MAISD PowerSchool

November 2022 Newsletter

The MAISD PowerSchool Support Team has created this email newsletter to keep our district contacts and stakeholders updated on current needs, future updates, and tips and tricks to make using PowerSchool more convenient and effective.

Please let us know someone else should receive this newsletter by emailing Joel Selby at jselby@muskegonisd.org.

Feature Explorer

PowerTeacher Pro - New Student Groups Feature

PowerSchool has added a new feature to the PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook that allows teachers to create a group of students that can include students from different sections or periods! This allows the teacher to make assignments and give them to a certain group of students without having to manually select students each time.

Chronic Absenteeism Module Updates

The MAISD has updated our custom module that tracks students who meet chronic absenteeism thresholds and district efforts to contact their families to remedy the issue. The new module has been updated to match the current thresholds of 5, 10, and 15 days of unexcused absences, as well as tracking meeting invitations with the MAISD Truancy Officer. You can read more about this module and how it works in the new Chronic Absenteeism Module User Manual.

Please submit a ticket if your truancy letters need to be updated to match the new thresholds.

Search Smarter

Searching with a List of Possibilities

Oftentimes when you're searching in PowerSchool for students or staff, you're looking for a particular field to have a certain response. Did you know you can also search for a range of options in one go?

Commands to try:

Last_Name in smith, jones, anderson (students with any of these three names - you can also use "not in" for the opposite result)
Street contains sherman (any address that includes the text "sherman" within it)
Street !contains north (does not contain)
Home_Phone = 616@ (any home phone that starts with 616 - @ is the wildcard similar to * in other systems)

Reminders

October Reminders

School-Level

School Calendar in PowerSchool should have your holidays and professional development days marked in advance to avoid issues with attendance and pupil accounting
End of M1/Q1 Reminders

Check Report Cards in Advance
Work with your district’s PowerSchool Functional Leader to request your grades be stored in advance

Term date changes should be submitted via HelpSpot ticket to the PS Support Team so that they can be updated on the back-end.

How can the MAISD PowerSchool Support Team help you?

Training

New Staff

Be sure to notify the PowerSchool Team when new staff members are hired. New staff will be given a PowerSchool Training account and assigned the appropriate learning path. Learning paths include online courses relevant to the job the staff member will be performing. This will provide a foundation of PowerSchool knowledge. Once the online training has been completed, we suggest scheduling a one-on-one in person or virtual training with a PowerSchool team member to answer any questions and provide further instruction.

Ongoing Training

The PowerSchool Team is available to provide training to staff on an as needed basis. Please contact us to schedule training.

Throughout the School Year

The PowerSchool Team holds annual training sessions throughout the school year for elementary scheduling, beginning of the year, end of the year, and PowerSchool 101. Please contact the PowerSchool Team for dates and times. Training dates are also published in this newsletter.

Custom Modules Developed by the MAISD PowerSchool Team

SWIS Integration - Allows log entries in PowerSchool to be sent to SWIS.
Enrollment/Registration - Online enrollment, yearly forms and demographic info update within the Parent Portal.
Chronic Absenteeism - Allows districts to quickly view students who have met attendance thresholds, generate attendance letters en masse, track parent meetings, and generate reports as needed.
Accommodation Log - Allows teachers to enter accommodations offered (accepted and refused) for students with an IEP or 504 plan. The data is stored, reportable, and accessible to parents.
Other - Chromebook Tracking, 31a Reporting, Online Report Cards, among others.

Data Integration

The PowerSchool Team can create automated jobs that integrate the flow of data between PowerSchool and third party software applications, removing the need to compile data and upload it manually.

Report Writing

The PowerSchool Team can write a variety of reports, including data reports, detail reports, analytical reports, and student performance reports (report cards, progress reports, transcripts).

Other Services Include

Day to day support, secondary scheduling, standards support, and all things related to PowerSchool!

PowerSchool Feedback Survey

Let us know what we can do to improve our support services!