No. 7 - March 2024

 



    Hello everyone! I hope you have had a great start to 2024! It's certainly been a while since I posted anything. I was waiting for just the right moment to tell you about a new exciting partnership!

    During the March board meeting, our school board approved a move from PowerSchool to jmc as our student information system. This comes after a 4 month research project led by our awesome curriculum director, Mr. Andy Herrick. Mr. Herrick led a 12-person committee charged with finding the best solution for our district stakeholders after it was determined that there was a low approval rating with PowerSchool and a high percentage of teachers that were open to switching. 

    There are 3 options for student information systems (SIS) in the state of Iowa: PowerSchool, jmc, and Infinite Campus. Our committee saw in-house presentations from both jmc and Infinite Campus in January. We listened for key topics that the RS staff had deemed most important to them - Ease of Use, Customer Service, Training, and Data Security to name a few. In the end, it was a unanimous decision to move to jmc. 

    What does that mean for the families in our district? Here are the highlights:
  • A consolidated approach - You'll have one login for student communication, progress reports, transcripts, report cards, registration, paying fees, adding lunch money, parent-teacher conference scheduling, and more!
  • There is a family app that will let you report attendance and add lunch money from within the app. No more calling the school. More details on that later!
  • There will be a community store that will allow us to sell items straight to the public. 
  • The customer service and documentation about jmc is easy to find and understand. They have both written documentation and a YouTube channel available for free right now.
    So, what's next? 
  1. jmc will get our project management site up and running. Here we will have a step-by-step protocol designed to guide us through this transition process.
  2. Data migration will begin. This will take our current data from PS to jmc. 
  3. Mr. Herrick and I will start developing our brand new customizable report cards. 
  4. Staff training will happen by user group throughout the spring starting with our awesome secretaries.
  5. We will be communicating the change to all families with instructions on how to use the family portal and family app. 

    I really believe that this change will benefit our staff and the families we serve. We are excited to join the jmc family!


Eric Padget

Technology Coordinator 

Roland-Story CSD

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