The district currently uses two separate systems.
By Samantha C. DePoy
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – SAD 9 will be linked up to a Web-based student information system by next fall, an administrator told board members Tuesday night.

Assistant Superintendent Susan Pratt, a former principal at the Phillips Elementary School in SAD 58 who brought PowerSchool to that district, said the system will be installed and teachers trained in its use between now and the start of the 2004-05 academic year.

PowerSchool by Apple is accessed online and serves students, parents and administrators and provides real-time information.

A parent can check if their child has made it to their first period class. A student can track his or her grades. A teacher can post homework assignments.

And, at the touch of a button, a principal or superintendent can build schedules or get districtwide data.

Currently, the nine-town district relies on two separate information systems, that “don’t talk,” Superintendent Michael Cormier said.

To update those systems would have cost more than the $55,000 it will cost to bring PowerSchool to the district, he noted.

That $55,000 will come from a federal grant. Pratt said the district has signed a three-year lease purchase agreement with Apple already.

As far as security, Pratt explained the system would “be locked down pretty tight,” and everything will be backed up on-site and off-site.

Cormier said the new system will be a major, but positive shift.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, the board approved a trip for 13 Mount Blue High School students in basic-level French to travel to Quebec City for two days in May for culture experience.

They also agreed unanimously to grant sabbatical leaves to Mount Blue High School foreign language teacher Ewan Goode and to Foster Tech forestry and wood harvesting instructor Ron Hodgdon.

Goode will spend four months in Dijon, France, at the start of the 2004-05 school year, while his wife directs the Colby College study abroad program there. A person already on staff at the high school will take over his classes, Cormier noted.

A native of France, Goode wrote in a letter to the board the extended time overseas would provide him with an opportunity to refine his own language skills and learn more about French culture, which he will share with his students when he in January.

The request granted for Hodgdon was a first for the board.

Hodgdon requested a sabbatical, spread out over three years. He proposed to take six weeks early each fall to travel to Canada and work in a wood harvesting operation he and his brother co-own.

A substitute would cover his courses when he was absent and Hodgdon said taking this time off would have the least impact on his students, as they are busy with cardiopulmonary resuscitation/first aid training, field trips, college visits and guest speakers.

Perhaps his wood harvesting students would be able to visit the site in Canada where he was working, he suggested.

The board approved his request, with the condition that the approval did not set a precedent for others requesting sabbaticals to break it up over multiple years. That, said board member Neil Stinneford, would be an “administrative nightmare.”

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link