Powerschool Update

Recently, I have become aware of concerns about the features provided by the PowerSchool program. More specifically, there has been the concern about the loss of the ability to view student assignments and grades. The good news is that this is a temporary situation. After participating in a sales presentation and discussing satisfaction with other school districts, we made a decision as an administrative team to switch our student information system from Administrator's Plus to PowerSchool. Factored into this decision making were the following:

1) It is currently the system used by the high school. Having the same system would allow for increased sharing of data between us.
2) The price for PowerSchool was higher in the first year, but would result in savings every year after the first one.
3) PowerSchool had an integrated system that included features not available in Administrator's Plus. For example, eventually we will be able to have lunch balances tracked and paid for through this system. Another example is the increased precision that the gradebook feature has for teachers.

At the time the decision was made, we were aware of the fact that we would encounter difficulties with this transition. Much to their credit, Denise Fichner, Dave Pawlowski and our twelve month secretarial staff, Pat Aversa and Doreen Penge managed to get the system operational for all internal school functions by the established deadline. In addition, they were also able to train teachers in the most essential functions prior to the start of the school year.

We are at the point now where we are moving forward with other features of the program. We have an early October deadline to have Google team sites up and running, as well as the features in PowerSchool that will allow a parent to monitor their child's work.

We are confident that the short term "pain" associated with this transition will result in a long term gain that will benefit our school district. I ask for your patience as we move as fast as we can to provide you with the desired features.

In the interim, I would like to stress the importance of parent-teacher communication. Our electronic means of communication were never intended to replace the personal connection established when a school staff member and a parent discuss the progress of a child. Our staff knows the expectation that they should be contacting you by phone or through a meeting if they have concerns about your child completing assignments, classroom behavior or academic progress. As a staff, we also expect to respond to all parent communication within a 24 hour time period. Communication with the parents of our students is important to us. Our parents are our partners, sharing our mission to provide the best possible education to our students.