For the 2013-2014 school year, all secondary school teachers in the Las Virgenes Unified School District will be required to use the Student Database Information System, Aeries. The Associated Student Body School Board Representative Alyssa Weakley worked closely with LVUSD Superintendent Dr. Dan Stepenosky, Assistant Superintendent of Education Mary Schillinger and Assistant Superintendent of Personnel Rose Dunn to implement this change. Aeries is an online system used by teachers for grading, attendance, discipline, counseling notes and contact information. Students and parents use the website to track students’ grades at any given time. Currently, all teachers are required to use the website to report final grades at the end of each semester, but according to Weakley, only about 60 percent of teachers use Aeries regularly.

“A large element of a student’s success is the ability to monitor his or her personal progress,” said Stepenosky in his memo to the LVUSD staff. “Parents have requested a one-stop place to view their child’s grades and frequently updated information on Aeries is just the tool they need to oversee the progress of their children.”

Many teachers at CHS currently use Aeries, but in the past some teachers have been concerned about its reliability. In response, LVUSD added new servers to the system in addition to keeping hard copies of all of the information to keep it stable and prevent the website from shutting down. The district will provide additional training for teachers not familiar or comfortable with Aeries.

“Our efforts [with Aeries] have been designed to ensure a stable and reliable system for staff, parents and students to access and utilize,” said Stepenosky in his memo.

Many students and parents are excited for the upcoming change. According to Stepenosky, research has shown that there is a strong correlation between a child’s academic success and a parent’s ability to have easily accessible information regarding his or her child’s progress in school.

“I think that this change will be beneficial to the students because they will be able to check their grades in every class and will know where they stand at all times,” said Weakley. “Whenever there is a mistake in their grade they can change it if necessary, and it keeps the parents informed as well.”

In addition to this new requirement, Aeries will soon be launching apps for the iPhone, Android smart phones and tablets that will allow parents and students to receive push notifications regarding attendance and grades.