Home Base Maintenance for the Month of April 2022

The next Home Base maintenance window is set to begin tomorrow, April 15 at 7 p.m.  The PowerSchool system and NCEES system are the only applications that will be taken offline for service.

The PowerSchool application will be brought down for one night only, Friday, April 15 at 7 p.m. and returned to service by 7 a.m., Saturday, April 16.  The application will be made accessible to all users once maintenance is complete. 

The NCEES 22.4.1.0 maintenance update release is targeted for Monday, April 18, 2022. The maintenance window will begin at 12 a.m. and end at 6 a.m. EST.  Customers may experience downtime during the maintenance window.

Release notes for the NCEES update can be found in the PowerSchool Community for Professional Learning and Perform Enterprise.  They also have been posted in Help.

Please share this message with other staff as appropriate.

Note:  Each year, a list of scheduled maintenance windows are published by NCDPI.  This is published in advance to help teachers and administrators better prepare for temporary outages and loss of access.  Please review the 2022-2023 maintenance schedule and put these dates on your calendar. In most cases, the entire window is not necessary and we can return systems to service earlier than listed. If an emergency maintenance is required in addition to these scheduled dates, all users will be notified in advance.

Legislative Class Size

This is a reminder that the Spring Legislative Class Size (LCS) Collection window is now open for all PSUs. Pursuant to §GS115C-301, this data is collected two times a year and captures data from the end of October and end of February of each school year.  Each local board of education, through the superintendent, shall file a report based on information provided by the principal for each school within the local school administrative unit with the Superintendent of Public Instruction.  

The due date for the approval of the Spring LCS Report, affidavit and waiver submissions, is April 30, 2022. PSUs should begin running and reviewing their reports to allow ample time for cases to be submitted and reviewed if necessary.

NOTE: Please be aware that the current staff file that was just loaded in production yesterday and only includes staff members who were active as of February 28. There have been some problems with some of the PSU payroll systems this month so datafiles were delivered later than expected. PSUs who have already submitted their Spring LCS collection are advised to unapprove and rerun all reports. This will ensure that you are submitting accurate staff information from the latest file.

Duplicate Student Ticket Process for Duplicates Found in ECATS  

If you locate a student in ECATS that has two different Student ID numbers but both ID numbers identify the exact same student, this must be corrected in the State Student UID system and PowerSchool before they can be merged in ECATS.   

Once both IDs are located in ECATS, contact your PowerSchool LEA Coordinator, and provide them with both Student ID numbers.  They will then submit a ticket to the PowerSchool service desk, with the description, “EC Duplicate Student Numbers”.    Once they have completed submitting the ticket, they can provide you with the PowerSchool ticket number.  You can then place the PowerSchool Ticket number on a ZenDesk ticket filed for this duplicate.  

This description and process will allow the PowerSchool Service desk to know it is an EC Student, and they can work these tickets so Federal Reporting and Child Counts can be completed on time. This also will allow DPI to follow the ticket, and when resolved in the State Student UID system and in PowerSchool, DPI can then have the data merged in ECATS keeping the correct student ID number.   

The process is the same for non-EC students except no ZenDesk ticket is created and the description should just read “Duplicate Student Numbers”. 

Reminder: PowerSchool Years and Terms at the LEA Office

At the LEA Office level in PowerSchool, the Years and Terms start and end dates MUST encompass the start date of the PSU’s earliest starting school and the end date of the PSU’s latest ending school. This also includes all Program Schools. The start date for Years and Terms at the LEA level should be 7/1 and the end date should be 6/30.

This information has been updated in the PS User Guide: End-of-Year Processing and can be found under Creating Years and Terms in the user guide.

Reminder:  Attendance During Exam Week(s)

To be considered in attendance, a student (except for hospital/homebound or staggered kindergarten) must be present in the school for the school day or at a place other than the school with the approval of the appropriate school official for the purpose of attending an authorized school activity. Such activities may include field trips, athletic contests, student conventions, musical festivals, or any similar approved activity.

Except as noted above, a student must be present at least one-half of the school's instructional day in order to be recorded present for that day.

NC General Statute 115C-378 states in part that no person shall encourage, entice, or counsel any child of compulsory school age to be unlawfully absent from school.

If a student is exempted from an exam and is not present in the school for the school day or not at a place other than the school with the approval of the appropriate school official for the purpose of attending an authorized school activity, the student is absent.

For questions or concerns, contact Student Accounting at studentaccounting@dpi.nc.gov.

Reminder:  Learning.com Keyboarding Contest

Want to help your students earn special recognition for practicing essential keyboarding skills while having fun? Learning.com will be having a Keyboard contest that is open to students in grades 3-8 beginning April 4, 2022, through May 2, 2022. 

Keyboarding skills are essential in all learning environments, prepping for online assessments, and investing in future careers. This contest will be a fun way to promote ongoing keyboarding practice with your students to develop fluency and accuracy. 

Tips for the contest: 

• Encourage students to practice their keyboarding skills at least 2-3 times per week for 15-20 minutes per session. 

Recommended practices: 

• Bell ringer activity
• Early completer activity
• Independent practice during center time and at home 

Please share your district’s participation on Twitter and mention @learningdotcom! If you have any questions reach out to Tiffany Kinney at tkinney@learning.com.  Have fun! 

Learning.com Keyboarding Contest Flyer 

New Home Base Admin Course 

Feedback from PSUs identified a need for resource hubs for the Home Base products. The product managers have created Admin Resource Courses for each area. These resource courses are located in the NCDPI Canvas instance.

Please visit these courses.  Below are the steps to enroll in these courses:

How to access these resources:

• Sign in to the Blue Canvas icon within NCEdCloud
• Using the Global Navigation (on the left), click the Home Base Resources button
• On the menu that opens, select the course(s) you would like to enroll into
• After enrolling, the course will appear on your Canvas Dashboard

Other Information:

• Feel free to provide feedback on these courses. They all contain a feedback button on their homepage.
• We will continue to update these courses as more product information becomes available

InstructureCon 2022

Canvas has announced that InstructureCon 2022 will be an online and FREE event again this year. The one day conference will be held on Thursday, July 14, 2022. Check out this page to learn more and sign up to receive updates for registration.

Canvas April Statewide Call

If you missed our statewide call on Monday, you can view the recording HERE. The passcode is: %^1Mw*g3.  Additionally, please be sure to register for our upcoming May call using the registration link HERE.

Transcend Webinar Recording

In case you missed the informational webinars for Transcend, the recording is now available on the NCDPI YouTube Channel.

Transcend is a computer-adaptive interim assessment add-on for Schoolnet that will be available as part of the Home Base opt-in process for the 2022-2023 school year. Transcend provides tests for grades 3-8 ELA and Math and will be priced at $4 per 3rd-8th grade ADM. 

If you have any questions about Transcend or would like to learn more prior to the Home Base opt-in period, please contact john.mairs@dpi.nc.gov or jeffrey.hauger@pearson.com.

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These messages will include upcoming changes, tips, and even hidden treasures within each product to make your job easier.  If you are not following us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, click on the links below and begin today!  Make sure you share this information with other staff within your school.

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