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Districts can now get Helios practically free as Helios Tech becomes Approved IT
Provider for Education Technology K-12 Voucher Program of the California Department
of Education
The Voucher Program would enable school districts to take advantage of Helios products
and services practically free as their costs would be reimbursed to them
Monday, August 6, 2007
Helios Tech was approved by the California Department of Education as approved IT
providers for school districts under the Education Technology K-12 voucher program
as part of the Microsoft settlement. It is great news for all eligible school districts
as they would be able to benefit from products and services offered by Helios Tech
such as its flagship Helios K-12 software for K-12 management, compliance, and reporting.
Districts can benefit from these products and other IT services provided by Helios
Tech practically free of cost as their cost would be reimbursed to the district
under the voucher program.
The voucher program resulted from a settlement between Microsoft and California
Department of Education and provides full reimbursement for technology products
and services to schools and districts that provide free or reduced price meals to
at least 40% of their students. For more information on the program, please visit
the Education
Technology K-12 voucher program website.
Some of the top reasons why districts should consider Helios Tech for their IT needs
are:
- Approved IT services provider for the Microsoft K-12 voucher program
- Helios Tech's team of technology professionals have strong K-12 experience working
in school districts
- Helios Tech is a local, minority-owned, California state-certified small business
- Their capabilities encompass the full range of a school district's technology needs
including software, hardware, networking, databases, maintenance and support.
Helios Tech's flagship solution called Helios K-12 helps school districts manage
their employees, make data-driven decisions on staffing, credentialing, and master
scheduling as well as makes compliance reporting for NCLB, CBEDS, Assignment Monitoring,
Williams law and other regulations very easy.
To learn how Helios K-12 can help them tremendously, districts should call 800.345.1947
or click here.
Helios K-12 HR: a breakthrough for K-12
HR management and reporting
Helios K-12 HR helps school districts meet NCLB and state requirements; manage HR
more effectively and enables better decision-making
January 10, 2007
By a staff correspondent
School district administrators and educators today are constantly bombarded with
multitude of requirements, both mandatory and voluntary. Increased legislation in
the post-2001 scenario at the federal and state levels demand a detailed paperwork
and analytical reporting systems.
School districts then have their own pandora's box with demands for teacher credentialing,
student performance and teacher/staff rosters, to name a few tips of the iceberg.
More often than not, the school districts are found to be entangled in the web of
costly litigations on the one hand and the cry for correct inputs of reports from
federal and state agencies as well as their own boards of education.
A survey by Helios' founders suggested the need for a software solution that may
enable making the right decisions to increase teacher effectiveness and student
achievement.
Helios is an educational technology company founded by a team of professionals
with experience in school district administration and technology. "Helios is created
to address the real world needs of school district administrators and personnel,"
says Yash Sharman, lead developer of Helios and an education technologist.
Enter the world of Helios - where information leads to compliance which leads
to effective instruction. Helios K-12 HR is a HR and Credential management
and reporting tool designed specially for K-12 districts and schools. Helios
promises to bring out a tried and tested system for HR management, reporting and
helping comply with local, state and federal regulations.
In an easy-to-use, web-based interface that means anytime, anywhere access, Helios
organizes a lot of information in a manageable way. There are at least 100 of such
reports that are covered by Helios. The system developed by Helios offers strong
security, customizable drop downs and reports backed with support on technical,
HR and compliance issues.
Some of its key features are:
- HR and Credential Management and Reporting Tool for K-12 Districts and educational
community
- Helps comply with NCLB, Williams Legislation, County reporting, CBEDS and more
- Nearly 100 reports for compliance with local, state and federal requirements ranging
from NCLB to Williams Legislation to Credential Monitoring
- Reports for internal use by administrators like staffing rosters and mailing labels
- Track teachers’ progress toward becoming highly qualified and stay competitive
- Enables Decision-making by administrators regarding classroom teacher assignments,
class size reduction, NCLB compliance, professional development, staffing and recruiting
needs and guaging effectiveness of BTSA and other support programs
- HR tools include performance evaluations, payroll information, work history, leaves,
credentials, assignments, testing, support programs, BTSA, ELL, volunteers, letters
and mailing
- Combined with student grades, assess the impact of teachers and instruction on student
achievement
- Tracking performance aids in facilitating merit pay for teachers and administrators
No Child Left Behind and Helios
Stronger accountability for results - With features like evaluations, ability
to track teachers’ qualifications, and reporting capabilities, Helios takes
away the burden of accountability from you
More choices for parents - Using built-in NCLB letters for parents, one can
communicate with parents regarding teachers’ highly qualified status
Evaluation - Helios provides an electronic way to manage teacher evaluations
Reward success - Reward teacher success in raising achievement (teacher incentive
plans)
Highly qualified teachers - Improve quality of teachers by identifying teachers
needing professional development and support programs and bringing highly qualified
teachers to the classroom
Williams Legislation and Helios
Access to highly qualified teachers - With Helios, one can monitor
teachers' credentials and EL authorizations - a key component of Williams legislation
- and accordingly assign teachers with EL authorizations to classrooms with 20%
or more English learners.
Effective classroom assignments - Monitor whether teachers have proper classroom
assignments and credentials
Overall, increasing number of school district administrators and HR analysts are
evaluating Helios and have recommended that Helios is the
only solution they have seen so far that offers a comprehensive suite of tools to
manage the whole gamut of district management and reporting from the perpective
of staff and administration as opposed to student information systems.
"Helios is very useful to us in creating reports that the County and State
need and you know that saves us a lot of time and effort. In fact, we cut down the
time from a week to just a couple of hours," said a credential technician in one
of LA's largest school districts.
Helios is also looking forward to expand its offerings of tools for education
with management and achievement planning solutions in the pipeline. One thing is
sure: District administrators and staff are going to breathe easy from now.
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