Steve Roark, PMP

Move the Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) aging legacy system to a modern, more effective cloud-based solution. The new, “Kentucky Educator Credentialing System”, (KECS”), will support establishing standards of performance both for preparation programs and practitioners; accrediting educator preparation providers and approving educator preparation programs at colleges, universities, local school districts, and private contractors; selecting assessments for teachers and… Show more

Move the Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) aging legacy system to a modern, more effective cloud-based solution. The new, “Kentucky Educator Credentialing System”, (KECS”), will support establishing standards of performance both for preparation programs and practitioners; accrediting educator preparation providers and approving educator preparation programs at colleges, universities, local school districts, and private contractors; selecting assessments for teachers and administrators; overseeing internship programs for new teachers and new principals; administering KY's National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification; and issuing, renewing, suspending, and revoking KY certificates for professional school personnel. Provide Project Management and vendor oversight working with Randa Solutions in this multiple year, multi-phase effort in support of Kentucky's professional educators. Show less

Develop concepts, plans, budgets, and carry out, 13 projects, over 5 – 7 years, to modernize KY’s 39 EdTech applications, by moving them to cloud-based solutions to improve access, supportability, and reduce security risks associated with buying, installing, supporting and upgrading technical hardware and software infrastructure. Broad swath of varying project activities including retiring apps, re-architecting apps from Oracle to SQL Server and moving them to Azure, identifying and carrying… Show more

Develop concepts, plans, budgets, and carry out, 13 projects, over 5 – 7 years, to modernize KY’s 39 EdTech applications, by moving them to cloud-based solutions to improve access, supportability, and reduce security risks associated with buying, installing, supporting and upgrading technical hardware and software infrastructure. Broad swath of varying project activities including retiring apps, re-architecting apps from Oracle to SQL Server and moving them to Azure, identifying and carrying out projects to move a subset of the apps to existing EdTech solutions, and providing high level coordination of a number of RFP projects involving new procurements. Show less

The Kentucky Education Technology System (KETS) Service Desk provides quality technical support to all Kentucky P-12 school districts & the Kentucky Department of Education. We are here to serve our customers and assist them in maximizing the benefits that KETS technology brings to students, teachers, and administrators throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky. This project is replacing the old ITSM solution with ServiceNow improving workflow ticketing assignments, agency and districts portal… Show more

The Kentucky Education Technology System (KETS) Service Desk provides quality technical support to all Kentucky P-12 school districts & the Kentucky Department of Education. We are here to serve our customers and assist them in maximizing the benefits that KETS technology brings to students, teachers, and administrators throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky. This project is replacing the old ITSM solution with ServiceNow improving workflow ticketing assignments, agency and districts portal access, usage licensing, and asset management including inventory lifecycle management. Show less

By integrating Azure Active Directory (AAD) with Kentucky School’s online web applications, provided greater security and a more satisfying user experience in the form of one less username/password to remember, and one less system in which an account must be disabled upon user departure.

Leverage KY’s policy of outsourcing critical systems to Software as a Service/Cloud providers thereby improving effectiveness, supportability and reducing total long term support costs of these systems, by published and evaluated an RFI and RFP for all nine functional areas of system functionality supporting all EPSB areas. Included in this project was the evaluation and selection of a vendor service provider and awarding a contract for same.

Upgrade the Oracle 12c DBMS and Windows servers on a dedicated Hyper-V host to Win Server 2019 and Oracle DBMS 19, that supports 40+ web applications, including but not limited to KEPS, School Directory, and the web apps security system (SMCS) and contains the authoritative source for school identifying information (SRIM).

Replace and update the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and power distribution unit (PDU) devices in all 172 KY school districts, and upgrade them to at, “power as a service”, model. Also as part of the project, the old Avocent devices for remote management were removed and the Tyler/MUNIS VPNS devices were upgrades.

In mid-February, 2020, the West Point board voted to merge with Hardin County Schools. The need for this project was to identify what EdTech services, data, hardware, etc… are in scope, ensure they are transitioned properly/successfully in support of the merger.

In mid-February, 2019, the Silver Grove District board voted to merge with Campbell County Schools. The focus of this project was to identify what EdTech services, data, hardware, etc.… are in scope, ensure they are transitioned properly/successfully in support of the merger.

Plan and carry out actions to address complaints filed with USDOE against KDE and KSB regarding website disability compliance, as well as for other websites and applications identified to be in scope for the project. This will be a multi-year effort spanning all of KDE's publicly accessible documents/web content/videos, 508 personnel and policies and procedures.

On August 1, 2018, Governor Matt Bevin signed an executive order, effective that day, which transferred the administrative functions of the Education Professional Standards Board, (EPSB), to the Kentucky Department of Education, (KDE). This project oversees the planning and implementation of the administrative supports necessary to support these organization changes. The needs driving the executive order include providing greater coordination of the state’s efforts pertaining to educator… Show more

On August 1, 2018, Governor Matt Bevin signed an executive order, effective that day, which transferred the administrative functions of the Education Professional Standards Board, (EPSB), to the Kentucky Department of Education, (KDE). This project oversees the planning and implementation of the administrative supports necessary to support these organization changes. The needs driving the executive order include providing greater coordination of the state’s efforts pertaining to educator preparation, licensure, and professional development, and to facilitate a more streamlined and efficient system for ensuring that Kentucky students have access to well-prepared and effective educators. Show less

Evaluation, selection, procurement & implementation of new unified communications/phone system integrating with Skype for Business for KY Department of Education, KY School for the Blind, and KY School for the Deaf.

Oversee and carry out the procurement, installation, testing and transition of the new network and related technology infrastructure for the Kentucky Department of Education for their new office building.

Oversee the replacement of critical routers in the Kentucky Education Network system.

Managed the implementation of Kentucky’s Professional Growth and Effectiveness System for KY teachers utilizing the Pearson/Schoolnet Educator Development Suite. This project was part of a major multi-year statewide program that Kentucky executed in order to ensure that every student in KY is taught by an effective teacher. My primary areas of focus for this project were project planning, project management, project internal communications, and decisions management and vendor oversight. A… Show more

Managed the implementation of Kentucky’s Professional Growth and Effectiveness System for KY teachers utilizing the Pearson/Schoolnet Educator Development Suite. This project was part of a major multi-year statewide program that Kentucky executed in order to ensure that every student in KY is taught by an effective teacher. My primary areas of focus for this project were project planning, project management, project internal communications, and decisions management and vendor oversight. A unique value I brought to the project is helping facilitate the utilization of good project management processes by state-level educational experts so that they more effectively maintain focus on implementing a common language and understanding of effective teaching throughout the state. Show less

Plan and oversee the implementation of a single consolidated grant management system for submission and approval of grant applications reducing inefficiencies and enabling districts to make more effective use of grant dollars.

As part of the normal course of the organization’s continuous improvement, some number of project management process improvements need to be identified and solutions developed and implemented for them. Doing so will help improve efficiency and effectiveness, not only for the Division of Engineering and Management within KIDS, but also for projects throughout KDE. This will also help form the basis of future requirements that may be developed as part of any separate project that may come about… Show more

As part of the normal course of the organization’s continuous improvement, some number of project management process improvements need to be identified and solutions developed and implemented for them. Doing so will help improve efficiency and effectiveness, not only for the Division of Engineering and Management within KIDS, but also for projects throughout KDE. This will also help form the basis of future requirements that may be developed as part of any separate project that may come about to procure project management software. Show less

Provided project planning and project management support for the projects that make up the Kentucky Department of Education's Mobile Application Development Program.

Per Governor Beshear's Executive Order, currently managing the merger of the Career and Technical Education System to within the Kentucky Department of Education in order to create a more unified, more relevant and efficient system to better prepare students for careers in the 21st century.

The implementation of SchoolNet/Pearson's professional development planner enables Kentucky's districts to manage all aspects of professional learning.

Managed the implementation of, "CIITS", the nation's first and most extensive statewide continuous instructional improvement system that connects standards, resources, curriculum, assessment, and professional learning for all teachers in KY.

The Kentucky Statewide Longitudinal Data System was a first of its kind state-wide data warehouse business intelligence solution providing dashboard driven data visualization education analytics to educators’ state-wide.

The SDF combines the best of the CMM and the PMBOK to deliver outsourced implementations more effectively. Using the SDF improved customer satisfaction, lowered costs, and sped delivery of outsourced BPO contracts representing $250M revenues across 60 projects for ~25 customers.

Managed project resulting in the consolidation of multiple data entry locations for major dental healthcare insurance provider into one location resulting in operational efficiencies and cost savings.

Managed project resulting in the taking over of all business functions of the Kennett, MO mailroom and acquisition of the employees. All work transferred from Ft. Scott facility to the Kennett facility. Improved P&L for the Division and ACS technology implemented.

Managed project resulting in the relocation of the main Cigna strategic business unit and set up of hot site.

Managed project resulting in the elimination of paper processes in all locations of the Rewards Administration Center.

Coordinated the establishment of a process engineering group changed with improving quality, project management and operational processes.

Managed project resulting in re-write of third-party medical billing system for client, provision of source code, executables, user documentation, help files, and training.

Provided project management recommendations in development of proposal for development of consolidated Lease Management Organization solution.

Managed the recruiting, hiring and training of Assistant Divisional Software Managers, resulting in improved products and services for clients via more focused and predictable software engineering outcomes.

Managed the implementation of improved software engineering practices for the company's core technology organization resulting in qualification for CMM level 2 status, and CMM level 5 for India office, resulting in improved products and services for clients via more focused and predictable software engineering outcomes.

Provided project management consulting services in support of development of GM Latin America Networking planning.

Provided project management consulting services during proposal development for custom world wide real estate solution.

Provided analysis and recommendations for consolidated approach to project management for all GM projects.

Managed project resulting in mailroom, data entry design and data lookup improvements.

Provided project planning and project management support for project resulting in moving MET Life's claims, OCR, EOBs, and IQ work to Juarez, Mexico.

Managed project resulting in the implementation of a large number of software quality and change management processes.

Provided project planning and management services to support the physical build out of telecom/networking for the then new Bangalore, India technical center, and the recruiting, hiring & training of first wave of India programmers.

Managed project resulting in reducing ACS's exposure to liability by improving practices in areas of document destruction, treatment if IIHI, rules for dealing with subcontractors, working training and sanctions, application development policies, clean desk, data transmission using encryption, facility security, visitor policies, etc...

Managed project resulting in reduction of backlog of work & improved adjudication levels.

Developed technical architecture for integrating processes between mainframe and SAP R/3 to be controlled by the mainframe's SCP ensuring 24/7 support.

Implemented error checks to further reduce fallouts of EDI invoices received from Champion, MAP, Lubrizol, Weyerhaeuser, and Canada vendors.

Responsible for infrastructure planning, design and best practices integrating asynchronous, stateless design utilizing the Tibco suite of products into Ashland's cross-platform landscape.

Led efforts for solutions groups across the enterprise who endeavor to incorporate EDI technology into SAP by Providing guidance for design questions on the new EDI/ALE/SAP interfaces being designed, making available options for ADC EDI interfaces, providing documentation on the Common Ashland System’s EDI implementation, and assisting in trouble-shooting EDI/SAP problems for Valvoline during their go-live.

Facilitated cross-divisional team of lead developers to explore, define and document standards and approaches for establishing ABAP and other SAP-related best practices by opening dialogs with CAS, Valvoline Foresight, and ADC Foresight. Constructed, populated and continue to update an SAP/ABAP best practices LN database. Facilitate monthly cross-divisional ABAP best practices steering committee to evergreen the knowledge-base.

Developed reports using ABAP for Sales Force Electronic Reports System providing critical sales data to over 300 salespeople nationwide.

Completed the theoretical costing interface, which calculates the average cost of materials purchased from contracts.

Completed development of Lotus Notes database to track development requests through their respective stages.

Completed the SAP configuration, file transfer functions, (UNIX scripts, job setups, SAP partner profile changes, etc...), and SAP enhancements installation from Citibank, to enable creation of IDOCs from the payment run process for Citibank.

Implemented the EERS T&E interface including coding to handle balance sheet accounts, changing the T&E Employee X-ref File Creation program, to not generate SSN errors for particular types of accounts and to e-mail if the ALPHALIST file is blank, changed the T&E inbound invoice job to e-mail if blank or duplicate, and to bypass the rest of job if file is duplicate, and implemented new functionality that will enable fallout’s from EERS to SAP to be corrected and reprocessed and an audit trail of… Show more

Implemented the EERS T&E interface including coding to handle balance sheet accounts, changing the T&E Employee X-ref File Creation program, to not generate SSN errors for particular types of accounts and to e-mail if the ALPHALIST file is blank, changed the T&E inbound invoice job to e-mail if blank or duplicate, and to bypass the rest of job if file is duplicate, and implemented new functionality that will enable fallout’s from EERS to SAP to be corrected and reprocessed and an audit trail of these changes was identified. Show less

Completed the vendor number cleanup effort which synchronized the vendor numbers across the SAP and legacy systems. Activities included, but not limited to: Created special previous-vendor number reports in ABAP; Did the programming to accomplish the final vendor number synchronization; Set up new SAP and legacy vendor dumps in order to facilitate the creation of a new multi-platform cross-reference report that should assist in any vendor-related questions in the future, created various… Show more

Completed the vendor number cleanup effort which synchronized the vendor numbers across the SAP and legacy systems. Activities included, but not limited to: Created special previous-vendor number reports in ABAP; Did the programming to accomplish the final vendor number synchronization; Set up new SAP and legacy vendor dumps in order to facilitate the creation of a new multi-platform cross-reference report that should assist in any vendor-related questions in the future, created various ABAP reports and provided technical assistance when needed. Began planning for the future vendor purge including documenting the "to-list" for the procedure to follow. Corrected problem with the 1099 letters and began planning for the 2000 production of 1099s. Show less