Teachers, staff, parents and students — as well as the greater community — will soon have access to Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools information in a new, modern way.
Beginning July 1, the school district will launch a locally hosted website with a new web address and start launching new apps — available through iTunes and Google Play Store for free for users — for parents, teachers, students, administrators, school nurses and special educators.
Currently WJCC schools use the web address www.wjccschools.org, but the site is hosted on Edline, so the page redirects to a different web address. All individual school sites will also be moved to new web addresses. When the transition is made July 1, the Edline pages — and any personal bookmarks using that address — will no longer work.
As a result of the change, the new pages will be easier to navigate, faster and the main site will have a search function on the homepage, said Betsy Overkamp-Smith, the school division’s director of public relations and engagement.
Coupled with the transition is the launch of new apps for school staff, parents and students. The app for administration will be available first, followed by apps for teachers and staff when they return at the end of the summer. The apps for parents and students will be made available in conjunction with the start of the new school year in September. Any information relating to student grades will be unavailable online between July 1 and the new app launch for parents and students, but can be obtained through school staff.
For administrators, AdminVUE will provide instant access to student demographic information — including attendance, program participation, health, discipline, scheduling and testing — and parent contact information in case of emergencies.
HealthVUE will replace SNAP Health Center for school nurses, giving nurses the capability to move around using iPads to conduct student screenings and fill out accident reports.
Replacing Edline and StarPortal for teachers is TeacherVUE, which will provide teachers the capability of mapping curriculum, linking it with Standards of Learning, and allowing the curriculum map to be linked to an electronic lesson plan. Everything to do with grading and testing will be incorporated into the app as well. SEVUE, like TeacherVUE, will streamline tools needed in special education.
“It will allow teachers to just work smarter,” said Patti Bowen, the school division’s lead integration specialist.
The teacher app can be linked with ParentVUE and StudentVUE to allow families to access missed homework and class assignments and grade information. Parents can quickly make changes to contact information, and students will be able to instantly communicate with their guidance counselors.
“The great news about this is it’s totally K-12,” Bowen said. The previous systems available to teachers and parents were mainly for middle and high school students. “It’s really about true communication. … It’s really focused on how to help the children.”
With the new apps, each family will be given one access code which will link all student information in one system. Parents previously received one code per student and had to access each student’s information separately.
The process to implement the new webpages and apps has taken about two years of work.Teachers, guidance counselors, administrators and central office staff provided input on the data management systems before one was chosen. School employees were able to receive training on the systems and test them out before choosing a favorite option from the providers.
Moving to the new apps and local website cuts out the need for five systems used separately to complete the same functions. The transition, which cuts out third-party systems, has an initial cost of roughly $450,000, with annual renewal fees of about $68,000. Purchasing the five separate programs previously required an up-front cost with annual renewal fees as well. With the new apps and site, the annual cost will be about the same – if not cheaper – than using five separate systems.
Cutting out the third-party systems cuts out the need for data entry across platforms, said Brian Landers, the division’s technology director. Previously teachers could upload grades into one system and then a school employee would copy the information into a system for parents to access, which created the possibility for error.
“Having correct information through all these systems is valuable,” Overkamp-Smith said.
Another benefit to cutting out multiple systems Landers noted was having a new system. Edupoint, the 1998 company responsible for the apps, is using Synergy Student Information System to link data and power the back-end of the apps. Synergy launched in 2005, and the apps launched between 2003 and 2011. Edline, which the division is nixing, was built in the 1980s and has been updated as technology changes; the new system was built using new technology.
“We’re truly implementing modern, up-to-date technology,” Landers said.
As the schools move toward implementing the new apps, parents will receive communication from the schools. A letter from Superintendent Steven Constantino is being mailed out with final report cards, and parents will learn about using the new app on schools’ open house nights.
Parents who attended the Parent Academy are already aware the new app is launching.
