Superintendent Cameo Bogatin and staff told the board that the district has been migrating from Skyward's legacy system to Skyward Cumulative (referred to in the meeting as "Q"), a modern, cloud-based version of the vendor's platform that combines student information, finance and human resources.
"We are migrating this summer from Skyward's legacy system to Cumulative, or fondly known as Q," the superintendent said, describing the new platform's modern interface, improved reporting tools and customizable dashboards. Staff said the Educational Service District is in the third year of a regional migration that has helped Tumwater prepare and that the district spent more than a year doing data cleanup to support the change.
Staff acknowledged that some features cannot be practiced until schools are in session and that parents and staff will need support to log in and use the new system. "There's been some information already shared with parents, quite a bit of support provided to them to really help them with access," the superintendent said. She added that high school schedules were set to be released the following day, which will prompt larger numbers of parents and students to log in.
The district reported that staff and principals have been trained on the new dashboard and are customizing tiles to suit daily workflows; staff cautioned that as with any large IT rollout there may be remaining issues to smooth out during the first days of school.
District leaders said they will continue to provide phone and online assistance to parents and staff and monitor the rollout closely during the start of the school year.