As promised, the team worked many long hours to develop an implementation plan on how the district will revert back to SASI for the upcoming school year. They have done a great job in such a short time in creating a plan that I believe will work. However, it is going to require the cooperation of everyone at the school and district level. Yet, we want to acknowledge the invaluable amount of time and energy principals, their support staff, and teachers have already committed to CrossPointe.

Here are some of the specifics of the plan you need to know now:

• The plan is to have SASI and the scheduling function online and available by Wednesday, July 28. If it is possible to do it earlier then we will send you a special notification.
• DIS will host full day hands on scheduling clinics in the computer labs at Rigdon Rd on 7/28, 7/29, 7/30 and 8/2, 8/3, 8/4, 8/6 with all of our SASI experts and additional clerical support onsite. These clinics are for any school that needs help with scheduling or entering student data.
• A SASI project web page will be active on the district website by Friday, 7/23 that has all important documents, FAQs, timelines and other helpful information. The web link is : sasi.mcsdga.net
• We will cover this information and additional details during the General Administrators meeting Tuesday, 7/27 so please try to attend.
• Finally, the Superintendent has authorized 10 hours of paid overtime for one clerk at each school to help in getting this system online and ready for school.

We are going to make some changes to our support model for the short term also to facilitate easier access for our schools. When you contact the Customer Support Center (ext. 2271) during this implementation period, you will not be required to complete a work order. We will have staff members who will do their best to answer your questions immediately. We will use this process through the first week of August. However once school reopens, we will need to return to our normal processes due to the sheer volume of calls we receive.

In addition, we will deploy our instructional technology specialists (ITS) on-site in the schools during the first week to actively support the teachers and administrators in whatever capacity is needed. Obviously we cannot reach every school at once since we only have 10 ITS’, but we will rotate throughout the district to provide coverage to schools that request the extra help.

I know that some of you already had your schedules completed; unfortunately, when SASI comes back online those schedules will not transfer back over. Consequently, we will work with you as well to provide additional resources to get your schedules rebuilt in SASI.

What Principals can work on now...

• Request an Employee Number for all new teachers/staff
• Request a Novell Login for all new teachers/staff
• Place orders for Report Card paper from the warehouse beginning Wednesday, July 28
• Outline Reporting Period Due Dates for Progress Reports and Report Cards

Our goal is to provide every type of support we possibly can in order to open up the school year successfully as it relates to the district’s student information system. I personally appreciate the flexibility and support you have shared with us so far. We WILL succeed if we all keep working together.