NOACSC Newsletter

We hope you've had a fantastic first half of the 2024-25 school year. It's hard to believe that winter break is just around the corner!

Reflecting on the past few months, we're incredibly grateful to partner with such amazing educators and support staff in our area. We've enjoyed seeing many of you at various trainings and events. If we haven't had the pleasure of seeing you yet this year, we hope you'll join us at one of our upcoming events or trainings.

One highlight was our Membership Meeting on October 29 at Old Barn in Lima. With over 100 attendees and representation from most districts, it was a great success. We're committed to making these meetings even more relevant, thanks to your valuable feedback. We'll be seeking more input in our end-of-year survey.

Another exciting event was the Data Privacy workshop with Dawn Schiavone from NBEC. We had 54 district personnel attend, and they left with excellent resources to help protect students' personally identifiable information.

So far this year, our staff has offered around 46 different training opportunities, plus many more individualized sessions. And there's plenty more to come in the second half of the year. We hope you'll be joining us soon!

Senate Bill 29 has been a hot topic this year. We're pleased to report that, thanks to the efforts of BASA and the Management Council, many of the 72-hour notices originally in the bill have been removed. Now, the 72-hour reporting requirement for technology monitoring is limited to health and safety issues. Additionally, ITCs are not considered technology providers. For updated guidance regarding the implementation of SB29, please visit here.

I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our outgoing Board of Directors: Jennifer Bruns (St. Henry), Kim Light (Ada), and Todd Schmutz (Pandora-Gilboa). As they complete their terms and step down from the NOACSC board, we are deeply grateful for their dedicated service. Each of you has made invaluable contributions to our ITC, and we truly appreciate everything you've brought to the board.

Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

- Ben Thaxton

Student Services is already preparing for the 25-26 school year. A link to the 25-26 School Year Initialization Survey is now available on our website (www.noacsc.org), and a link was also sent out through the SIS Distribution list. If you need any assistance with filling out the survey, or need information about the previous year’s submission, please contact Doug Norton in Student Services (X107). This survey is a necessary first step in setting up for the next school year, so please fill it out at your earliest convenience. And if you are the person in your building responsible for filling out the survey, remember to save and/or print a copy of your survey before you submit it to Student Services.

The Civil Rights reporting window opened on Dec. 9! Student Services will be offering a training on the Civil Rights reporting in early January. Be on the lookout for further information on our website (noacsc.org) and through our distribution list emails. This training will be simultaneously in-person and online.

Recordings of several recent training sessions have been posted on the NOACSC website, including trainings for Harmony, Graduation Eligibility and Grad Points Summary. A link to the recordings home is here: https://www.noacsc.org/services/student-services/recorded-trainings/

A training for Batch Scheduling will be offered on Jan. 28, 2025, beginning at 9:00am. There will be an online option, and an in-person option (for those of you who would like to stay on and work in the blessed quiet of our training room). If you are new to the process of scheduling for Middle School and/or High School, or just want a refresher before you dive into scheduling for 25-26, this is the training for you!

Our next Student Services ProgressBook user group meeting will be held online via Zoom on Jan. 16 at 1:30. A major topic of discussion will be the CRDC report and updates to the reporting process in StudentInformation.

We have also begun offering a User Group session for PowerSchool users. There will be an in-person (and online as needed) meeting Jan. 22, 2025 at 10:00am. We want these User Groups sessions to be conversations as much as trainings, so we welcome any requests or questions for specific areas for discussion in future meetings. Please email those ideas or concerns to us!

More information and registration for all trainings and user group meetings lives at our website, www.noacsc.org. Click on the event name in the Upcoming Events column to access the registration page.

We’d like to take a moment to thank our districts for allowing our EMIS Coordinators to attend our many EMIS trainings. We, your EMIS Coordinator, and your data appreciate it!!

Remember – knowledge is key, especially in the ever-changing world of EMIS!

We have a couple big collections closing soon. We want to make sure they are on your radar:

• Beginning of Year Student Collection – Reporting of special ed students for your Federal Child Count closes on December 20th
• Initial Exiting Student Follow Up – Reporting of CTE students closes on January 7th
• Initial Staff and Course Collection – Reporting of licensure and certification for Districts' Local Report Card closes on January 29th

If you need help with these collections, do not hesitate to reach out. We are always more than happy to assist.

Keep an eye out for upcoming EMIS Alliance trainings all dates are TBD.

• Troubleshooting FTE and CTE FTE Reports
• Troubleshooting Data Associated with Report Card Measures
• Troubleshooting Where Kids Count
• Troubleshooting Assessment Missing List

Remember you can find our past recorded trainings on our website. They can be found here: https://www.noacsc.org/services/emis-services/training-and-documentation/

Calendar Year End - As calendar year-end is in full swing, the NOACSC fiscal team is staying busy. We offered an EMIS staff user group meeting in October and followed it with calendar year-end training in November and in December did a new-user group training. It has been great to see new users get to know each other. Some requested that they be able to come to our office and work through the calendar year end process. If you are interested, please just contact us and we will schedule a time for an open lab.

As in prior years, we are preparing to print, fold, and seal approximately 20,000+ W2’s and 1099’s for districts. Districts may choose to print their own W2’s and/or 1099’s if they want. We have forms if the district needs them. Please contact us.

As we wind down the calendar year ESS (Employee Self Service) was implemented in 42 districts this year. The ESS implementation was a challenge as it was a short time frame from the time we received the software, until the time the HR Kiosk was turned off. We truly appreciate everyone’s patience as we implemented this software and worked through the issues of the new software.

Informing NOACSC of District staff changes in the treasurer’s office is pertinent

1. Please notify NOACSC of any staff changes in the treasurer’s office that require USAS, USPS, file archive, or fiscal archive access.
2. NOACSC needs to deactivate the prior treasurer and create accounts for USAS, USPS, and Fiscal Archive for all treasurers. Sometimes the prior treasurer needs access for a little while and therefore the original employees’ account may not be inactivated immediately. Please make sure NOACSC is informed when to deactivate the prior treasurer’s accounts. For this, an email will suffice.
3. The applications for USAS and USPS can be found on our website under Fiscal Services-Redesign-Account Authorization Form. The form was recently redesigned to help satisfy auditors and to make the form more explicit.

Here is a link to the form: Redesign Access Form (noacsc.org)

The EMIS Period L deadline is January 29, 2025. We have helped many through their errors. If you have any errors and need guidance, please let us know.

Passwords

A procedure that can cause confusion for Districts are passwords.

A Treasurer may reset USAS and USPS passwords for staff in USAS and USPS, or NOACSC can do it for a treasurer. The Superintendent may also make a request to NOACSC to reset a password as well or a district may have other designees that may make a password reset request. Many times, this person is the Assistant Treasurer or Tech Coordinator. To designate someone other than the Treasurer or Superintendent to reset a password, NOACSC needs to have it in writing, an email from the treasurer will suffice.

Remind Staff to not share an account or passwords.

As Always: Our support email is: fiscal.support@noacsc.org, our phone number is: 419 228-7417 option 3 is for fiscal or for those who have 3CX phones/dialing: 55813 for the Fiscal Team.

The holiday season is a busy time, and it's easy to overlook important things like cybersecurity. As you hunt for deals, wrap gifts, and support your community, remember to keep your data safe.

Simple precautions can help ensure your holidays remain joyful and secure.

Be wary of online ads and deals that seem too good to be true. Hackers often use enticing offers to lure you into traps that can steal your data. Stick to reputable websites and sellers to avoid falling victim to these schemes.

When making purchases, be cautious if a website or vendor insists on payment through gift cards. Scammers prefer this method because it's hard to trace and recover funds. Legitimate sellers will accept conventional payment methods, so if gift cards are the only option, find another site to shop from.

Finally, protect your new gadgets by following best practices. Change default passwords, check security settings, disable unnecessary permissions, and keep your devices updated. These steps will help you enjoy your new tech safely and securely.

• December 24, 2024: Office Closed, Christmas Eve
• December 25, 2024: Office Closed, Christmas Day
• December 31, 2024: Office closes at noon, New Years Eve
• January 1, 2025: Office Closed, New Year's Day
• January 20, 2025: Office Closed, MLK Jr. Day
  
• February 17, 2025: Office Closed, Presidents Day
• February 18, 2025: Board of Directors Meeting, 9:30 a.m. in Board Room

Ben Thaxton, Executive Director

Email: ben@noacsc.org

Phone: (419) 228-7417

Website: www.noacsc.org