Q: What’s your initial outlook for this school year with the implementation of new policy and foreboding change?
A: I would definitely identify it as a year of transition. The good news is that the transitions aren’t unprecedented. For example, the establishment of the computers- they’ve been building those for a while at the elementary and middle school levels. There’s some insight to help us make our way forward. At the same time, everybody’s unique. There are some schools that have better Wi-Fi or better facilities that may not face the struggles that we have. Thus far, I couldn’t be happier with the inception of the changes. I think time will tell how it fits in and how we get into a routine with it. I think the good is outweighing the bad. Everybody’s going to build some struggle muscles around it, but I think ultimately it’ll be good for the kids. Growing pains come with any change.

Q: How have the staff been adapting to these changes?
A: I think with Schoology itself, the format is more inviting to adults. It does appear more like Facebook and other social media. Unlike with Engrade, however, parents and guardians no longer can very quickly access student grades. The good news is that the people who have experience with it can tell me these issues. I can take that information and send it to our engineers and say, “We really need to be able to do this, so have your software people create it.”

Q: Is there any degree of communication between the school and Schoology?
A: There’s a lot of suggestions, complaints, functionality issues. I know that even if the website doesn’t say exactly what we want, a lot of people will call and say, “Hey, I’m having issues with this!” and they’ll steer it in that direction.