Eagle Hill School is a coeducational college preparatory boarding school that provides an individualized education for 215 students with diverse learning profiles in grades 8-12. Located in Hardwick, MA, Eagle Hill educates students by providing an intimate and encouraging community that honors the individual, values learning diversity, and cultivates international mindedness.
When complicated workflows, time consuming data management, and underwhelming support became the norm with their previous software, Assistant Headmaster for Academic Affairs, Dr. Michael Riendeau was eager to find an SIS that could simplify their complex academic configuration.
The Challenge
Eagle Hill School’s biggest problem was finding an SIS that was able to accommodate for the school’s unique academic term and course scheduling. While their calendar is typical of most schools, they embrace nine approximately one-month terms, with ways for courses and classes to meet in different configurations during that time frame. The limitations of their previous system became increasingly disruptive. To set up a single class spanning multiple terms, staff had to create separate sections for each term, none of which were connected by the LMS/SIS. Teachers couldn’t carry gradebooks or resources from one term to the next, and even a simple schedule change for one student could require as many as 18 individual updates.
Families faced confusion as well, maintaining duplicate logins and records for Eagle Hill’s summer and academic year programs that functioned on two different systems. Additionally, admissions reporting was nearly impossible, forcing staff to count records and pull data manually at times because the system couldn’t generate reliable exports. Building a query was practically impossible, limiting the school’s reporting functionality across the board.
After years of frustration, the school recognized it needed a solution that would adapt to its complexity rather than forcing conformity.
We were managing with the former SIS in a way that worked. But it was a way that we cobbled together in a workaround that was really elaborate and caused a lot of difficulty for teachers and others. It turned out that Veracross could handle it with no difficulty at all.
Implementation and Rollout
Dr. Riendeau recalled the feeling of true partnership with Veracross sales and support teams during the initial discovery conversations and eventually the implementation process. He shared that “they took about a month with us to really vet every possible scenario to make sure that it could work.” He repeatedly praised the teams for their dedication, problem-solving, and willingness to test every scenario until the right solution was found. This level of support was unlike anything he experienced with their previous SIS and helped to build trust while ensuring a smooth transition.
Eagle Hill’s implementation began with admissions before extending to academics to support their summer session, and later the traditional school year. This phased implementation approach allowed for smoother adoption and reduced the pressure of switching systems for every department, all at once. It also allowed for about half of their faculty, who also worked the summer program, to become comfortable with using Veracross and then go on to assist in training teachers and dorm parents in using the platform. Additional faculty and staff training was also built into the school calendar, with a week dedicated to helping everyone embrace the new system.
Results and Benefits
For Eagle Hill School, the positive impact of switching to Veracross’ one-person, one-record solution was felt across several departments. Dr. Riendeau and his colleagues quickly noticed how much easier it was to manage data without having to untangle multiple, loosely connected records. As he put it, “Managing data in Veracross is so much more straightforward than I’ve seen before. We’ve had two other systems in the time that I’ve been here… and neither could handle those elements of database management as intuitively as Veracross.”
Academic Flexibility
Scheduling, once a painstaking process, became dramatically easier after making the switch. Teachers could finally carry resources and gradebooks across terms, and administrators could make mass updates in seconds rather than hours. A schedule change that previously required multiple manual edits could be completed in just two easy clicks. Dr. Riendeau excitedly shared that “for the first time, we have true dormitory sections where the dorm parent is using qualitative grading and able to track student students’ performance and development. Dorm parents can take attendance at curfew to make sure everybody’s where they are expected to be. None of those things were available in the former system.”
Streamlined Operations
The admissions team, long frustrated by the limitations of their previous SIS, now had the tools they needed to work efficiently. Where once they were forced to count records manually or struggle through impossible queries, they could now generate robust reports in minutes — tracking yield, monitoring inquiries, and comparing year-over-year trends with confidence.
The tuition management process for the school’s business office also improved, reducing the burden on staff members of having to track down families for payments or billing information. Instead, billing became straightforward and transparent, saving staff countless hours and giving families a more reliable process.
A Unified Parent Experience
By consolidating summer and academic year programs into a single database, Eagle Hill eliminated duplicate records, multiple logins, and the confusion families often faced on where to find the information they were looking for. For example, parents no longer had to re-enter health records if their student attended both the summer program and traditional academic school year thanks to Veracross’s seamless integration with Magnus Health.
Veracross portals added another layer of convenience. Parents now log in to one place to find everything they need: tuition payments, grades, calendars, and class schedules. The school also gained a more effective way to communicate with families. Instead of generic announcements, staff could now target messages to the right groups, ensuring that families saw the information most relevant to them. As Dr. Riendeau put it, they gained a “much more robust ability to communicate than we had with our former system.”
Advice for Other Schools
Looking back on their transition, Dr. Riendeau stressed the importance of choosing a flexible platform that adapts to your school, rather than forcing the school to adapt to the platform. He noted that “the design of Veracross also appears to be a lot more intentional than some of the other systems we have used.” As an SIS created specifically for private and independent K-12 schools, Veracross provided the granularity and flexibility Eagle Hill School was looking for in an SIS, which was the main aspect of the platform that ultimately led to them to choose Veracross.
Furthermore, Dr. Riendeau also explained that schools should “not underestimate how much time you need to successfully complete the implementation process.” He explained how the phased implementation approach really helped their staff and faculty strategically implement the platform in a way that worked best for the school. It also helped the community gradually learn to use the new platform, rather than become overwhelmed with new information, workflows, and training all at once.
For Eagle Hill School, the move to Veracross was not simply a software switch. It was a transformation from a world of workarounds and inefficiencies to one of clarity, efficiency, and confidence. By choosing Veracross, the school found a partner that respected its complexity, simplified its operations, and delivered a better experience for faculty, families, and students alike.
