for Staff | West Des Moines Community Schools Technology

For many years, our schools have handled the student registration process at each school. New families with multiple children were asked to travel to each school to fill out the same paperwork. In addition, we’ve had situations where one school changes or overrides the information in our student records system that was entered by a previous school. In order to be more customer friendly to new families and to help ensure that our student records are more accurate, we are discussing the following…

Centralizing the enrollment process through a district registrar.

Q1. What would the District Registrar do?
A1. The District Registrar’s will be responsible for…

enrolling all new students/families
handling demographic updates/changes for all existing students/families
ensure proper marking of all student enrollment codes

Q2. How do other school districts handle this? Do they have district registrars also?
A2.Yes, in fact most districts have already centralized their registration process to ensure accurate records. Centralizing the enrollment process is recommended by both the Department of Education and Infinite Campus.

Q3. What would the process look like if a new family wanted to register for school?

Here’s a few scenarios…

1) New family calls during the summer to inquire about enrolling at our schools
The call is directed to the District Registrar who will personally assist the family with the registration process, regardless of the ages of the children. All information/forms submitted by the family will be directed to the District Registrar, who will handle the entering of student/family information into Infinite Campus.

2) What if the new family calls during the school year?
This would be handled the same as the previous answer – the district registrar would assist the family with the enrollment process.

3) What if the family shows up at the school during school registration?
Each school office will have a copy of the standard enrollment forms – and they could provide the forms to the parents since they are already at the school. The school office would accept the forms and would enter only the minimal student information needed in Infinite Campus. The remaining information would be sent in the mail to the District Registrar who would finish the data entry.

Q4. If this was to happen… when would it start?
We would transition over a 12 to 18 month period by working with each individual school. Transitioning over time will allow to adjust to issues and concerns as they arise.

Q5. How would this change the role of the school office staff?
School office staff will still have the ability to enroll new students, but will not have to worry about handling all of the data entry.

Q6. Would existing families need to interact with the District Registrar?
Yes, if an existing household needed any of the following, they would contact the district registrar..

a. If you need a Campus Account, or need a password reset on your existing parent account

b. If you need to make a change to your family information including address, phone, or relationships.

Q7. How can I provide feedback regarding this?

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.

If you are a staff member of WDM Schools, we also encourage you to either respond with comment field below or contact Brian Abeling via email. For building office staff, administrators, other individuals that are directly related to the registration process, we will be holding focus groups during mid-December to collect specific questions and feedback.

As previously announced, West Des Moines Schools has started a pilot program to explore the usage of iPads in the classroom. The first rounds took place in Sept and Oct, with equipment and training deployed to building based trainers. These same trainers have now organized additional courses that are open to the next round of teachers.

Q2. Where do I apply?
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DZ6SPL3

Q2.What are they looking for out of applicants for the next round?
The most significant factor is your ability to demonstrate that you currently use small group instruction to provide differeniation for students.

Q3. When is the application due?
Applications are due by 4pm on Friday, Dec 9th.

Q4. What questions are on the application form?

1. What is your name?

2. What is your home school?

3. What is your role/position/grade level/subject area at the school? What is your role/position/grade level/subject area at the school?

4. What experience do you have with iPads? (It is NOT REQUIRED that you have prior experience, but if you have, please describe your experience) What experience do you have with iPads? (It is NOT REQUIRED that you have prior experience, but if you have, please describe your experience)

5. Do you already have an iPad assigned to you or your classroom, provided by the school or parent group? Do you already have an iPad assigned to you or your classroom, provided by the school or parent group?

6. Why did you submit an application? Why is this of interest to you?

7. What do you envision iPads being used for? Are there certain instructional strategies that you envision using them with? Certain topics/subjects that you would focus on? (NOTE: You are not required to have iPad experience coming into this pilot, but we do ask that you have at least thought about how they might apply to your role.)

8. Tell us about your experience with providing support, training and sharing of best practices with other teachers…

9. Please describe, in detail, your experience and ability to use small group instruction to provide differentiation for students. You may include a text description, web links to artifacts, or even contact information for references.

10. For the last question, we will provide the exact dates/times for the training and you will select which dates/times you are available.

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