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Effort continues the Munetrix mission to provide data driven solutions for schools and municipalities across the country

Media contacts: Barbara Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications, 248.260.8466, barbara@eafocus.com; Bob Kittle, Munetrix, 248.797.1337, bob@munetrix.com

Auburn Hills, Mich. – Sept. 14, 2016 – Munetrix, a national data aggregator and solutions provider serving states, municipalities and schools, has extended its research partner collaborations to include Oakland University’s Public Affairs Research Laboratory (PARL). PARL is the community engagement and outreach unit of the College of Arts and Sciences at OU and provides policy, evaluation, research and survey services to public and not-for-profit organizations. The announcement was made by Munetrix President, Bob Kittle.

“We are pleased to enter into this partnership with PARL for survey services and to continue our relationship with OU and other academic and community-planning focused organizations to provide clean data and corresponding tools that allow for new public policy insights and fact-based projections and decision making,” Kittle said.

Using Munetrix-provided data, and with the end goal of offering solutions to halt declining enrollment trends regularly tracked by Munetrix, PARL created two citizen survey tools, the Relocated Student Family Survey and the Enrolled Student Family Survey, for use by school districts experiencing significant student departures due to school of choice options and other educational opportunities pulling students out of their home district. The Relocated and Enrolled Student Family Surveys are available for free and can be easily implemented by district personnel, parents and community volunteers.

Pat Piskulich, Ph.D., Associate Professor in OU’s Department of Political Science and the Director of PARL, also commented on the partnership.

“Munetrix’s migration data are invaluable in mapping the inflows and outflows of students in a challenging enrollment environment,” Piskulich said. “Our goal was to create two simple tools which will allow districts some granular insight on why families choose to leave or, in the spirit of customer satisfaction, to stay.”

Kittle continues that the PARL collaboration dovetails with Munetrix’s growing focus on enhancing its data analysis services with potential solutions as part of the company’s social mission.

“Munetrix makes the issues and trouble spots clear, so we are often asked by subscribers, ‘What do we do now?’” Kittle said. “This PARL project represents one way we answer the ‘Now what’ question, providing districts with free or low-cost tools that go beyond data to help them develop academic, arts and athletic programming and planning strategies to strengthen their districts and market them to students and parents as an attractive education option.”

Prior to PARL, Munetrix partnered with Oakland University’s Incubator (OU INC) and also the university’s Master of Public Administration program, where Munetrix created an Oakland University Edition of Munetrix and co-taught OU’s MPA653 Public Budgeting & Finance in two consecutive fall semesters. In that class, students used Munetrix software and data over the course of the semester to make budgeting assumptions, projections and model forecasts in a “SimCity” type environment.

Since its founding in 2010, Munetrix has gained respect for its willingness to enter into public/private partnerships to better serve its government and school district clients. In addition to OU, Munetrix has a continuing relationship with the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, providing data and fiscal health trends for CLOSUP’s research. Further, Munetrix enjoys data sharing relationships with several Councils of Governments in Michigan, including the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) and the Citizens Research Council of Michigan.

In Jan. 2016, Munetrix was included on the inaugural list of GovTech100, a new index by the Government Technology magazine of companies highlighting the top 100 companies in the country making a difference in state and local government markets. In Dec. 2015, the company received “Readers’ Choice Top Products for 2015” recognition from K-12 leaders’ education trade publication, District Administration. In Oct. 2015, Munetrix was named one of only two approved vendors prequalified by the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget to provide data analytics tools to Michigan public school districts and academies. That contract has been extended for the 2016-2017 school year.

About Munetrix
Michigan-based Munetrix, offering the award-winning Munetrix cloud-based local government transparency tool and other proprietary apps for a cost effective approach to data analytics and performance management, is among the nation’s largest aggregators of municipal and school district data. With both a corporate and social mission in the spirit of Open Data, Munetrix allows subscribers and academic and non-profit partners across the country to easily access public sector financial and demographic data and companion tools to make meaningful and reliable budgets, financial projections, trend reports and forward looking decisions. Learn about your community’s Munetrix Score at the Munetrix website.

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