A technology upgrade for the 2009-1010 school year at Sandoval schools will make life easier for students, parents and administrators.
The Sandoval Community Unit School District 501 Board of Education approved at its meeting Monday a $12,500 upgrade to it’s current student management system. The schools currently use a group of products supplied by Software Technology, Inc. to keep track of students’ grades, attendance and discipline records. A drawback to the current system is managed on a computer at the schools, limiting teachers to entering grading information while they are at school.
Micheal Chontofalsky, technology coordinator for the schools, said that the new system will be web-based, allowing teachers to enter information whenever and wherever they wish.
The change to the web-based systems will also give parents better access to their child’s student records. “They will use the same user name and password that they used on the old system," said Chontofalsky.
The price tag may seem expensive for the system, but Chontofalsky said that the one Information Now product will replace all the current software.
“Right now, we pay a yearly fee for support for STIClassroom for grading, STIOffice for student management, STIHomePlus for parent access and STIDistrict, which we use to send our reports to the state. With the new product, we can get all of those features rolled into one,” he said, and added that the price for the first year includes the cost of setup and data transfer.
Another advantage to having the web based software, according to Chontofalsky, are that the software providers, administrators and other schools officials will be able to access it as soon as we do,” he said, “which will make support a lot easier on both ends.”
Superintendent Dr. Terry Bethel and the school board commended Chontofalsky and Marilyn Gimbel for the many hours that they have spent in putting the technology system into place.
“Without them, this whole thing would collapse, I guarantee you,” Bethel said. “They’re wonderful to work with.”
