Board of Ed. Discusses Software, Streamlining

Tuesday night’s Suffield Board of Education meeting at offered town residents an opportunity to hear what their tax money bought last year. The only thing missing was a town resident.

With only teachers and administrators in attendance, the board heard about the progress being made on the recommendations from consulting firm Blum Shapiro. The Suffield public school system hired Blum Shapiro in 2011 to analyze and make recommendations for system-wide improvements. The panel heard from director of technology Rebecca Osleger and business manager Ed Basile about steps taken to improve the quality of education in Suffield so far this year.

One of Blum Shapiro’s key technical recommendations was for teachers, administrators, students and parents to get the most out of its Powerschool software. Powerschool is a Pearson Education product that offers multiple interfaces for students and parents to track progress in the classroom, for teachers to manage classroom activities and post grades and for administrators to generate reports and manage the overall operation of the academic portion of the school system.

Osleger outlined the steps taken to in recent months to educate the educators on the software. A structured “Train the Trainer” program was created to identify and empower “super users” of the software. These users were given detailed instruction in maximizing the system and other users were also offered sessions to learn more.

Osleger’s extensive program has been highly received by Suffield teachers and the feedback has been positive about Powerschool. She noted that in surveys conducted by Blum Shapiro, many teachers were skeptical about Powerschool and didn’t see its value. Now, she said, these same teachers are more comfortable and excited the use the system.

“This process helps to identify the gaps and the duplication of efforts in the system,” said Superintendent of Schools Karen Baldwin. “We are breaking down the isolation and making sure people know how and what to do.”

The educate the educators program has reduced user inquiries by 28 percent, while parental usage of Powerschool is up to 87 percent, according to Osleger. She added that 100 percent of students enrolled in grades 8 through 11 are using the student portal. The process, Baldwin added, is not complete but she is pleased with the progress.

Business manager Basile detailed a number of the strides made to streamline purchasing, better coordinate invoicing and limit the unscheduled uses of accounts, mostly at the high school. In addition, he will be looking at alternatives to the current teacher call-in absentee program in an effort to overcome inefficiencies in the current system.

In other news, the board approved a field trip to Montreal for the Suffield High School robotics team. The group, led by Bob Lowell, has achieved great success and has high hopes of reaching the national championships with wins during the March competition.

Suffield’s Board of Education meets again on March 6. Among its agenda items will be a review of the budget for the 2012-13 school year.