The feature/function sacrifices you would have to make to get down to
one system will almost surely be worse than supporting a handful of
systems that do what you want them to and making them play nice
together. Instead of focusing on a particular number of solutions,
you might be better off focusing on the right or "right enough"
solutions and getting down to the smallest number that makes sense,
even if it is not one or two. But even if you could get down to one
solution, you are then so heavily invested in it -- and the vendor
who provides it -- that you risk becoming unable to adapt to your
dynamic school ecology.
This becomes even more critical for schools that serve kids preK-12,
when systems need to serve the widest possible array of needs. I noted
that your school is adding a Lower School next year, which will make
this process tougher, if only for grade reporting alone.
PowerSchool does what it's designed to do reasonably well. Doing
traditional letter grades, attendance, empowering office staff to do
customized reports, sorting student information, doing it over the web
--- and so that's what we use it for. But it doesn't take well to the
kind of bending and twisting most independent schools either want or
need for other purposes. We've run it here for a few years alongside a
number of FileMaker applications without any major issues other than
those Pearson sometimes creates unwittingly. We also have to monkey
with it to feed an ever-changing array of data to evolving University
systems; when we can't figure out how to do this ourselves, we've
turned to Richard James of Phoenix Learning and he's provided solid
help.
Good luck. I've found this part of the IT leader's job the most
challenging and least rewarding in the ten years I've been doing this.
I hope you have more fun with it.
Curt Lieneck
Director of Information Technology
University of Chicago Laboratory Schools
On Aug 25, 2008, at 10:28 AM, Don Stalls wrote:
> We are a 6 -12 school using PowerSchool for grades and attendance. We
> use a hodgepodge of different products for registrar, fundraising,
> Buisiness Office affairs, accounts payable, cafeteria, alumni, and
> admissions. I am looking for a solution that would reduce the number
> of
> various software pieces we use in concert with PowerSchool. I have
> heard of people using Senior Systems with PowerSchool and Blackbaud
> with
> PowerSchool. I want to know how these two work or if anyone else has
> used anything else that works well with PowerSchool. The idea is
> that we
> run only two programs. The ability to eventually move to just one is
> also important. I appreciate any advice you can give.
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Don Stalls
>
> Episcopal Collegiate School
>
> Little Rock, AR
>
>
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