[Fair use for education and research purpose only]

Title: Computer Woes Plague Schools

By Ann McGlynn, QUAD-CITY TIMES -- April 2, 2000

A new computer system designed to make student recordkeeping easier for Iowa Quad-City region schools still is causing problems, a year after its turbulent debut.

Report cards are coming out late. Students applying for college and scholarships have to wait while school employees write transcripts out by hand. Files are disappearing.

Three of the 14 Iowa school districts that joined a consortium to buy the $1.8 million system have dropped out. Other districts are having problems that are costing their employees time and headaches.

"We've just had one problem after another problem after another problem," Davenport Superintendent Jim Blanche said. "One solution seems to create three problems."

Student schedules and report cards for 22 school districts used to be handled by the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency, or AEA, based in Bettendorf. That computer system was purchased in 1967 and was not Y2K-compatible.

The new system has more options, including the ability to scan students' photos to help with taking attendance in large schools and to produce a daily list of birthdays. The old system had 50 screens. The new system has more than 700, said Joe Coon, the coordinator for technology and print services for the AEA, where the system is housed.

Fourteen school districts joined forces in 1998 to buy the Student Information System from Administrative Assistance Limited of Ontario, Canada. The company president did not return a telephone call from the Quad-City Times seeking comment.

The Northeast School District, based in Goose Lake, the East Central School District, based in Miles and the Preston School District have since dropped out, Coon said.

The Northeast schools got out of the group before they even installed the equipment, business manager Cindy McAleer said. Staff members saw some problems during the training sessions and the district decided to go with another company instead.

Schools that remain in the consortium continue to pay $7.14 per student for the service. The contract is for five years.

"Problems are being worked out, probably not as fast as everyone wants, but they are being worked out," Coon said.

Maquoketa School District Superintendent Rod Montang is one person who hopes the problems are worked out sooner rather than later. The district's middle school principal probably will have to write out next year's master schedule by hand.

Maquoketa employees have, as have their counterparts from the other school districts, put in many overtime hours to work the kinks out of the system.

"You can't imagine how many hours our folks have lost," Montang said. "I'd define it as a black hole."

Ron Owen, who is in charge of the program for Davenport schools, said the biggest problem is the schools never had a chance to run the new system with the old system as a backup.

Owen said he does "see a little flicker of light," though.

"I'm not saying I see a light at the end of the tunnel, but I see a little flicker." 

http://www.qctimes.com/local/STORY1.html

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), April 02, 2000