Plea for patience: Will PowerSchool be ready?

Heath Morrison made  "an impassioned plea to our community for patience"  at this week's school board meeting.

Why?   School starts in less than two weeks.  And all the data,  from student schedules to bus routes to employee information,  will be controlled by the new PowerSchool system being adopted statewide.

Anyone who's been part of a system transition knows how crazy that can be. Now imagine the conversion of all school data for the state of North Carolina in less than a year,  with the operation of all public schools at stake.

"There are going to be hiccups,  bumps and unexpected issues that arise,"  Morrison said Tuesday.

Truesdale

He and other CMS leaders were grim about the conversion prospects last fall.  Now they're trying to be optimistic and make things work.  But technology chief Valerie Truesdale acknowledged that some student schedules may be delayed,  especially for those registering after July 1.  "Each day is a new set of odd things that can occur,"  she said.

Why is North Carolina doing this?  Pearson School Systems,  a private educational information company,  bought the old NCWISE data system in 2010 and phased it out.  State officials said a two-year transition to the new Pearson product would have cost more,  so they opted for the quick switch.

Families who have used Parent Assistant to track their kids'  grades and   attendance online will convert to PowerSchool's Parent Portal.  CMS will open a new PowerSchool parent hotline on Monday:  980-343-9420.

As always,  I'm eager to know what those of you on the front lines are experiencing.  I'm still trying to figure out the terminology.  Best I can tell,  PowerSchool is part of a new state system called Home Base,  which combines the data system with school improvement programs.  Read the CMS presentation to the school board here and the state's explanation of Home Base here.