Hosting Migration and Upgrade Set for March 11-13

The PowerSchool team will be making two concurrent upgrades during the March 11-13 maintenance weekend instead of last weekend, as previously scheduled.

After discussions with PowerSchool Group earlier this month, we decided to delay the work by three weeks to ensure successful completion of the upgrades, which will include a move in the hosting operations.

While we prefer a quick transition to the new location, critical components necessary for a successful migration are not ready. The performance of the new environment would not be at an acceptable standard for our customers.

Hosting Move

Due to the recent DDoS attacks executed against PowerSchool and other factors, PowerSchool, LLC is moving its hosting operations from the CenturyLink data center in New Jersey to Rackspace in Virginia. This move will provide our customers increased protection from DDoS and other attacks as well as increased bandwidth and system performance.

Application Upgrade

We will also execute an upgrade of the PowerSchool application from version 8.3 to version 9.2.  This new version includes several updates that will benefit our customers and NCDPI.  These updates include a new visualizations component for attendance and grades that will help schools identify students based on academic performance and attendance.  Also included are updates to the scheduling module, course availability by year and enhanced security controls.

Register for March Home Base User Group Meetings

It is almost time for the next round of Home Base User Group meetings. Each local education agency (LEA) is invited to bring one representative for each Home Base Product (PowerSchool, Schoolnet and TNL). Please follow this link to register for the event you intend to attend. Feel free to register for the event that best fits your schedule and location; you are not required to attend the event scheduled in your region.

The daylong meetings will be held in Kinston (Lenoir) and Summerfield (Guilford) during the week of March 7 and in Asheville (Buncombe) and Greenville (Pitt) the week of March 14.

As a reminder, the representatives for the user group should be the LEA/Charter‐Level lead contacts for each of the Home Base components. This person will be responsible for bringing information back to their LEA/charter school. Remember that each LEA/charter school can have three representatives attend the Home Base User Group (this is one person for each of the main components of Home Base ‐ PowerSchool, Schoolnet, and TNL).

Here's the draft agenda. Please note that lunch will be on your own, so plan to either bring lunch or get something nearby.

• 10:00‐10:30 |​Home Base Product Overview/Welcome
  
• 10:30‐12:15​| DPI‐Led Content Area Breakout Session NCEES & PD, Schoolnet, PowerSchool
  
• 12:15‐1:45​| Lunch​(on your own)
  
• 1:45 ‐ 3:30​| Breakout/Hands‐On Training by Product District‐initiated topics (Input from RESA Directors, LEA Business Owners, Field Based DPI Staff)
  
• 3:30 ‐ 4:00​| Whole group Wrap‐Up
  

Questions? Contact Jill Darrough at Jill.Darrough@dpi.nc.gov.​