Thursday, July 17, 2008

Goodbye eSembler, Hello Infinite Campus

New for 2008-2009...

MISD transitioned to a new student records program last year (Spring 2008) and we look forward to offering new features for parents and students in the upcoming school year.

The district will no longer offer eSembler for student grades and attendance. This information and much more will soon be offered through a new parent portal system through Infinite Campus. Parents and students will be able to go to one place and find student information on grades, attendance, schedules, fees, class assignments and other pertinent information.

[update July 24, 2008] The expectation is to have the Infinite Campus portal system provide Attendance and Lesson Plans (assignments) starting on Day 1. Then, as our teachers get used to the new system and start adding in grades, parents will have access near the end of Week 2.

We realize this is a major shift for teachers, parents, and students and will require heightened levels of patience as we move forward.

[update August 18, 2008] More information is now available: Welcome to Infinite Campus blog post as well as the dedicated Infinite Campus Parent Portal Information Page.

We will also send information via the district's e-newsletter, the MISD Messenger. Do you subscribe to this free e-newsletter?

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

MISD Superintendent announces his retirement

July 9, 2008 - Superintendent Vernon Newsom announced today that he is retiring from Mansfield ISD in June 2009. Newsom has served as the Superintendent of Mansfield ISD since 1996. In that time, the district has grown from one high school to four. The district has also opened the Ben Barber Career Tech Academy, and 23 other school facilities. He oversaw the creation of the Mansfield ISD Education Foundation, which has now raised over $1 million to support innovative education projects in the district.

"This was a very difficult decision for me," said Superintendent Vernon Newsom. "I have invested a great deal of my working life in Mansfield ISD and the entire journey has been extremely rewarding. This is a great place and a great school community. I want to thank students, parents, and the entire community for affording me the chance to serve this school district.

The time is right for me to move on in June of next year. I look forward to retirement and spending more time with family. For anyone who might be concerned about the coming transition, I want them to know that we have an excellent executive staff in the district and an exemplary school board to take on this task. "

An integral part of this plan was the creation of the Deputy Superintendent position in 2007. With the support of the Mansfield ISD Board of Trustees, Newsom has created a transitional leadership team within the district. The Mansfield ISD School Board will now begin drafting a process to hire a new superintendent for Mansfield ISD. There is currently no established time line or process defined. Details will be made available to the public and MISD Staff as soon as they are available.

"We will certainly be sorry to see Mr. Newsom go next summer," said Gale Moericke, MISD Board President. "As someone who grew up in Mansfield ISD, it is impressive to think back on his accomplishments. He was truly the right leader at the right time, as he was able to guide the district through a time of tremendous growth and change. I am confident that the district will move through the transition well, and the board will select the right person for the job."

Newsom's legacy will continue on in the programs of Mansfield ISD and at the state level. A few highlights include:

  • In June, he embarked on a trip to China with Dr. Bob Morrison as a guest of the Chinese Hanban Agency on the eve of the MISD offering Mandarin Chinese as an elective for the first time next year.
  • The district has passed six successful bond elections. The most recent, a $241.5 million election in 2006, will fund the construction of the district's fifth high school and other school projects.
  • Newsom has served as the past study group chair of Region XI Texas Association of School Administrators, TASA Executive Committee; previous Chairman of UIL Legislative Council, current chair of the UIL Legislative Council Athletic Committee, and past President of Texas Association of Suburban and Mid-Urban Schools (TASMUS.)

Mansfield ISD is currently one of the fastest growing school districts in Texas. The district currently operates four high schools, a Career Tech Academy, and a variety of other schools and programs. The district will open its 20 th elementary school, Louise Cabaniss Elementary, in Grand Prairie this fall.

Scheduled Downtime

MISD Web site and GroupWise Update

The MISD Web site and GroupWise e-mail servers (for district staff) will be down intermittently Thursday, July 10 through Sunday, July 13, 2008 for some required maintenance.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Summer is a considerably slower time and provide the opportunities for system updates such as these. We've received e-mails and calls concerning the webmail system issues from staff and wanted to share what is going on. As stated before, this will have an impact on the district Web site as well.

This is actually good practice for if/when something happens and our district Web site is unavailable, our hope is that our community will turn to Your Mansfield ISD Blog for updated information. (Plus, this will force our hand to work at keeping this blog a dynamic or at least interesting read for you.)

Thank you in advance for your patience.

Updated: Just in case anyone is interested in what's going on technically speaking:
Mansfield ISD Technology will be relocating servers from the Central Administration Building (current main core MDF) to the Police Technology building. The new Core location has more space to accommodate servers and equipment. It is also equipped with a diesel backup generator to keep core equipment running during power outages.

Mansfield ISD has 2 blocks of Public IP (Internet Protocol) addresses provided by AT&T, our Internet Service provider. The location of the network device is how the IP address of that device is determined. Public access servers such as webmail and the MISD website will have new IP addresses because they are being moved to a new location.

Our public servers have a domain name registered with AT & T that is associated with an IP address. An example would be: The MISD web site’s domain name is mansfieldisd.org. It resolves to an IP address on the World Wide Web. Because we are changing the IP addresses of the servers, it may take a couple of days for the Internet to resolve the new IP back to the domain name.

- From the MISD Academic Technology & Networks Department