of the 2023 Leader in Excellence Winners!
Kevin Ortin
IT Manager
St. Peter Lutheran School, Arlington Heights
We all know the importance of the IT Manager to a school district, and at St. Peter Lutheran, Kevin Orton is a shining example of just how important an IT expert can be. He also shows just how important grit and dedication are to everyone who knows him.
Kevin worked hard to emphasize the importance of Skyward Qmlativ in centralizing information and automating account management, while integrating it with other programs being used at the district. Doing this has saved the office staff and IT staff so much time, and teachers are also able to access more student information than ever before without needing to rely on someone else to provide that info for them.
Kevin is most passionate about training his core users to fully understand how the entire system works, encouraging them to take risks themselves to figure it out. There's no way he could ever train someone to know each individual detail of a feature. Instead he trains staff how to think about the system and then answer their own questions.
Kevin has developed a core group of staff who are constantly working to drive adoption throughout the district. He is there to celebrate the team's ideas and successes, but also their struggles. If someone from the team asks about certain things that might be causing an error or problem they are having but they haven't quite figured it out, he highlights and praises their rationale and is able to provide the one "missing link: that explains the situation.
Despite all of the tasks Kevin juggles on a day-to-day basis, he is always there to answer frantic calls and patiently looks for a solution to accomplish what is necessary. He is truly inspiration to his district.
Kenneth Surma
Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations
Crete-Monee School District 201U
After seeing everything Kenneth Surma does for his district, it might no longer be called a "Jack" of all trades, but a Ken.
Ken is always ready to use his skills to make processes and procedures more efficient, to improve productivity. He put his Skyward skills to work by implementing attachments for POS, invoicing, credit card receipts, vendor W-9's, and a lot more. He has essentially made paper a thing of the past for his district!
As Ken works to improve work processes, he also takes charge of trainings with district staff. Training includes handouts, presentations, hands on experience and his one of a kind sense of humor, which all goes to show how hands-on he is, and how much he enjoys sharing his Skyward knowledge.
Another project Ken spearheaded? Transitioning his district from SMS 2.0 to Qmlativ. He worked with his department as well as human resources to develop a conversion plan and schedule check-in meetings with all parties to make sure everyone was on the same page. He spent countless hours in the evenings and on weekends learning new features and was always excited to share his knowledge with his team. Ken believes in teamwrk and doesn't mind getting in the trenches to get the job done, whatever the job may be.
Ken is a valuable member of the 201U team and much of the district's success comes from his go-getting attitude and work ethic.
