December 20, 2012 TO: Superintendents Charter School Administrators FROM: Philip W. Price POWERSCHOOL TRANSITION ± MAY 1 SCHEDULING DEADLINE A number of local education agencies (LEAs) and charters have expressed concerns
regarding the May 1 scheduling deadline in the PowerSchool transition. The advantages
of the May 1 deadline are as follows:
x Staff complete the schedules in eSIS, a system with which they are already
familiar;
x Pearson has time to export the data cleanly from eSIS;
x Pearson can perform a complete conversion, which involves manually importing
spreadsheets into PowerSchool; and
x LEAs/charters have ample time to validate the results prior to any schools
starting, which is particularly important for the number of year-round schools
beginning in July.
It was originally decided that the entire state needed to be converted from eSIS to
PowerSchool at the same time. This would have required all scheduling to be completed
by May 1 to allow enough time for the systems to be connected and the school data to be
verified and operational by July 1. While we do believe that May 1 is the best target date
to have the student schedules completed, we have worked with the Pearson team and
determined that the conversion schedule can be different at some LEAs or charters within
certain parameters. As such, we looked at the schools most dramatically affected by the
process, and we found that some LEAs and charters may elect to complete their
scheduling by June 1 under certain conditions. Those conditions are as follows:
1. If all of the schools in the LEA/charter start in A ugust, the master schedule and
student schedules may be completed in eSIS no later than June 1.
2. If the LEA/charter has any secondary schools that start in July, the master
schedule and student schedules may be completed in eSIS no later than May 1.
3. If the LEA/cKDUWHU¶Velementary schools start in July and only use true selfcontained scheduling (which means the same teacher for A L L core subjects),
the LEA/charter may choose to:
O F F I C E O F F I N A N C I A L , B USIN ESS, A N D T E C H N O L O G Y SE R V I C ES
Philip W. Price, Chief F inancial Officer | Philip.Price@dpi.nc.gov
6326 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-6326 | (919) 807-3600 | Fax (919) 807-3604
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER
PowerSchool Transition
December 20, 2012
Page 2
a) schedule in eSIS with a scheduling deadline of May 1, or
b) schedule in PowerSchool after data are converted with a scheduling
deadline of June 1.
*Note: All LEAs/charters except those seven listed below may schedule in PowerSchool
after the data conversion period (as described in option 3B). However, additional
training may be required and may lead to additional local training costs.
**Note: Having an Early College High School in the district will not have an impact on
the May 1 or June 1 deadlines since they do not begin school until the August timeframe.
Regardless of these additional options, the state still highly recommends the completion
of scheduling in eSIS prior to May 1 for the reasons described above.
Once schedules have been absorbed into PowerSchool:
x You can adjust student schedules one at a time.
x Mass scheduling will be available but only on a class-by-class basis (equivalent to
eSIS class transfer option).
x You will be able to make minor changes to the master schedule as well (change a
period, change a teacher, change a classroom).
x Training on the use of PowerSchool will begin with your LEA/charter in January.
There are currently seven LEAs required to continue with the May 1 scheduling deadline
due to the considerations listed above. These LEAs are:
x Alamance
x Craven
x Cumberland
x Durham
x McDowell
x Union
x Wake
Please join us on one of the dates/times listed below so we can answer any additional
questions you may have and also elaborate on the entire process and steps involved
during the conversion.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013 (2:00 - 3:00)
Registration link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/879106801
Friday, January 11, 2013 (10:00 - 11:00)
Registration link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/815156328
We look forward to working with you during this transition period.
PWP/tm