Inside School Operations: Deb Hughes on Systems, Teamwork, and Process Enhancement

Behind The Scenes: School Leadership is a series of conversations with the people who run independent schools. Admissions directors, admins, and principals describe how their work is actually organised and where it gets difficult. We share those first-hand perspectives so other school leaders can see how the job gets done elsewhere.

What does a Student Information Systems Specialist do? The title suggests a focus on data, but the work reaches into many parts of school life.

For Deb Hughes, who has worked at St. Margaret’s School in Victoria, BC, for five years, including four as its SIS Specialist, those responsibilities include managing student records, preparing data-driven reports, supporting colleagues, and helping improve school processes.

We spoke with Deb about how she organises those responsibilities, contributes to the team, and keeps learning along the way.

The Many Hats of an SIS Specialist

St. Margaret’s, an independent girls’ school in Victoria, has recently earned IB World School status with authorisation to offer both the Diploma and Primary Years Programmes—a significant milestone that gives students access to an internationally recognised qualification. The school is also working towards authorisation for the Middle Years Programme.

Deb helps to support these developments through the systems she manages. She provides data to the school’s IB coordinators and helps make changes within MySchool that align with certification requirements.

Her wider responsibilities span several platforms: MySchool for student information, reporting, communications, and admissions; Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge for philanthropy; and Toddle, which faculty use as a gradebook. She manages student, staff, and family data, enrols students in their classes, and handles information moving in and out of these systems.

Data integrity and security are core parts of her role, alongside the processes and procedures associated with student records. Her remit also includes school communications, annual consent forms, re-enrolment questionnaires, and onboarding staff who need access to the systems. When the school undergoes ministry, independent, or governing body audits, she provides support from a student records perspective.

Colleagues also come to her for help using these platforms. The school’s IT team manages infrastructure and technical support, while Deb supports the team with the information systems themselves.

A Role That Keeps Changing

Her responsibilities continue to develop. Learning new things is an important part of that.

“The more we grow as a school and the more we learn about systems like MySchool, the better we get, and the better I’m able to help support the team.”

The school calendar shapes her workload. Summer is her busiest period, when she enters timetable and student information and places students into their courses. Start-up brings further timetable adjustments and ministry reporting, while re-enrolment creates another period of concentrated work.

Knowing the Priorities and Getting the Details Right

Deb describes prioritisation as one of her strengths. She considers deadlines, what needs to be completed, and the size of each task.

Experience helps. Now in her fourth school year in the role, she has completed recurring processes several times and says that familiarity makes a difference.

She also manages her time intentionally, communicates proactively, and is consistent in her follow-through. She says remaining flexible and solution-focused allows her to be a supportive resource for her team.

“At the end of the day, it’s really about appreciating and understanding what my deadlines and priorities are, and then creating a personal work schedule that allows for that to happen.”

From Stressful to Straightforward

Ministry reporting is one area where her experience and the tools she uses have changed the workload. A few years ago, she would have described it as a significant demand. Now that she understands the data extracted from MySchool and how the platform works with the ministry’s reporting tools, the process has become much more straightforward:

“The processes are highly streamlined and easy to manage, removing much of the stress and time they once required.”

The accuracy of the information remains an important responsibility. The school receives ministry funding, and checking student records can involve details such as study permits, proof of residency, and course enrolment, with contributions from admissions colleagues and families.

MySchool helps her review the reports and identify where information needs to be corrected if errors arise.

Reports are also among the most frequent requests she receives. Admissions colleagues may need information about student numbers, coordinators may require a list of course enrolments, and the boarding team may need to review consents.

Completing work sometimes depends on information, input, or decisions from others. Coordination and follow-up are therefore part of the role, alongside the work she can carry out independently.

Knowing When to Ask for Help

When she encounters a system limitation or a process that could work better, her first step is to contact MySchool support and ask for advice. She is interested in how other schools approach similar situations: “What are other schools doing? What have you seen?”

She values the team’s responsiveness. Reflecting on 23 years in business and her experience with numerous systems, she describes MySchool’s support as “world-class.”

Giving Colleagues the Tools and the Time

Deb strives to give colleagues the tools and information they require to address similar needs in the future.

To support this, she has created 80+ short, instructional Loom videos. They cover tasks such as running a classroom report or checking photographic consent. She uses them to support both new and existing users and says they allow her to work more efficiently and give her time to focus on other priorities.

The recordings sit alongside an open-door approach. She says she is willing to put down what she is doing to help someone who comes to her:

“Give people your time along with the right tools to accomplish the task.”

Getting the Right People Involved

When ministry requirements change, Deb first contacts MySchool Support:

“They have the experience to understand the systems’ capacities and also work with a variety of schools in my region who may have already integrated the change, so can share experiences and workflows that really work.”

She then follows up with school leadership to ensure the right team is informed and aligned. Together, they identify other stakeholders and begin planning the implementation.

“You really have to understand who your stakeholders are, and have the right people at the table.”

Strength in Experience and Teamwork

Deb draws confidence from having worked through difficult situations before. Knowing that she can rely on her peers and the systems available helps her approach new challenges in a measured way. Previous experiences have given her a strong foundation for approaching unexpected issues with perspective and certainty.

Small Changes That Remove Extra Work

She has also helped introduce improvements to established processes. Previously, the school used Blackbaud for admissions, and information about new students and their families had to be transferred manually into MySchool.

Deb explored MySchool’s admissions module, discussed the opportunity with the admissions team, and worked with them and Support to set up a new application form. Once the school introduced the new process, that manual transfer was no longer needed.

Another example is the school’s annual consent forms. Working with MySchool support, Deb helped move information previously collected on paper into digital questionnaires that automatically populate student profiles. She says this made the data easier for the school to manage and for parents to submit.

Digitising student records is another project she initiated. When she began the role, she had a row of paper files in her office and a storage room housing 50+ years of student records. She has since removed the filing cabinets from her office and continues to work through historical records alongside her regular responsibilities.

Learning continues beyond these individual projects:

New Challenges, New Possibilities

New topics also bring questions to work through. At the time of our conversation, these included AI, video and photographic consent, and how to manage them while protecting students and following the school’s policies.

The school’s work on its IB programmes has brought further reporting and configuration tasks. Deb provides student information to programme coordinators and has supported changes to naming conventions within MySchool.

MySchool’s support, customer success, and development teams are also helping the school put together a new report card incorporating IB streams and predicted grades.

She values MySchool’s flexibility and the willingness of its team to work with the school on its needs, including exploring possibilities that are not yet available.

“It’s All About the Team”

For Deb, a natural desire to help others is important in this position. The role requires knowledge of school processes and the requirements of governing bodies, but much of the day-to-day work involves supporting the community around her.

“I feel like peers in this position would do well if their way of being is to naturally want to help and support others because that’s what the job truly is at the end of the day. You’re getting people what they need, when they need it.”

“I love that about my job,” she says.

Working in a school has deepened her appreciation for the dedication and effort involved in educating and supporting students. As a parent of two children, she had previously experienced school life through their education, and understood, to some extent, the important role schools play in students’ lives. However, working alongside faculty, administrators and other staff at St. Margaret’s School has given her a fuller appreciation of the commitment, collaboration and care required to create a supportive and enriching environment for students.

Deb has gained a greater understanding of the many contributions that take place, even beyond the classroom - from planning and instruction to student well-being, boarding life, and administrative support. All of this has strengthened her admiration for colleagues across the school and reinforced the value of the collective effort involved in helping each student thrive.

Resource Management and Building Relationships

Asked what advice she would give someone entering a similar role, Deb recommends maintaining strong organizational systems, prioritizing effectively, and keeping well-organized resources:

She also emphasises the importance of a strong network and authentic relationships:

Proud to Support the People Behind the Processes

At MySchool, we’re proud to support people like Deb, who bring knowledge, care and initiative to their schools every day. We aim to make their work easier with an intuitive platform, flexibility to adapt to their school’s needs, and a team always ready to help. Their experience helps us keep learning, too, so we can better support the work they do for colleagues, students, and families in Canada. It’s a privilege to help.