NOACSC Newsletter
1st Quarter - Winter 2024
NOACSC Community,
A new year is always a great time to reflect on the past. 2023 was a very successful year at NOACSC. We continue to receive a very high rating from our members, which is the hallmark of our ITC. NOACSC has always strived to provide the very best support to our districts. On our annual survey we received an overall rating of 3.88 out of 4.0, which is a very strong number. Additionally we underwent a site review in December and the verbal feedback we have received has been excellent.
We once again held our annual membership meeting in November. Of our 54 districts, 53 had at least one representative in attendance. Overall 120 people joined us at Old Barn for a great morning of professional development and networking.
We also hosted an AI in Education event in collaboration with our ESCs. In all, 80 teachers and administrators attended this seminar. Matt Miller from Butler County ESC brought a wealth of knowledge about this important topic.
Our staff grew by one this year. The fiscal services team expanded and welcomed Kristen Barga to the team. We also were thrilled to bring Carolyn Winhover back on an as-needed, part-time basis.
We look forward to new opportunities in the new year to partner with you to educate the students of our area.
Happy New Year!
Ben Thaxton
NOACSC Executive Director
Membership Meeting
We were thrilled that 120 people from 53 member districts joined us in November at our membership meeting! Our focus was on Cybersecurity and AI in Education. Our guest speaker, Eric Curts, did an amazing job providing professional development on AI.
Product Updates
GoLearn
Schools are now able to sign up to pilot GoLearn, Ohio's collaborative course catalog designed to expand the educational opportunities of Ohio students in their current school, and to provide a way for Ohio educators to increase class enrollment by offering real-time, interactive instruction on subjects that matter.
To learn more, watch the video below and view the flyer. If you are interested in signing up for the pilot, complete this survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/golearnoh
🎄❄️⛄Team Updates⛄❄️🎄
🏫Student Services
Student Services is already preparing for the 24-25 school year. A link to the 24-25 School Initialization Survey is now available on our website, 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.
We have received information from FrontLine (the makers of ProgressBook) that the next system update, 23.2, will be dedicated exclusively to updating the Civil Rights reporting module. We don’t yet have a firm date on this release, but will make sure to let everyone know once that date is confirmed. It seems likely that the release will occur sometime in early or mid-January.
Student Services will be offering a training on the Civil Rights reporting following closely on the release date. 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.
After the Civil Rights 23.2 update, FrontLine has also announced that the 23.3 update will follow, and will address other areas of ProgressBook.
Our next Student Services user group meeting will be held online via Zoom on Jan. 10 at 1:30. Registration will be available in the usual fashion through our website after the Christmas holidays. 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. Please email those ideas or concerns on to us as they occur to you!
đź“ŠEMIS Services
Every day is a busy day in the world of EMIS! We have a couple big collections closing in January that we want to make sure are on your radar:
Initial Exiting Student Follow Up- Reporting of CTE students closes on January 5th
Initial Staff and Course Collection- Reporting of licensure and certification for Districts' Local Report Card closes on January 31st
If you need help with these collections, do not hesitate to reach out. We are always more than happy to assist.
The Initial Student Collection closed on December 20th, but that doesn't mean it is time to throw in the towel! The Midyear Student Collection opens on January 2nd and will close April 26th.
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Here is a list of our scheduled trainings and upcoming events over the next few months:
Troubleshooting Teacher Licensure Reports – in person at NOACSC
Thursday, January 4, 2024
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Troubleshooting Teacher Licensure Reports – Zoom Webinar
Friday, January 5, 2024
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
New EMIS User Check-in – in person at NOACSC
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
9:00 am – 11:00 am
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ODE EMIS General Training –Topics TBD
Monday, January 29, 2024, 1-3 p.m.
Wednesday, January 31, 2024, 9-11 a.m.
Wednesday, January 31, 2024, 1-3 p.m.
Thursday, February 1, 2024, 9-11 a.m.
Friday, February 2, 2024, 9-11 a.m.
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EMIS User Check-in – in person at NOACSC
Thursday, February 22, 2024
9:00 am – 11:00 am
We also have EMIS Alliance trainings on the FTE and CTE FTE reports upcoming, but the dates are TBD.
đź’µFiscal Services
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 to all districts for the USAS and USPS software. We are in the process of printing & shipping approximately 20,000 W2’s for our districts. Due to staff changes at districts, the fiscal staff has also been busy working through transitions of treasurers and payroll staff. We have run payroll for multiple districts as staff has changed, as well as training the new staff. We currently have 6 new treasurers at districts, two open treasurer positions and many payroll staff as well. The fiscal staff is currently helping 4 districts because of matters such as maternity leaves, illness, and/or staff turnover, all while handling calendar year-end questions from the districts. The fiscal team is taking it all in stride. We increased our staff by 1 in July 2023 to handle the needs of the districts and this has worked well. We have seen the increased need over the past few years, so we are adjusting to the new norm. We are very appreciative of all the kind words as we work through this busy season.
Speaking of Change:
Informing NOACSC of District staff changes in the treasurer’s office is really pertinent
- Please notify NOACSC of any staff changes in the treasurer’s office that require USAS, USPS, file archive, or fiscal archive access.
- 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.
- The applications for USAS and USPS can be found on our website under Fiscal Services-Redesign-Account Authorization Form.
Here is a link to the form: Redesign Access Form (noacsc.org)
Multi-Factor Authentication has been implemented across all districts for USAS/USPS access above read-only or requisition only access. Thank you to everyone. I know the additional step isn’t always appreciated, but it is an important security measure to protect SSN, EIN’s and other personal identifiable information. Also, if you acquire a new phone, please call, or email us to sync your new phone with DUO and USAS/USPS.
The EMIS Period L deadline is January 31, 2024. 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.
đź’»Network Services
Your Superintendent does not need you to purchase anything ...
… especially with your own money.
A few months ago, a bad actor put an education twist on the old iTunes gift card scam and tried to get some money out the employees. The bad actor pretends to be a boss (i.e. superintendent) emailing staff and asking them to help out by making some purchases. The “boss” is too busy to do it themselves and can only communicate via email. For details of the iTunes scam from a while ago see https://blog.knowbe4.com/scam-of-the-week-the-boss-needs-itunes-gift-cards-for-customers...-now
In this scam, the bad actor tried to get the employees to leave work and go shopping for them, most likely using their own money. Fortunately, the educational institution that was targeted took quick action and shutdown the scam before it went too far by notifying their staff of the scam and checking to see who had responded to the fake email address. Most likely a variation of this scam will be tried again or one of many others. What are some things we can learn from this?
- Check the email address and the address that shows up when you hit reply. In this case it was Superintendent Name <RandomLettersAbc123@gmail.com> the superintendent’s name but clearly not their email address.
- Is the offer too good to be true? Is the request reasonable? Common sense often help us determine if a message is not reasonable. Your superintendent, treasurer, and principal are not going to ask to you purchase things with your own money through email.
- Contact the person a different way if you don’t trust the email or call that you received. Ask in person, call to check if not sure about an email, email/text directly, or call back using a number you know or find on their website rather than the number that called you. There have been incidents of bad actors calling you and the name showing up as a bank. They hope you call back on the number they called you with rather than looking up the correct number for the bank.
- Help each other out. Talk with others or your technology coordinator if you are not sure about an email message, text, or call.
đź“…Important Dates
- January 1 - NOACSC office closed for New Years Day
- January 15 - NOACSC office closed for MLK Jr Day
- January 30 - NOACSC Tech Advisory Committee Meeting
- February 6 - NOACSC Board of Directors Meeting
- February 13-15 - OETC Conference
- February 19 - NOACSC office closed for Presidents Day
- March 21-22 - OECN United Conference
- March 29 - NOACSC office closed for Good Friday