Catholic Independent Schools Vancouver Archdiocese:
Building a real-time, paperless HR ecosystem across 46 schools.

CISVA adopted Make A Future, a province-wide hiring platform powered by Apply to Education, where applicants upload resumes, transcripts, and certifications into a single electronic profile.

From there, CISVA requested something deceptively simple, yet hugely powerful.

Could the applicant profile be transferred directly into Sparkrock Ed HRP when a candidate is hired?

The answer was yes.

With support from both Apply to Education and Sparkrock, CISVA created an onboarding connection that automatically extracts applicant information and creates an employee profile inside Sparkrock Ed HRP without manual data entry. 

“Rather than us having to manually enter even the elementary information… that information is automatically extracted from Apply to Education and onboarded to [Sparkrock Ed HRP] with a few clicks.” - Rob Mascitti

This integration became a major differentiator for CISVA. It was also a key reason they chose Sparkrock over other vendors.

“When I asked another major provider about integrating with Apply to Education, they told me they had no relationship with them and wouldn’t accommodate the request. That made our decision significantly easier.” - Rob Mascitti

Employee documentation is now accessible to both the district office and schools, reducing time spent searching for files or requesting information back and forth.

“Anything I upload to an employee’s profile is instantly visible to the school. Nothing gets misplaced—it’s all organized and accessible within a few clicks.”

With shared visibility, schools can confirm information themselves instead of waiting for the district office to respond. The district office also no longer has to act as a gatekeeper for employee records, which helps teams move faster.

“Instead of relying on the district office to provide information, schools can now access it themselves and confirm data accuracy quickly.”

This shift supports stronger collaboration and trust across the network, because everyone is working from the same up-to-date information.

One of CISVA’s biggest wins has been the ability to confirm information quickly, without relying on handwritten forms or inconsistent filing practices. With employee information stored in Sparkrock Ed HRP, staff can verify names, credentials, and documentation in seconds.

“Accuracy is built into every workflow. With just a few clicks, we can confirm, update, and trust the data we’re working with.”

Rob sees this as one of the most practical advantages of moving to a centralized, digital system. In the past, even small questions could turn into time-consuming searches through physical files. Now, the answer is usually already available in the system.

“Sparkrock Ed HRP removes the guesswork. Our data is 99 percent accurate, and when something is wrong, it’s a human mistake—not a system issue.”

To help keep the system reliable at scale, CISVA also created internal standards for how documents are named and stored, making it faster to locate the right file when needed.

“We mandated a specific naming convention, so as long as it includes the date, the document type, and the person’s name, we can easily identify what we need quickly.”

This consistency has reduced misplaced records and improved day-to-day efficiency, especially during hiring surges and peak onboarding periods.

Adoption wasn’t automatic. Convincing long-time staff to move away from paper required thoughtful change management, especially for school office teams who were accustomed to paper-based routines.

Rob focused on making Sparkrock Ed HRP practical and approachable for school-level users, especially office managers and secretaries. CISVA gathered feedback directly from school teams to understand what would help them most.

“I cannot see it through the lens of the local school secretary or office manager, so I encouraged them to view Sparkrock Ed HRP from their perspective.”

CISVA also uses SharePoint as a strong connector between school-based document submission and district processes. Schools submit documents through SharePoint, district staff receive notifications, and then files are uploaded into Sparkrock Ed HRP. Over time, SharePoint became a broader hub for district-wide information sharing, including weekly principal updates and HR resources.

“SharePoint quickly became our go to channel for sharing documents between schools and the district office. It pairs effortlessly with Sparkrock Ed HRP, and together they’ve completely streamlined how we work.”

To make the system even more useful for schools, CISVA customized the Sparkrock dashboard with helpful links and quick access to frequently requested information, such as compensation packages and HR resources.

“I tend to write messages on the dashboard that are relatable to local school staff. If they ask for something that would be a real benefit, we put it up there.”

By prioritizing usability, consistency, and ongoing support, CISVA helped schools shift toward digital operations without overwhelming staff. Over time, small wins built confidence across the network.