Planned website outage Saturday, 8/14, 7-11 AM

SchoolWorld will be performing maintenance on the public website server on Saturday, August 14, 2010 from 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM ET. While there will not be a complete outage during the maintenance window, connectivity will be sporadic during the required server reboots. We appreciate your understanding.

PowerTeacher login blank

Staff Security Settings Screen: Teacher Login ID and Teacher Password intermittently blank

SUMMARY

PowerSchool administrators use the Staff Security Settings page to modify security settings for selected staff members. Intermittently the Teacher Login ID and Teacher Password are blank when the fields are populated with data. Refreshing the screen sometimes causes the Teacher Login ID and or Teacher Password to show. If the screen is submitted before being refreshed, the Teacher Login ID and Password may be overwritten and password will need to be reset.

PREREQUISITE

• Teacher Login ID and Teacher Password fields were previously populated on the Staff Security Settings Screen.

REPRODUCTION

1. Log in to PowerSchool
2. Start Page > Staff > Select A Staff Member
3. View Teacher Login ID and Teacher Password fields.

ACTUAL RESULT

Teacher Login ID And Teacher Password fields are empty.

EXPECTED RESULT

Teacher Login ID and Teacher Password should display data.

WORKAROUND

Refresh screen.

Issue is being researched.

New website! (And how to get to the old one)

Our new public website launched today! It has a great new look and more capabilities, including newsletter services, text alerts to parents, and easier editing of web pages.

We are working on getting accounts created for all staff so you can log in and create your web pages on the new system. Staff who have pages on http://teachers.oregon.k12.wi.us (aka "the W: drive") can still access them at the old URL. Staff with pages on the old CMS server can access them at http://old.oregonsd.org

Once you have instructions for creating your new pages, you can copy and paste your content from your old site to the new one.

Change to Google Image Search mess individual image filtering

On July 20, 2010, Google introduced a new method to more efficiently return image results and provide an enhanced user experience. However, the results no longer include an individual link for each image. As a result, we are no longer able to provide the policy option to block Google image thumbnails by category.

We are still able to enforce the SafeSearch options with all of Google's search functions including image searching.

We know that Google is making every attempt to only return appropriate images with SafeSearch enabled. In the event an image is improperly returned as a SafeSearch result, you can report this image to Google here (requires Google login):
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals?hl=en&pli=1

When you issue a new removal request, you'll be prompted to provide a reason. Conveniently, one of the options is, "Inappropriate content appears in our SafeSearch filtered results."
If you would like to read more about Google's Image searching enhancements, you can find the details on its official blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/ooh-ahh-google-images-presents-nicer.html

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me directly.
Sincerely,
Rob Chambers
robc@lightspeedsystems.com
Chief Technology Officer
Lightspeed Systems
661.716.7600

New public website goes live August 11

The Oregon School District's new public website will go live on August 11. To get a sneak preview of the new site, click here. The new site has many improvements, including optimized viewing on mobile devices, a newsletter system, and a professional look.

Instructions for logging in and editing pages will be provided to staff as soon as we have it available. We are still working on LDAP integration to allow staff to log in using their OSD password, instead of having to remember yet another password.

How to change your password

If you want to change your new password to something easier to remember, you can do online at https://db.oregon.k12.wi.us/saml/passchange.php (This is the direct link to the form, but you can also get to it when you are in Gmail -> Settings -> Accounts -> Google Account Settings -> Change Password. (Phew!))
Alternatively, if you are logged in to a computer at school, you can press Ctrl-Alt-Del and then click the "Change Password" button.

Remember, your new password must be fifteen characters or longer, and contain at least one of the following: capital letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and non-alphanumeric characters. If this sounds impossible, read the helpful guide for choosing complex passwords that are easy to remember but hard to guess.

Server migration status update

The migration to new Active Directory servers is underway. You should now use your new password for most services that require your OSD password. This includes email, Google Apps, IT helpdesk, etc.

You will still need to use your old (Novell) password to access Skyward for the time being. We are working with Skyward to change their LDAP authentication configuration. 

We are joining district computers to the Active Directory domain, but this is a time-consuming process, as we have to configure every computer manually. Until we are finished, you can determine which password to use to log in to a computer by looking at the login screen. If it has a Novell login window, use your old Novell login. If it does not have a Novell login window, press Ctrl-Alt-Del and enter your new password.