Lutheran School Portal

[Tom Hiegel]

What is the consensus of the use of the Lutheran School Portal? How many of you have memberships but don't use it consistently? My elementary school principal dropped our membership for lack of use. I know that the synod and district would like to use the portal for communication purposes but we were just not using it. We have an online student information system similar to power school. It's all I can do to keep my teachers trained on it yet alone the portal too. Is there an administrative only price?

[Rob Jacklin]

Ken Kogler is your man when it comes to the Portal (Not to exclude anyone else who has tirelessly worked on the upgrade)! I know he's been working on LSPortal 2.0. Some of us got to view it a little bit two Sat. ago and it looks awesome. But like everything else, you've gotta use it for it to be useful!

[Wendy Greve]

I like the Portal. It needs updating, but I find it very useful. Outside of showing the teachers what is available, what kind of training do they need? Its easy to navigate. IMO, Teachers will start using it when administrators cut the paper trail and post things on the school page of the Portal.

[Tom Hiegel]

I guess I have been a bit unclear with my concerns. I realize that there is not much to teach about using the portal. My question is what do you do when you already have an online SIS which the admin does use for communication, paper work and the like? My issue is to require teachers to go to two different websites daily seems a bit much. How can we get district and synod info without the extra expense of the Portal?

[Wendy Greve]

Gottcha! Can you just link the district and synod info on your system? Does your system also have the other resources that the Portal offers? The Resource page is my favorite. I also like the school mailings which are posted on the home page. Do they still come in the mail? I can see dropping the Portal if most of what the Portal has to offer is on your other system. However, if your teachers were well aware of what was being offered but did not take the time to use it, I can see why your principal dropped it. There are those on our staff that do not use the Portal to its full potential either.