Update on District Registrar proposal

Earlier this month, we announced that West Des Moines Schools is reviewing a proposal to move new family registration to a centralized district registrar (posted at http://wp.me/p1JF02-aL)  

What is the status of this proposal? 
What happened at the focus group meetings about this topic?

In mid-December, we held 4 focus group sessions that were open to any district staff member.  The purpose of the focus groups was to provide additional details on the proposal and then collect questions/feedback. 

Right now, we are still reviewing the questions/feedback to determine what issues need to be addressed before the proposal can go on to the next step.

Information discussed at the December focus groups meetings………

1. Prior to this year: Certified enrollment was handled separately from Infinite Campus.  Certfied enrollment is the process where students are counted and the district is thereby paid according by the state according to our enrollment.
2. This year:  Certified enrollment was automatically taken from our Infinite Campus/Student Information System. 
3. In the coming years, the state of Iowa is looking to use SIF technology to allow them to pull student records at any point in time, directly from our system.

What does this mean to our enrollment/registration process? 
There will be a higher level of accountability for making sure that our enrollments are correct in Infinite Campus.  Our district currently has 120 individuals who have access to edit/modify student enrollment information.  With this many individuals, it is extremely hard to maintain accurate records. In addition, our current method is causing families with multiple children to register at multiple schools, sometimes filling out the same exact paperwork multiple times.

 

What is the proposal to address this problem?
In discussions with the Department of Education, Infinite Campus, and other areas school districts, it was recommended to shift all student enrollment tasks to a centralized District Registrar.  This would be a hourly employee that works the full calendar year, housed at the Learning Resource Center, with the  primary job role of assisting new families with school registration.  In addition, the Registrar would also ensure that all student enrollment fields are marked properly to ensure accurate records.

What tasks/roles would the Registrar do? 
Based on other district registrars, he/she would….

1. Handle all student enrollments (in and out)
2. Data entry related to state reports
3. Family demographics/updates
4. Data entry for all new families
5. Verify family address information
6. Handle parent infinite campus accounts

What tasks/roles, might the Registrar do? (items that are still being discussed)

1. Handle student records requests?
2. Send reminders to parents for demographic info updates?
3. Send reminders for fees?
4. Determine school placement?  (most likely would have to work with the schools to determine placement issues)

What tasks will the Registrar NOT DO?

1. Will not record medical info
2. Will not schedule into homeroom/course
3. Will not provide schedules to families
4. Will not be contact for non-english families
5. Will not be preschool registrar
6. Will not handle open enrollment approval
7. Will not work at school based registrations

Could you give us some scenarios of what the process might look like for a new family?

During school year, a family visits school in person…..

1. Office provides a standardized district enrollment packet.
2. Family fills out initial student page – if they submit it to the school office, then the school can add the student to Campus
3. Remaining packet is mailed to District Registrar for data entry.

During school year, family calls to the school…

1. School office can either… invite the family to the school and follow the previous process or refer them to the District Registrar.

During school year or summer, family visits the central office…

1. The receptionist calls the District Registrar to the front desk to meet the family. Take them to a more private location to provide registrar packet and assist them with completing it.
2. Registrar notifies school, works out placement.
3. Registrar adds student and family info to Campus

If we proceed with centralizing enrollment through a District Registrar, how might the transition take place?

1. The first task would be for the District Registrar to standardize all the school based registration forms into one uniform packet.
2. Second task would be work out any changes in the process with service areas such Welcome Center, Nutrition, Transportation, etc.
3. Once we ready to proceed, we envision that the transition would occur on school at a time, with the entire transition taking up to a full year if needed.

 

What feedback/questions were obtained from District Registrar Focus Groups

1^st focus group……….

1. Concern about lag time… the information needs to be added to Campus right away as teachers and staff need this information right away.
2. Arrangements for transportation can’t occur until information is in Campus
3. Parents who don’t want their child to attend their home school – how will this be handled?
4. How will changes to student enrollment codes be handled during the school year?
5. What is the relationship between the Welcome Center and the District Registrar?
6. How will Free/Reduced Lunch applications be handled?
7. Will the Registrar handle money? Who’s in charge of accepting money?
8. What about families with multiple building families.. how are they impacted by the roll out?
9. Kindergarten needs birth certificates and other documentation.. how is this handled?
10. Can we really handle the workload with just one person, especially in August?
11. When change of address occurs, how will buildings/transportation be notified?
12. How will address verification be done, so that we know that they do, in fact, live where they say they live.
13. Who is the backup when the registrar is sick or on vacation?
14. During the school year, can secretaries make changes to Campus? What fields?

 

From 2^nd focus group……….

1. We need to standardize the enrollment forms first before we start rolling this out.
2. Can we really handle the workload, especially during the start of the school year?
3. Will the registrar be bi-lingual? How do we accommodate non-english speaking familes?
4. What is the relationship between the Welcome Center and the District Registrar?
5. The phones aren’t answered at Valley during the summer – and this is causing issues for parents/families.
6. School voicemail messages aren’t being changed during the summer – and they need to be. Phone lines need to be directed to someone who will answer the phone!
7. Shouldn’t we be verifying where they live instead of just putting them right into a classroom?
8. How are verifications and documentation related to immunizations handled?  How about birth certificates?
9. Who starts the cum folder? Does the Registrar?
10. Make the forms online, to make them more accessible to everyone
11. Could we please eliminate the usage of fax machines and stick with email and scanned documents?
12. Could we consider grade level rollout vs building rollout?
13. What would the registrar work hours be?  Would they need flex work schedules due to workload?
14. Does the district registrar go out to the buildings during peak times?
15. Can we estimate what the peak time volumes will be, so we can better understand how overwhelmed the registrar might be?

3^rd focus group feedback………………

1. What about kindergarten registration, the forms are different?
2. Will the open enrollment process change?
3. How will international students be handled?
4. Who will handle Campus edits, what about DO NOT CONTACT requests?
5. How will kindergarten cap outs be handled?
6. What forms will be included in the registration packet?
7. Who collects the birth certificate/immunizations?
8. Will the registrar collect fees?

 

4^th focus group feedback……………..

1. Exactly how much information needs to be done for preschool enrollments?
2. Do we roll Pre-K to K? why? Why not?
3. Our school currently handles A LOT of parent calls for getting campus accounts unlocked.. I’m not sure the registrar can handle all of that..
4. Does the position have to be called the Registrar?  We already have a registrar at Valley, isn’t this confusing? Can’t the job title be something else?
5. Do building secretaries still register pre-k students that attend pre-k in their schools?

Now that you have this feedback… what’s the next step?
During the month of  Jan, we are still taking feedback, questions, and suggestions from staff, parents, and community.  We’ll be sorting through the questions and feedback to determine what issues need to be addressed before further exploration.

Can I still provide feedback regarding this?
Yes, If you are a parent/community member, we encourage you to either submit your questions or feedback using the comment field below, or you may contact Brian Abeling, abelingb@wdmcs.org directly.

5 reasons we love Shutterfly for connecting parents to our classrooms!

“As a parent myself, I always wondered what goes on during my child’s day,” explained Fairmeadows Elementary 2^nd grade teacher Amanda Oleson.    “With that in mind, I wanted to paint a better picture for the parents of my class.”   She’s now using a free website tool available from Shutterfly to provide her parents with a view into her classroom.  First grade teacher Jillian Robbins from Westridge Elementary is also doing the same, “Many parents have commented on how they enjoy being able to ‘see’ what is happening in the classroom, and it’s opening the lines of communication with parents.”

Why Shutterfly?

5 reasons we love Shutterfly for connecting parents to our classrooms!

#1:  It’s simple!

“In one single word, Shutterfly is….  SIMPLE,” said Oleson.   It’s easy because the system already provides the framework for the website, teachers just need to plug in their content.  There are even options to customize the site to tailor it to your specific needs.  Here are some examples…

Volunteer Tab:  Post information for what tasks and roles you need parent volunteers.

Class List:  Since you can make your shutterfly site “private” for parents only, you can post your class list with contact information.

Wish List:  Publish your classroom needs…   whether it’s for you or for students in need.

Student Blog:  Use it to post student writing!

Web Links:  Have a list of commonly used websites for students and parents?  Post them in your site for easy access.

Documents & Newsletters:   You can post all types of documents:  pdfs, Word, even PowerPoints.

 
A snapshot of Oleson’s classroom website built with Shutterfly, featuring links to the calendar, photos, and more.

#2. We love PHOTOS & VIDEOS!
Parent Tammy Wright exclaims, “Our favorite feature is the photo gallery!”  This is where Shutterfly excels, it’s easy to take photos of any classroom event and post them to a photo gallery in Shutterfly.   “I love the pictures and videos on the site which document classroom activities like when the student learned the continents through a song.  Being able to play these back at home helps me get involved and help spark great family conversations,” states parent Ken Morton.  Parent Deborah Lind said, “I’ve always wanted to be ‘bug on the wall’ in the classroom and with the photos and videos, this is the closest I’ve ever come!”  Parents are also finding that classroom photos are great conversation starters with their children, “My son loves to tell me about who is in the picture and what they are doing,” says parent Gina Feingold.

 Organized photo galleries are one of the many strengths of Shutterfly

Besides your traditional photos of classroom celebrations and major events, here’s a few other ideas suggested by parents…

1. Record a video of learning rhymes and songs.  If you’re using a song to learn or memorize facts or concepts – record a group of students practicing it.  This enables parents to see exactly what students are practicing and enables families to help out with practicing at home.
2. Science experiments:  A quick video clip of a science experiment can draw lots conversation at the family dining table.
3. Student work:  Parents expressed an interest in seeing student work examples, as they’ve found that it’s a great conversation starter and helps them gauge classroom expectations.
4. Recess.  Really?  Yes!  Of course, no one is asking for daily recess photos… but the idea was suggested by several parents, as they found that a few random shots of recess will draw huge conversations from students, enabling them to work the conversation towards what’s going on in the classroom.

#3. Calendar and Email Notifications
Shutterfly’s calendar is not only easily to use, it also has notification options available for parents.  Oleson states, “I plug in homework dates, due dates, or reminders of events and Shutterfly sends my parents emails reminding them of these times.”    Shutterfly also has the ability to send weekly digest updates… a quick weekly update of things that are new on the classroom website.  In fact, Shutterfly even provides parents with the ability to submit their photos from classroom events.

A snapshot of Robbin’s classroom website, showing the calendar, wish list items, and links to documents.

#4. Private vs Public
Shutterfly has two basic options for your classroom website:  private or public.   Both Robbins and Oleson are currently using a private site.   This restricts search engines from finding their student photos and projects, enabling a safer environment for posting photos.  At any time during the school year, parents can request an account from the teacher by simply emailing the classroom teacher.

#5. It’s FREE
You can’t beat the price!!  Although Shutterfly does have limited storage for videos, there is no cost for the standard, basic classroom site.

Considering Shutterfly’s strengths in providing a safe environment for posting photo galleries, it’s easy to see why parents are so excited about using photos to get a view of what’s happening in the classroom.  Parents agree that the use of photos certainly appears to be the key to sparking the conversations at home.   As Robbins has found, “it gives parents an idea of things they can prompt their children with,” giving parents a new angle towards answering the age old question of “What did you do in school today?”

Amanda Oleson 2nd grade teacher Fairmeadows Elementaryolesona@wdmcs.org

Jillian Robbins 1st grade teacher Westridge Elementary robbinsji@wdmcs.org