Skyward, the online grading and scheduling program, is being improved to increase efficiency and accessibility for students, parents, and teachers. Many people across the district are working hard to find and remove the complications that cause Skyward to be so troublesome.

“There have already been some improvements made to Skyward, but it is not yet working to its full capacity,” FMHS computer clerk Lauren Garvey said. As a computer clerk, Garvey deals with all of the Skyward issues.

The program’s reliability was a major problem at the start of the school year and the district is now paying to fix some of the issues.

“It was really confusing at first since everything was new. Skyward is a little easier to use now that I’m used to it,” freshman Danielle Hess said, comparing how Skyward works now to when the school year began.

After extensive use of Skyward, Garvey now understands the problems that need to be resolved. This will correct all of the issues that make it difficult to use.

The majority of Skywards problems affect teachers and how they enter grades into the program. One of the problems happens when a student decides to drop a class. That student’s other classes no longer appear in the gradebook, making it impossible for teachers to input grades for that student.

“A teacher would have to re-enter the grades and try to find the student, which is extra work,” Garvey said.

But Skyward does offer advantages over esembler, the old gradebook program.

In addition to being able to look at grades through the computer, Skyward also has an app for the iPhone and Android. This free app shows all of the information on the Skyward website in portable form.

“There is a Skyward app for parents, students, and teachers,” English teacher Jeremy Werts said. “Pretty much anybody can use it. For example, I use it for attendance.”

As users become more familiar with Skyward and problems are discovered and addressed, the program becomes more usable.