Software woes lead schools to switch to new program

By: Jake Phillips
The Valders Journal

January 18, 2007

The Valders Area School District will introduce a new student database program for the 2007-08 school year to replace the current system that has been the source of many headaches the past few years.

The school board voted Monday to approve the purchase of the Skyward software package, a group of programs that keeps track of any student record information, such as attendance, class schedules, grades, legal records and food service accounts.

Superintendent Tom Hughes said that the current software, supplied by Chancery, was purchased about five or six years ago. The company is based in Vancouver, Canada.

The new software will have an initial cost of about $40,000 and there will be a small recurring cost, but Hughes said that for the most part, it’s a one-time expense. He also said that the cost is comparable to what the school district paid for the Chancery programs.

Hughes said that the administration, faculty and support staff have worked tirelessly to get the software to work properly, but little improvement was seen and the decision has been made to make a change.

Among the problems, he noted, was that the program wouldn’t properly transfer data or it would take too long to do so. The most widespread complaint has been in regard to the K-12 Planet software that allows parents to see their students’ grades, which has been posting incorrect data.

“Some things that should have taken 15 minutes might have taken six hours,” Hughes said.

He said that every effort was made to work with Chancery and receive support, but road blocks and communication problems made the process drawn out and difficult. Hughes said it’s a big relief for everyone involved that a system will be put in place that people are confident will work well. “The software isn’t hot and the support isn’t there, so why stick with it?” Hughes proposed to the board.

Board members agreed, feeling that things can run a lot more smoothly in the future. Better support is also anticipated from the Skyward company, which is based in Stevens Point.

“Chilton just started with (Skyward) and they haven’t had any problems with it,” said member Eugene Borgwardt. “I guess that’s good news.”

John Schnell Said he was looking forward to having a reliable system to keep track of grades and report that information to parents. At least, he said, he won’t have to hear complaints of, “That thing’s never right, anyway.”

The Skyward software was already used to take care of the food service department and financial area and little or no problems were reported in those areas.

Hughes said the transfer of information into the new system should be an easy transition and there will be an added benefit that everything will be taken in under one approach and filed into one database.

He said that once the details of the new software are worked out, the conversion to the new system would begin near the end of the school year and be ready to go before fall classes begin.

“We had a lot of people do a lot of homework on this,” Hughes said.