Gibson Southern High School, as well as all other South Gibson Schools, switched from paper report cards to digital report cards on Skyward instead of the usual physical papers students used to receive.
“We’ve been talking about this for about a year,” Director of Guidance Kelley Asay said. “It came up just a little bit before the end of the first quarter of last school year, but at that point we really hadn’t put out info to everybody, and it’s kind of a big change.”
Even at the Eighth Grade Night last year, the guidance counselors talked about the change to incoming students.
“We told them that they needed to be sure they had a Skyward account set up to access their grades, and that eventually we would be moving to electronic report cards,” Asay said. “So we’ve been trying to set the tone for that and make sure everyone is aware, and that everybody was established with a Skyward account.”
There are several reasons as to why this change was made. One of the major motivations being the concern of using too much paper.
“We have 773 kids so that’s 773 pieces of paper that we are printing, dividing into first period classes and giving to the teachers,” Guidance Secretary Erika Martin said.
Not only was there paper used for each individual student, but it also does not include report card reprints.
“I would go through and make sure they all looked right, we’d calculate the GPA’s and always find something that was wrong and have to go back and rerun,” Asay said. “There would even be times that we’d run something, start printing, then somebody would realize that we had an error.”
These numbers only include Gibson Southern, when taking into account other South Gibson schools, the number of papers used is around 2,500.
As well as cutting back on paper, this switch also allows for the report cards to be delivered directly to the parents.
“I think that all the parents, for the most part, have a working email address that we have on file in Skyward, so it’s just an easier method to make sure it gets delivered and goes directly to an email address rather than getting sent in the mail,” Guidance Counselor Mark Rohrer said.
There are several different purposes for parents and students to need an extra copy of their report cards. The digital copy allows them to access them at any time.
“It’s really nice for students who are using it for car insurance,” Martin said. “So, if you can just print it off at home you are not having to wait to come into school to see me. You’re getting it as soon as I hit send.”
This switch from paper to digital also saves a lot of time. The report cards took time to prepare and send out to the students.
“Mrs. Asay would print all of the report cards, and Tracey and I would separate to the different homerooms and get them to the teachers in their mailboxes, assuming the teachers would pick them up,” Martin said. “I think for that purpose alone it is just so much easier.”
This change makes the guidance counselors’ jobs simpler; however, there were a few downsides.
“I can understand for parents, more so for parents of younger elementary kids, that it takes a little bit of that pride piece out of it, like when a kid is really proud of their grade and brings home a report card, that’s a little different,” Asay said. “Especially because the elementary students are not checking their grades, they don’t understand how to do that. They have access and their parents have access but I think that concept kind of gets lost.”
For most high schoolers and middle schoolers it is not as much of a problem.
“The main thing is from the parents’ and the student side of it,” Rohrer said. “We want to do what’s going to be best for them, and I have not heard anyone complain about the new system.”
Students who are not able to access their grades at home or can not print a copy themselves are still able to go to the office and get a copy if needed.
“If anybody has any concerns or needs a printed off copy for insurance purposes, we can do it for you, just come to the office,” Martin said. “If anybody absolutely needs a printed copy and does not have the ability at home, absolutely come and see us.”
