MAISD PowerSchool

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.

As we get the new school year off the ground, please keep the following in mind:

• Students who were not dropped at the end of last year but who dropped over the summer or were no-shows at the start of the year should be dropped as of the second day of school. This ensures their drop can be reported to the state.
• Please review your Term dates, Final Grade/Reporting Terms, Bell Schedules, Periods, etc. and submit a PS Helpdesk ticket if anything needs to be adjusted. Changes to any of these items will affect other systems and reports we run, so we want to make sure your data is correct and things keep running smoothly!

A basic PowerSchool training was held on Tuesday, September 10.

Topics Covered:

• District Search
• Enrolling a New Student
• Transferring Students
• Scheduling
• Attendance
• Log Entries
• Student Pages
• Calendar
• Reports
• State Reporting

We updated PowerSchool to the most recent version available at the end of summer, which brings a new tool that many staff who manage sections and teachers should find very helpful.

The Update Course Staff page can be found under School Management > Courses and Programs > Update Course Staff

The tool allows you to update multiple sections all at once with the following options:

• Reassign Course Staff
• Assign Additional Course Staff
• Update Additional Course Staff End Date

The tool has a wizard that steps you through the process of selecting staff to change, which sections to update, and allows you to review the changes before you make them.

We're working on adding more helpful reminders and tools throughout PowerSchool. Here are a few recent additions:

• Staff Pages - Adds Security Group and PIC to the Staff Header
• Academic Grade Scales - Adds column showing how many sections in the current year are using each grade scale
• Historical/Stored Grades - Added several checks for reasons why a grade may not be included in TSDL
• Final Grade/Reporting Terms - Added checks to make sure settings match what TSDL requires
• Enroll New Student - Added warning about incorrect Enrollment Dates
• New Historical Grades - Added TermID fields and a guide for choosing the correct TermID
• Dependent Section Checker - Added diagnostic tool to the Section Edit page to help diagnose issues with dependent sections
• Report Editors - Adjusted wording for object placement on the report to make it more clear
• PowerTeacher - Added filter button to hide sections that are not expecting attendance on the current date
• Multi-Day Attendance - Added legend
• PowerTeacher Lunch Counts - Added option at the building level to hide the Lunch Counts icons from PowerTeacher if the building does not use this feature

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.

• 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.
• Positive Behavior Acknowledgments - Allows teachers and admin staff to acknowledge students' positive behaviors, track data over time, and automatically notify parents and students.
• Other - Chromebook Tracking, 31a Reporting, Online Report Cards, among others.

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.

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).

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

Submit a PowerSchool Helpdesk Ticket

Bill Smith, SIS Support Specialist

Joel Selby, SIS Support Specialist

Keith Jelinek, SIS Support Specialist

Heidi Strong, SIS Helpdesk

Website: https://www.muskegonisd.org/techservices/ps/
Location: 630 Harvey Street, Muskegon, MI, USA
Phone: (231) 767-0414