Online parental access to Warsaw Schools' student information system is to begin Jan. 9.

But not all the "bells and whistles" are going to be ready because not all the teachers are completely trained on using the system. However, students' grades should be available online by Jan. 9, according to Director of Assessment Terrence P. Roe and Assistant Superintendent Sandra Hess at Monday's Warsaw School Board meeting.

"Will it be perfect? Based on everything we saw, no," Hess said.

The student information system was created with CenterPoint software. When selecting CenterPoint, Roe said he began his research on the different software available. He visited the State Department of Education Web site where they listed vendors. He checked the vendors out, compiling a list of features each vendor offered. A committee was formed to narrow down the list of vendors from the seven Roe chose.

Roe said two or three vendors were selected to give demonstrations. The preliminary product was selected, CenterPoint. The software cost Warsaw Schools approximately $100,000.

Parents will be sent their usernames and passwords soon.

Roe then demonstrated the capabilities of the system to the school board. Parents can see their students' grades, list of courses and important announcements. Each class will have a home page where assignments can be listed, said Roe. Parents will be able to retrieve their students' personal information as well as attendance records. If a student misses too many days, a parent can have an e-mail sent to them notifying them of the absences.

Deb Wiggins, board member, asked if there was a back-up system should there be problems. Roe said incremental back-ups are performed.

Madison Elementary School teacher Terry Sims then told the school board there have been instances where teachers submit grades, but the computer freezes and the grades are not submitted. Roe said that was not a CenterPoint problem, but a problem at Madison. If it had been a problem with the centralized database, other schools would have had the same problem.

Nate Howett, Edgewood Middle School teacher, said he submitted his grades and they never went through. Chuck Sauders, board member, said he was told by a math teacher at the high school the program is a disaster.

Hess said the school corporation is compiling responses from a teacher survey to see what problems are occurring.

One of the issues with the system is not just technical, Sims said. It's a lack of training. So far, there's only been two hours of training for teachers to use the software. Many teachers aren't able to put all the information on the Web yet. The next opportunity for teachers to receive more training will be Jan. 17, but grades go online Jan. 9.

Wiggins said some of the educators she spoke with told her they didn't have a problem with the software, it was a lack of training. She also said she heard training was offered, but poorly attended.

Sims said CenterPoint crashed at his last in-service training session on the program in October, and problems with it persisted throughout the fall, so he could understand why only six people showed up.

High school teacher Jim LeMasters said the program is not easy to use. "There's just a lot of things about the program that are slow and sluggish." He said he can use it, but it just takes a lot of time to use it. Going from the last grading program to CenterPoint, he said, is like going backwards. He said he heard CenterPoint was chosen because it came down to dollars.

"This program was chosen by the majority of the people," Roe said. The program had the specifications the school corporation wanted and was the only one integrated for the Web.

One patron said that if parents are told about it, but it doesn't live up to expectations, very few parents will use it again.

Hess and Roe said they'd review the letter being sent out to parents and make sure it stated that, for now, the online site would only offer students' grades.

In other business, the school board:

• Selected Paul Reith and Jon Shively to appraise Silver Lake Elementary School for a cost not to exceed $1,700.

• Announced the meeting for the reorganization of the board is Jan. 9 at 7 p.m.

• Reviewed the preliminary 2006-07 school calendar, to be presented to the board for approval in January. The first student day tentatively is Aug. 17; fall break, Oct. 27-30; Thanksgiving break, Nov. 23-24; winter break, Dec. 20 to Jan. 2; spring break, April 2-6; last student day, June 1; graduation June 8. Dates subject to change depending on snow days.

• Approved moving the April 21 WCHS parent/teacher conferences to Jan. 19.

• Approved the donation of a Star CNC lathe and bar feed from Medtronic Sofamor Danek Manufacturing to the Warsaw Area Career Center for the Machine Tool lab. The equipment is valued at approximately $25,000.

• Approved the more than $1,200 the Gifted and Talented Parent Group raised for the gifted and talented self-contained classes.

• Approved Eric Demorest for a 97-day contract as a guidance counselor at WCHS; approved Amy Hobbs as the department head for the special education department at WCHS. [[In-content Ad]]