Internet Lets Vail Parents Stay Informed
Program gives access to grades and homework
By Nicole R. Grubbs, Arizona Daily
Star, July 26, 2003
For Patrick Hannigan, being out of town doesn't mean
being out of touch with his children's homework.
Even when Hannigan, who works for the military, is
in Washington, D.C., or Afghanistan, he can log on to
the Vail School District Web site and find out what
his children's teachers have assigned, what grades his
children are getting and even whether they missed school
that day.
Vail School District is the only district in Tucson
that uses the program, PowerSchool, to help parents
become more involved in their children's education.
Through Apple Computer Inc.'s PowerSchool program,
parents are able to access students' assignments, grades
and attendance records as soon as teachers enter them.
John Fillipelli's daughter, Sarah, is a sophomore at
Cienega High School, and he said he looks at her grades
and attendance every other day by going to the PowerSchool
Web site. Parents and students are assigned a password
that allows them to access their child's records.
Fillipelli said that among the program's biggest benefits
are weekly e-mails about his three children's progress
and correspondence with their teachers via e-mail.
"I equate it to being able to have a parent-teacher
conference with each teacher on a weekly basis,"
he said.
He said the program enhances communication with his
children about school because he and his wife can ask
specific questions about assignments, tests and absences.
But some kids hate it.
Justin Aniba, who will start his senior year at Cienega
High School on Monday, said he doesn't have much freedom
with his mother, Belinda, monitoring his school activities.
"If I don't turn stuff in, it's because I didn't
want to," he said.
That doesn't happen anymore.
Matt Federoff, the Vail district's technology coordinator,
acknowledged that many students don't appreciate the
program as much as parents do.
"If you were a goof-off in school, you would have
really hated this," he said.
Nevertheless, Calvin Baker, the district's superintendent,
said PowerSchool is revolutionizing the way parents
and students interact with the educational process.
The district has been using the program for four years.
According to last year's statistics, parents accessed
the system more than 75,000 times - or 236 times a day
- and students looked at their own information nearly
35,000 times - or 109 times a day. The district has
slightly more than 6,000 students.
Hannigan's oldest child, Kaitlin, will be starting
high school in the district Monday.
"When there are six, seven or eight teachers,
it's very difficult to keep in communication with all
of them," he said. "With PowerSchool, I can."
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