Skyward, the new grading and scheduling program, has created frustration for many who use it, including counselors, teachers, students and parents.

The swift and chaotic switch to Skyward was made last school year during the first semester. Students were provided with their access information during the first week of school via mail or e-mail. Some students have been unable to log on with the given information and, as a result, have had to go through several different processes in order to get their accounts working. For others, the letter or e-mail containing the access information did not even arrive. These and other incidents have been some of the core frustrations in regards to dealing with Skyward.

Some people are still wondering what Skyward even is.

“Skyward is the student information system; everything about the user goes into the student management system,” Lead Counselor Phyllis Hamilton said. “Skyward is used by the whole district, not just our school, for many different functions. Also, attendance goes directly to the State of Texas through Skyward.”

The switch from Zangle and eSembler, the previous student programs, occurred because Zangle had declared bankruptcy the previous school year.

“Zangle had its fair share of problems as well,” Hamilton said. “Zangle declared bankruptcy a mere two years after we began using it, which is why we switched to Skyward.”

The switch had a great number of complications that went along with it, the biggest being the program’s reliability; whether it would be running, or whether it would be experiencing technical difficulties.

“The main problem that we’ve heard about is that the people training us had been trained just the other day, and as a result they didn’t teach us a lot of information dealing with the navigation of Skyward,” Hamilton said.

Other problems come from Skyward’s greater vulnerability to computer viruses.

“Shortly after getting a new computer, both it and Skyward received a bug. The technicians didn’t think it was an issue, but when the school went to print out the rosters for the new school year, none of my students were on them; they were all gone.”

After realizing that this would be a considerable problem, the school contacted LISD for help.

“The district sent two programmers from Minneapolis and Lewisville in an attempt to figure out what the issue was with my computer. They spent a full day trying to clean up everything in my system to get it working again. We spent hours redoing the rosters.”

Another issue with Skyward stems from the school board’s lack of familiarity with the program.

“The school board still has a lot of people who don’t know how to use Skyward,” FMHS teacher and Skyward coordinator Kelly Kirkland said. “The school staff and I are continuously trying to figure it out. Even the state programmers above us are trying to figure out the program.”

Despite the ongoing difficulties surrounding Skyward, the district will persist to gain a deeper of the program. Hopefully, the district will eventually gain a better understanding of Skyward, and it will continue to be in use for many years to come.