By Tanner White,
South County News student intern
For over 10 years, students and staff of Vicksburg Community Schools have used Infinite Campus, a computer application, for checking grades, recording attendance, and looking up schedules, among other features. Many were frustrated by frequent crashes, lockouts, differences in permissions between parents and students, and other issues that hindered effectiveness. Change was needed in order to allow a more reliable, simple access to school-related information.
The solution is here. Starting with the 2018-2019 school year, a new and improved software system called Skyward will replace Infinite Campus. Skyward is software designed for management of schools from grades K through 12. Vicksburg students and staff no longer have access to Infinite Campus, but Vicksburg Schools plans to offer instruction and tutorials on the use of the new program at the beginning of the school year.
Vicksburg Schools’ communications director, Nicole Gutshall, said that the new system “Is a much better product for parents and students than its predecessor.” Some may be surprised by such new features as the ability for a student to find a locker number and combination, a college and career readiness tab allowing counselors to make recommendations and simple, paperless enrollment and registration forms. The time and hassle that will be saved by these features and many more are strong selling points of the program.
The collaboration between students, teachers, and parents may be the most important characteristic of the software. Parents who use Skyward now have access to more information than ever before. Parents may view grades posted by teachers, receive notice of their students’ missing assignments, and check attendance records to help their children succeed. Current and future users are encouraged to download Skyward’s mobile apps for iPhone and Android devices, available soon for Vicksburg Schools on the App Store and Google Play, to prepare for the 2018-2019 school year.