Students in Thomasville City Schools will have a much harder time hiding assignments from their parents in the not so distant future.

Mike Ingram, TCS Technology Director, unveiled a new Internet portal Web site Tuesday night that gives parents the ability to check their children’s grades and virtually anything else students are involved with on a weekly basis.

“About a year and a half ago, I had a city councilman come up to me and say they wanted to be able to check their child’s grades online,” Ingram said at TCS’ monthly meeting. “I figured I better do something about that. The introduction of this portal is a long-time coming. This has been a true partnership and a perfect example of what a non-profit, a corporate partner and a school system can do as a team to accomplish a goal.”

Scheduled to go online in the spring, the portal will act as a single location where data such as calendar schedules, homework assignments, attendance, grades and digitized text books can be accessed through a simple sign-in. Students, teachers and staff members also will be able to communicate through video, voice or instant messaging. Ingram said the portal will be accessible from anywhere in the world at any time on the Web.

“The ultimate goal of this is to make technology work for our students and teachers,” said Ingram. “What we want to do is provide the student and teacher with an environment to learn and grow by removing the impediments of technology. There are times when technology can impede if you don’t understand what you’re doing.”

Ingram said parents can see anything a student sees inside the student’s integrative solution, except e-mails due to privacy issues. Parents and guardians can request a log-in to the portal site by printing off a document from the page and bringing it to the school for verification. The portal will not only enable students to communicate easier, teachers also will benefit by being able to collaborate amongst each other in a more efficient manner. Teachers also will be able to limit Internet access for students. The portal site can be accessed through the TCS Web site.

“At the beginning of this year, two of the biggest goals our district had was, number one, having an active board in 100 percent of our classrooms,” Ingram said. “We’ve accomplished that goal. Number two was to roll out a portal that will allow the ability to integrate all of this.”

Money for the portal came from three different sources. CSI Technology Outfitters contributed $105,000 worth of resources, Microsoft paid for $30,000 worth of software and the Tom A. Finch Foundation, in conjunction with TCS Foundation, chipped in $35,000.

“This has been a strong partnership that is paying dividends,” said Ingram. “In the course of time it will pay more.”

Board member Jerry Crowder asked Ingram whether or not families without Internet access will be left behind once the portal goes online. Ingram said it is a problem, but efforts are being made to increase access to underserved areas, especially as TCS moves forward with its one-to-one laptop initiative.

“This has taken us to a new level,” Superintendent Keith Tobin said. “We talk about technology and how blessed we are and we are. The communication with the parents and the community is so important. This will make a difference and we look forward to getting this up and going.”

In other news:

• TCS named Thomasville Middle School’s Georgia Marshall principal-of-the-year for the second straight year. Marshall took over as principal at TMS three years ago and saw her school meet both Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and expected growth this year.

“It’s a wonderful honor,” said Marshall. “I’m just ecstatic about it. It’s wonderful to be recognized for hard work. I would like for us to go over and beyond what we’ve already done and come and be successful all over again with growth and AYP.”

• TCS named its VITAL award winners for the month. Melanie Crowder and John Lankford from Thomasville Primary School, TMS’ Amber Gray and Edith Kindley were recognized for their service to TCS.

• For the first time in three years, TCS expects to see a decrease in its drop-out rate.

Staff Writer Eliot Duke can be reached at 888-3578, or duke@tvilletimes.com.