With the start of the 2013-2014 school year, the current student information system, HomeLogic, will be replaced by PowerSchool in an effort to use a more reliable and efficient program.

According to Ryan Bretag, coordinator for instructional technology, and other members of the Glenbrook North technology staff reviewed HomeLogic as part of a routine procedure, ensuring that programs are up to par with the school’s needs. He also said, the staff concluded that other student information systems contain more reliable and efficient instructional programs with fewer server difficulties than HomeLogic.

“We noticed the direction that we wanted to go with our [online grading system] and the direction that we were heading as a school. HomeLogic, our current system, did not meet our needs to the best of what we desired,’’ said Bretag. “We wanted a system that allowed for diversity in our grade books, [and that] allowed for consistency … and that was efficient.”

“We found [that] Pearson PowerSchool had the best product for our direction,” Bretag said.

According to Bretag, at the beginning of the next school year, incoming freshmen are scheduled to receive a basic technological instruction of online programs used at GBN, including a PowerSchool tutorial. The technology staff plans to send informational pamphlets about PowerSchool to the rest of the student body in August.

School counselors have received basic PowerSchool instruction for registration purposes and are scheduled to receive further training.

According to counselor Rebecca Rogers, counselors have already worked on PowerSchool in order to register students for next year.

“As of right now, things are going smoothly in the registration process,” said Rogers “… it has been a positive experience [using PowerSchool],’’ Rogers said.