SchoolHouse program

The Rainy River District School Board recently launched a new web-based program called “SchoolHouse,” which is designed to deliver student information to parents through their personal computers.
“It really focuses on positive home-school communication, which is a correlate of effective schools research,” stressed IT co-ordinator Chris Denby, who developed the program along with his wife, Sherree, the computer resource co-ordinator at Fort Frances High School.
“Regular communication of data is often negative, so this is an opportunity for parents to become involved in positive discussions with students,” Denby added.
“It keeps parents informed where meaningful.”
The couple said about 18 months ago, some staff members at Fort Frances High School began to ask for a tool such as this, but there wasn’t anything available at the time.
They started to talk about how they could make it work and soon developed the “SchoolHouse” program internally.
“The tough part was creating the log-in,” Chris Denby said.
“We were trying to make sure the system was really secure,” echoed Sherree Denby, stressing they didn’t want valuable student information to be able to be accessed by anyone other than their parent or guardian.
They were able to work out a method to use a parent’s e-mail address to log-in to the system. The information is encrypted between the parent and the computer server to ensure security and privacy.
Chris Denby indicated pulling the necessary data was relatively simple because they had been collecting the information for the past several years.
The first versions of the “SchoolHouse” program were running last December, and several members of the Fort High school council and teachers with school-aged children tested the tool.
“They were pretty anxious to see it,” Sherree Denby remarked. “They offered some suggestions and we made some small changes.”
Through the “SchoolHouse” website, parents can view demographic and emergency contact information and ensure it is listed accurately for their child.
They also gain access to their child’s attendance records and news items for the school they attend.
“Some of the schools are doing their attendance online, so the information goes right into the database,” Sherree Denby noted. “Parents are able to see within minutes of class starting if their children is in attendance.”
“If there’s a problem, the parent could e-mail the teacher,” Chris Denby said.
At the secondary level, parents can view their child’s progress toward graduation through a credit counselling summary, which is a tool guidance counsellors use.
“It’s like a transcript with some additional information,” Chris Denby explained. “We mirrored the program with the appropriate data to give to parents.”
At the elementary level, meanwhile, parents can access report card marks. But data only will be provided for the past three years since that’s how long they have been collecting the information in this form.
“We’re considering adding other features for future development of the ‘SchoolHouse’ website,” Denby said. “But so far we’re happy with how it’s running.”
He indicated about two or three dozen parents currently are signed up to use the program.
In order to use the “SchoolHouse” tool, parents must register their e-mail address with the school and then proceed with creating a password for the system.
Denby indicated parents already may have registered their e-mail addresses with the school at the beginning at the year—and are welcome to try their e-mail address in the system before contacting the school.
There is a link to the “SchoolHouse” website on the school board’s home page at www.rrdsb.com
Teachers also have access to the program, which allows them a quick reference to students’ contact information, grades, and progress.