'Permanent record' online in real time for region's parents

When Lori Anselmino first logged on to the Norwin School District's new parent access system, what surprised her was her sons' cafeteria purchases.

"Trevor was eating two lunches a day, two things of French fries and a 75-cent cheese cup," Anselmino said of her 18-year-old son, who has an athlete's appetite. "You can see all of that."

Anselmino can now check on their grades, attendance, class schedules, assignments and health records by logging onto a Web site. Norwin, which began using Skyward Family Access in January, is one of many school districts in the area with systems that allow parents to monitor their children online.

Skyward, which opened a branch office in Wexford in late 2004, works with 23 school districts in Pennsylvania, according to the company's marketing manager, Bob Jung.

Other area districts have purchased family access systems from Schoolwires, a national company based in State College; Edline, based in Chicago; and Pearson Education, a California-based company that sells a system called PowerSchool.

Parents are widely supportive of the systems. Some students are less enthusiastic.

"Your parents find out things they don't need to know -- what you ate for lunch, when you went to the nurse, what ailment you had," said Trevor Anselmino, Lori's son and a senior at Norwin High School. "From a student's perspective, it can be a little annoying. It's irritating that they can find out every single test score."

"It's a little creepy," agreed Janna Rutkowski, 18, also a Norwin senior.

"We've received some e-mails that say, 'I love this. My child hates it,' " said Ruth Toocheck, Norwin's information services manager.

Toocheck said 40 percent of the district's families were using Skyward in April, a number she said would go up as more parents learned about the system.

The Skyward system cost $7,500 to install, and the district will pay a $2,500 annual fee, she said. Access is free for parents, and the system is entirely online, so there is no need for parents to install new software on their home computers.

The Brentwood Borough School District, in Allegheny County, rolled out Skyward Family Access on April 1. So far, said technology coordinator Paul Bruschi, between 40 and 50 percent of parents had signed up.

Bruschi reported positive feedback from parents who accessed the program during a March test period.

"The responses we've gotten have ranged from 'This is wonderful' to 'This is the best thing the district has ever done,' " Bruschi said.

School officials say these systems have improved communication with families.

"It's great because parents are aware of the grades all year long, so there are no surprises," said Matthew Harris, director of support services at the Penn-Trafford School District, which has been using PowerSchool Parent Portal since 2006.

The Yough School District began using PowerSchool this year. Parents of middle and high school students have had access since January, and it will be expanded to elementary school children next school year.

Technology Coordinator Tim Scoff said parents would be able to view their children's grades, attendance records and class schedules. The detailed data includes attendance for every class period and grades for every assignment.

"I've been able to stay in touch with teachers through e-mail and phone calls, but this adds another level," said Terri Allen of West Newton, who has a son in seventh grade. "I can go in day to day and see how he's doing."

The possibility of more communication with parents worried teachers at first, Scoff said. With today's "helicopter parents," teachers worried about getting too many calls from parents angry about poor test scores.

But Scoff said the teachers' fears were unfounded.

"After about a month, the teachers loved it," he said. "The parents were coming in to parent-teacher conferences knowing how their kids were doing. It makes their job of communicating with parents that much easier."

Doug Martin, who teaches television production at Fox Chapel Area High School, was enthusiastic about Edline, the system the district began using last school year.

"Now I'm having parents contact me and say, 'I've seen this on Edline. What can I do to help him get this assignment done?' " he said.

Lori Anselmino, who also is a biology teacher at Norwin High School, saw the system from both sides. Despite her son's and other students' discomfort, she said, "I don't see any drawbacks."

"It's a starting point for conversations at the dinner table," she said.

Still, she admitted, the system does increase the temptation to be a helicopter mom.

"At first I was probably the obsessive mom, checking it every day," she said. "But I've kind of eased up."