Since 2006, Focus School Software has centered our product development, services, and company culture around one fundamental concept…improving the educational environment for all stakeholders in a student’s life.
Our Company
About Us
Simply put, our FOCUS is on every user of our solutions, from students and parents to teachers, administrators, counselors, and everyone in between.
- We develop features to simplify daily tasks, improve communication, streamline processes, and guide data informed decisions.
- We have curated a team of 150+ professionals who share a passion for education, many of whom came from educational backgrounds, giving them a true advantage and an understanding of the challenges faced by educators.
- We listen to our clients, respond to their needs, and provide them with personalized service.
This approach has allowed us to increase our product offerings, which now include our flagship K12 Student Information System, CTE/Adult Ed Student Information System, Enterprise Resource Planning System, Assessment System, Before and After-Care Solution, Special Student Services System, Attendance and Tardy Solutions, Community Mobile App, Analytics and Dashboards, and our stand-alone Gradebook and Scheduling Solutions.
We provide this suite of SOLUTIONS to both the K-12 and postsecondary educational software marketplace, and our success now includes implementing these solutions in five (5) of the largest districts 10 in the country, three-fourths of the districts in Florida and serving 3,000,000 students across the county in Arizona, California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.
3,000,000
Students Served Across the Country
5
of the Largest Districts in the Country use Focus
3/4
of Florida School Districts use Focus
Our Vision:
Our Vision is to empower schools and districts with a comprehensive solution that maximizes educational opportunities and fosters positive outcomes in student learning.
Our Mission:
Our Mission is to deliver cutting-edge and forward-looking solutions that cater to the diverse needs of schools and districts.
Our Values:
- We are deeply committed to education and fostering a love of learning.
- We embrace a growth mindset, encouraging stimulating and inclusive conversations.
- We value the combination of discipline and creativity, fostering innovative solutions.
- Focus School Software believes in unwavering support and continuous development opportunities for our team members, ensuring their success and satisfaction within the organization.
Our Team
Focus School Software now employs over 150 talented team members, led by our dedicated Executive and Management Teams below. Many of our training and support staff came from school districts that use our Solutions, arming them with first-hand user experience.
Executive Team
Before founding Focus, CEO Andrew Schmadeke worked in software development in the EdTech Industry. Eventually his entrepreneurial spirit and aptitude for learning new technologies rapidly led to the creation of Focus, and a simple start-up became a major player in the SIS market, housing the data of over 2.5 million students to date. In just 16 years, Andrew has grown Focus into a dynamic company of over 100 employees with a suite of products that reflect the inspiration, innovation and collaboration of the entire Focus team and the clients we serve.
Andrew’s commitment and vision to provide cutting-edge technology in comprehensive, customizable data management systems to districts of all sizes continues to fuel Focus’ success and disrupt a competitive market.
As Vice President of Operations, Steven Harnois ensures that the day-to-day operations at Focus run smoothly and efficiently. With an extensive human resources and client management background, Steven oversees and manages all aspects of administration, including Finance, HR / Recruitment, Marketing, Events, IT, Purchasing, Legal, client and vendor contract negotiations, and budgets.
Since 2008, his creativity and leadership in all aspects of Operations have fostered a welcoming environment for employees, helping to shape Focus into the unique and diverse company it is today. Additionally, his ability to develop and maintain strong relationships with clients and third parties (vendors, suppliers, etc.) has ensured success in delivering products and services time and again.
Bethany is passionate about learning, facilitating learning of others, building quality teams and relationships as well as building a quality product, support, services and experience with Focus School Software.
After 18 years of teaching high school mathematics and computer science and seven years at the district level training, supporting and implementing the district student information system Bethany joined the Focus team. Bethany started her Focus career as a project manager implementing districts in Florida, Texas and New Jersey.
For the past 10 years Bethany served as the Director of Implementation overseeing all project teams and implementations, working with the internal team to develop processes and protocols for implementation, overseeing the trainers and their role within implementation and ensuring state reporting compliance by working closely with the state reporting team. Bethany works closely with the Director of Support to ensure smooth transitions from implementation to support.
As the Vice President of Customer Success Bethany integrates herself with Managers, Directors and Team leads to ensure an optimal customer experience from contract signing through implementation and then continued support of the district and its educational needs from Focus
Shannon began her career at Focus School Software in 2009 on our support team where she quickly ascended into project management. In 2014, she was promoted to Director of CTE/Higher Education. Shannon has been responsible for the development and implementation of Focus’s Postsecondary System as well as the Before and Aftercare Solution. Additionally under Shannon’s leadership, Focus School Software has been awarded contracts with some of the largest districts in the nation including Broward County, Miami Dade and LAUSD.
Now serving as VP of Business Development, Shannon is responsible for the strategic development and marketing of new business opportunities across Focus’s suite of solutions. Shannon will provide overall direction and guidance to the business development of Focus with the objective of maximizing growth, and aligning the direction of strategic development of our software. She is responsible for setting and implementing strategies for nationwide business development which allows her to work closely with sales, marketing, support, and product development teams ensuring the constant elevation of the Focus Solution.
Before founding Focus, CEO Andrew Schmadeke worked in software development in the EdTech Industry. Eventually his entrepreneurial spirit and aptitude for learning new technologies rapidly led to the creation of Focus, and a simple start-up became a major player in the SIS market, housing the data of over 2.5 million students to date. In just 16 years, Andrew has grown Focus into a dynamic company of over 100 employees with a suite of products that reflect the inspiration, innovation and collaboration of the entire Focus team and the clients we serve.
Andrew’s commitment and vision to provide cutting-edge technology in comprehensive, customizable data management systems to districts of all sizes continues to fuel Focus’ success and disrupt a competitive market.
As Vice President of Operations, Steven Harnois ensures that the day-to-day operations at Focus run smoothly and efficiently. With an extensive human resources and client management background, Steven oversees and manages all aspects of administration, including Finance, HR / Recruitment, Marketing, Events, IT, Purchasing, Legal, client and vendor contract negotiations, and budgets.
Since 2008, his creativity and leadership in all aspects of Operations have fostered a welcoming environment for employees, helping to shape Focus into the unique and diverse company it is today. Additionally, his ability to develop and maintain strong relationships with clients and third parties (vendors, suppliers, etc.) has ensured success in delivering products and services time and again.
Bethany is passionate about learning, facilitating learning of others, building quality teams and relationships as well as building a quality product, support, services and experience with Focus School Software.
After 18 years of teaching high school mathematics and computer science and seven years at the district level training, supporting and implementing the district student information system Bethany joined the Focus team. Bethany started her Focus career as a project manager implementing districts in Florida, Texas and New Jersey.
For the past 10 years Bethany served as the Director of Implementation overseeing all project teams and implementations, working with the internal team to develop processes and protocols for implementation, overseeing the trainers and their role within implementation and ensuring state reporting compliance by working closely with the state reporting team. Bethany works closely with the Director of Support to ensure smooth transitions from implementation to support.
As the Vice President of Customer Success Bethany integrates herself with Managers, Directors and Team leads to ensure an optimal customer experience from contract signing through implementation and then continued support of the district and its educational needs from Focus
Shannon began her career at Focus School Software in 2009 on our support team where she quickly ascended into project management. In 2014, she was promoted to Director of CTE/Higher Education. Shannon has been responsible for the development and implementation of Focus’s Postsecondary System as well as the Before and Aftercare Solution. Additionally under Shannon’s leadership, Focus School Software has been awarded contracts with some of the largest districts in the nation including Broward County, Miami Dade and LAUSD.
Now serving as VP of Business Development, Shannon is responsible for the strategic development and marketing of new business opportunities across Focus’s suite of solutions. Shannon will provide overall direction and guidance to the business development of Focus with the objective of maximizing growth, and aligning the direction of strategic development of our software. She is responsible for setting and implementing strategies for nationwide business development which allows her to work closely with sales, marketing, support, and product development teams ensuring the constant elevation of the Focus Solution.
Directors
As Director of Support, Jamie Title has been instrumental in the creation and expansion of the Focus Support team, developing internal processes and innovative strategies to ensure customer service at the highest level to our clients. With a strong background in administration and sales, Jamie’s management, training, and motivation of the Tier 1 Support, Account Executive, and Senior Account Executive teams has produced effective, stream-lined customer service that has resulted in strong, long-term relationships with our districts and schools. In addition, Jamie’s commitment to ensuring our clients understand and utilize the maximum potential of our products and services has grown Focus’ business and helped to shape our software into the customizable, highly intuitive system it is today.
Henry Smoot, our Director of Reporting, Integrations, and Database Administration, came to Focus with 15 years of data administration experience from Pinellas County Schools, a local FL district of 108,000 students. There he managed more than 100 databases on 30+ servers and notably helped support the successful migration of the district’s mainframe SIS to SQL Server based system. At Focus, he works closely with Project Coordinators and Managers to ensure hardware configuration continues to meet and exceed client standards. Overseeing a team of programmers with 73+ years of combined experience, Henry is dedicated to adapting and meeting the ever-changing needs of our districts and schools, from researching and implementing the most cutting-edge security measures, to creating and coordinating timely product release schedules.
Halie brings an organized systematic approach to project management. Leveraging the PMI standards for project management, Halie ensures our project team members follow project protocols as it relates to communication, stakeholder engagement, risk, scope, change, quality management. Halie has managed several large district implementations including working very closely with some of the largest districts in the nation.
As Director of Support, Jamie Title has been instrumental in the creation and expansion of the Focus Support team, developing internal processes and innovative strategies to ensure customer service at the highest level to our clients. With a strong background in administration and sales, Jamie’s management, training, and motivation of the Tier 1 Support, Account Executive, and Senior Account Executive teams has produced effective, stream-lined customer service that has resulted in strong, long-term relationships with our districts and schools. In addition, Jamie’s commitment to ensuring our clients understand and utilize the maximum potential of our products and services has grown Focus’ business and helped to shape our software into the customizable, highly intuitive system it is today.
Henry Smoot, our Director of Reporting, Integrations, and Database Administration, came to Focus with 15 years of data administration experience from Pinellas County Schools, a local FL district of 108,000 students. There he managed more than 100 databases on 30+ servers and notably helped support the successful migration of the district’s mainframe SIS to SQL Server based system. At Focus, he works closely with Project Coordinators and Managers to ensure hardware configuration continues to meet and exceed client standards. Overseeing a team of programmers with 73+ years of combined experience, Henry is dedicated to adapting and meeting the ever-changing needs of our districts and schools, from researching and implementing the most cutting-edge security measures, to creating and coordinating timely product release schedules.
Halie brings an organized systematic approach to project management. Leveraging the PMI standards for project management, Halie ensures our project team members follow project protocols as it relates to communication, stakeholder engagement, risk, scope, change, quality management. Halie has managed several large district implementations including working very closely with some of the largest districts in the nation.
