SAD 31 to streamline information systems

HOWLAND – Interim Superintendent Jerry White doesn’t want any more $2,000 telephone bills.

White said Tuesday that he is working on ways to streamline SAD 31’s student information systems – the computer networks by which student information is stored – and the school system’s telephone networking.

White, who has an extensive background in school technology, said he felt such an upgrade might be necessary after receiving a monthly phone bill for the school system of about $2,000 and learning that the school system has about 43 individual phone numbers.

“I said, what in the name of God are we doing. We looked into this and I said we have to get on this,” White told the SAD 31 board of directors last week.

“It seems that phone lines have come in for one reason or another over the years and never left,” said White, the school system’s eighth superintendent since 1998.

White and other school officials are reviewing the telephone situation and the three student information databases SAD 31 uses at Penobscot Valley High School, Hichborn Middle School and Enfield Station School, and are working to make them more compatible with the state’s student database.

White said they also are looking at PowerSchool, which, according to apple.com, is a Web-based student information system from Apple that simplifies data-driven decision-making by providing real-time information over the Internet to all school stakeholders.

The system promises to help administrators get the most accurate information to make more effective decisions. Teachers gain timesaving administrative tools, parents gain immediate access to their children’s grades, and students can track their own progress, the Web site states.

School officials are looking at how much it would cost to streamline the database and consolidate phone lines or systems, White said.

White hopes to have a cost estimate and a computer and telephone consolidation proposal ready for board review sometime in February.