TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

With a click of a mouse, Linda Castro can see on her computer if her son has been attending all his classes at Stockdale High School, what his assignments are for the week and his grades.

Come fall, so too can the parents of all 37,000 students in the Kern High School District. That's when KHSD will unveil a new web-based student information system -- piloted at select campuses, including Stockdale High -- that will replace a more than 25-year-old system.

For the most part, teachers, counselors and school administrators say the system will make tracking student progress faster and easier.

Parents will be able to track their teen's academics and communicate better with teachers, and vice versa. Students can choose classes using the system.

"It's a tremendous tool," said Castro, mother of a Stockdale High senior on the honor roll. "He knows he has to be more responsible because I'm tracking him."

The system -- by Edupoint Educational Systems -- will go live at every KHSD campus for the 2012-13 school year, including the 18 comprehensive sites, the continuation schools and the Regional Occupational Center.

The system is being piloted to parents and teachers at Centennial, Liberty, Frontier and Stockdale high schools. Teachers are test-driving it at North, Highland and Tierra Del Sol.

Staff trainings will start next month throughout the district, and on Monday, the KHSD board got a sneak peek.

While trustees hailed the system and touted its potential, they also expressed concern over the security of private student information, and about reaching out to parents who may not be Internet-savvy.

Security is "always our first concern," said Jim Ewalt, KHSD director of data processing. Locks are in place to ensure students and outsiders can't reach information. Data is stored on servers. Discipline records are not accessible to teachers.

Campuses will have computer kiosks parents can use to set up accounts. Staff will train parents on system use, too.

Smart phone users can access their student's accounts through a phone application, officials said. And an alert system can tell parents when students are absent or have low grades.

So far, teachers are excited about the system, with some expressing a little apprehension, said Vickie Shoenhair, president of the Kern High School Teachers Association.

Teachers appreciate the improved line of communication with parents, and easiness of taking attendance and grades. For more than 25 years, those tasks have been done on paper and through a rudimentary black screen, green letter computer system.

It's taken this long to update the system because of the costs, officials said, and because the older system still functions fine. The new system allows student data to be transfered from campus to campus, while the old one does not.

Teachers will have options to make assignments accessible on the system and upload files through a "digital locker."

Shoenhair said some teachers are concerned they could be judged by how full, or not, their class calenders are. And some veteran teachers are anxious about using the new technology.

Administrators have told teachers they'll provide as much training as teachers need, she said.

A committee of more than 70 KHSD employees evaluated seven systems before KHSD chose Edupoint. It will cost about $640,000 to buy the software licenses, train staff and maintain the system in the first year, and $150,000 for maintenance each year after. The five-year cost is projected at $1.2 million, district reports show.

Some students weren't too happy with more parental control, while others said students who went to class and did their work shouldn't worry.

"I'm a good student so I don't care," said Bakersfield High School freshman Victoria Gonzalez, who said her parents would likely use the system.

"The parents who care will look at it," said BHS junior Angel Torres. "In a way it's good for students, I think, but those who aren't doing good in school will get caught up."