Fort Wayne Community Schools
The Fort Wayne Community Schools Board of School Trustees approved purchasing the PowerSchool Student Management System at its meeting Monday.
FWCS has used Pinnacle since 2011 to store and manage student information, including schedules and discipline records. The system allows parents to view student grades online as well as monitor upcoming and missing assignments and communicate directly with teachers. Global Scholar, Pinnacle's parent company, has given the District notice that it will no longer support the system as of December 2015. Prior to that date, Global Scholar will offer no updates for the system beyond necessary patch fixes.
It is disappointing that we could not reach an agreement with Global Scholar to continue using Pinnacle, FWCS Technology Director Jack Byrd said. But, it is essential that FWCS has a supported student management system. We believe PowerSchool will provide us the system we need to manage our student data, as well as provide tools to keep parents informed and engaged in ensuring the success of their children.
FWCS will work with PowerSchool during the 2013-14 school year to transition data from Pinnacle to the new system. During the upcoming school year, teachers, students and parents will continue to use Pinnacle as they have for the last two school years. The transition is expected to be complete by the 2014-15 school year when the use of Pinnacle will cease.
The initial cost of PowerSchool is $423,175 with annual maintenance fees of $137,925.