New student info system now online

BY DANIELLE MEDINA
Correspondent

BRICK - Maintaining, reporting and searching for data on the township's 12,000 students became easier this week when the district launched its new student information system on Monday.

GENESIS (General Education Student Information System) is a Web-based program that will allow district administrators, secretaries, teachers and paraprofessionals to gather more detailed information from one centralized location.

"One of the real advantages of the new system is that it allows for data-driven decision-making to better serve students," said district Director of Information Technology Leonard Niebo.

All of a student's information - including address, phone number, bus number, locker number, schedules, grades, activities and health records - is now maintained on one database.

The information technology department has been working on converting the data for every student from the district's old system, SASI, to GENESIS over the summer.

New requirements by the federal and state governments for reporting student data led the district to replace SASI with GENESIS, Niebo said.

"GENESIS has a higher capability of searching and reporting," Niebo said. "The information is more granular."

Niebo said that GENESIS allows searches for more specific types of information and will combine different data.

"For example, you could pull out data on all the kids who didn't pass the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment [GEPA] and who also receive free and reduced lunch," he said.

Under the old system, the data had to be gathered separately and then combined using another type of software, like Microsoft Excel.

Since GENESIS is a Web-based program, teachers will have access to it wherever they have an Internet connection.

"Now when they are grading papers at home, they can directly input the scores into the grade book on the system instead of waiting until the next day to do it at school," Niebo said.

Each user will receive their own personal login ID to protect a student's privacy. District employees will only be able to see the information that they need.

"Nobody gets to see every single piece of data on a student," Niebo said.

Each family in the district will also receive a family ID number at the beginning of the year. After a family password is created, parents will be able to access the system to find information on every child in their family.

The new system's startup cost was $200,000, with a $25,000 annual fee, Niebo said. The annual fee for SASI was $45,000.

About 40 New Jersey school districts use GENESIS, including North Brunswick, Pemberton, Rahway and Linden.

"SASI is good for a one- or two-building district, but most of the larger school districts use GENESIS," Niebo said.

He estimated that after five years the district will break even on the cost from the savings in the annual fee, plus the time saved in district resources.

"This system eliminates the duplication of tasks by the district's personnel," Niebo said.

This system will also eventually allow the district to have one central registration point for enrolling new students. Currently, parents enrolling more than one child have to go to the schools their children will be attending to register.

GENESIS training for teachers will occur next week at the Educational Enrichment Center. The information technology department will also be available to help teachers navigate the new system.

"If you can use SASI, you can do this," Niebo said.

The information technology department will assemble a focus group of teachers and parents later this fall to get their input on the new system, Niebo said.