Parents will soon have more access into their child’s education as revealed at the Lenoir County School Board meeting last week.
One item on the agenda was a report by Technology Coordinator Charles White and Data Coordinator Shelia Heath on the progress of the home base project.
White and Heath have been working since December with the Department of Public Instruction on a massive student information warehouse.
“There are several interconnecting applications branching off of home base,” White said.
One of the branches is the Student Information System and its subcategory of PowerSchool, White said. Under PowerSchool are applications for teachers, administrators, substitutes and parents. The system allows teachers to take attendance and compile grades. Teachers were trained on how to use the new system in May.
The Parent Portal will allow parents to see their child’s attendance records, grades and requirements for graduation, Heath said. After polling principals, it was decided to open up the Parent Portal after the first nine weeks of school.
Information will be sent out to parents with the first report card.
“There will be a how-to guide for parents and in-person instruction,” White said. “Details for the exact timing of the training still needs to be decided.”
The other branch is the Instruction Improvement System, which will allow teachers to do data analysis placement and share lesson plans with teachers from across the state, White said. Its subcategories of N.C. Education Evaluation System and Schoolnet, which teachers will use to do evaluations, have not yet been implemented.
“We did not want to overwhelm teachers,” White said.
Training in those categories will be held at a later date.
In the other item on the agenda, Brent Williams, executive director of operations for Lenoir County Schools, made a presentation to the board clarifying a new transfer policy set up by the N.C. High School Athletic Association.
The policy, which became effective Aug. 1, allows students who do not have a bona fide change of address to apply for a waiver in order to immediately be eligible to participate in athletics, Williams said. The old transfer policy required a student to sit out 365 days if transferring without a bona fide change of address.
Conditions include special medical needs, academic reasons, issues with parental custody or other hardships, Williams said.
“The student must meet the criteria and prove that the transfer request is not on the basis of athletics,” Williams said. “Everything is on a case by case basis.”
If denied, students can appeal to the NCHSAA, Williams said.
In other business, Superintendent Stephen Mazingo announced that 800 backpacks of school supplies were distributed to Lenoir County students in the days leading up to the start of the new year. Mazingo also noted that the first day of school went smoothly and enrollment in the district was up by 60 students.
Noah Clark can be reached at 252-559-1073 or Noah.Clark@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at @nclark763.