This school year, Sheboygan Area School District’s students are experiencing an extensive change. The district made the executive decision to switch to the online grading and attendance program Skyward. There was a district-wide delayed rollout for student and parent access, but the time has come where students are starting to get used to the new system.

Assistant Principal Kevin Formolo explained the decision as he stated,

“In the past, we have used Alpha for attendance and scheduling, and Standard Score for grades. Skyward is a student information system that is a one stop shop for everything that the district needs

to provide for staff and students.” Formolo describes the new system as an improvement from the previous programs that the district has used. He explained that Skyward is convenient and provides a multitude of new features. With Skyward, parents will get to have their own unique access to their child’s information aside from their child’s account. The new program even allows helpful communication tools for students and teachers to connect, including the automatic missing assignment notifications at the top of the gradebook.

There are also many fans of Skyward’s mobile app. The app is becoming more and more popular among students and even some staff.

“When taking attendance it’s nice that I can walk around the room without a laptop and often times do multiple things at once,” explained Mr. Troy Gerstner when asked why he enjoys the app. Students are taking full advantage of it as well. Junior Caleb Moua stated,

“It’s convenient at all times, so whenever I need to access my grades I can pull it up quickly on my phone. I don’t have to pull out my Chromebook, connect to the wifi, wait for everything to load, and log in. It is fast and easy to access. I like it.” The app also contains a security feature that appeals to many; it requires the user to set a password to be entered each time the app is opened, aside from the original login information.

Students like Sophomore Arianna Zabel point out the hiccups in the system as South gets used to working with Skyward. She admits blatantly,

“The attendance is whack.” Zabel states this in regard to the unexcused absences being recorded in the system. While many students can relate to this issue, it has been confirmed that South has a plan in place, and is in the process of working with Skyward and its executives to help solve the problem. With said plan, South is hoping for Skyward to become more compatible with our Flex-Mod schedule, which would eliminate any current issues. However, it is important to understand that Skyward is a large company. Therefore, catering to the needs of one school is not always a priority to them, and the change will come with time.

Despite any difficulties experienced, social studies teacher Mr. Erik Wagner remains optimistic. Wagner was one of the staff members involved in the process of training other staff about the use of Skyward and its features. He explained,

“There is certainly a learning curve, but Skyward has some great features that we will be able to utilize once we are proficient in the program.” Many can agree with this statement as the benefits of Skyward are increasingly apparent.