At last night's booster meeting, Mr. VanPatten presented the Charms Music Office to parents and students. This program is a cloud-based database and communication suite. This program has two important component. One component is a database tool that allows the director (and other parent volunteers) to manage inventory items pertinent to the band program (music library, instruments, uniforms, etc.) Once information is entered, and students have been added to the program, items may easily be assigned to students, and the director/parent volunteers can track who has what and when it was assigned.
The other, more important component is the parent communication tool. Like many student management systems (Powerschool is what the school uses), Charms allows the director to communicate many different pieces of information with students and parents. We will be using this tool mostly to maintain accurate financial records for students and parents over long periods of time. This makes the process of determining how much a student owes for band fees very simple. Things like payments, credits, fundraising profits, and other billable items can easily be added by the director and then viewed by the students and parents.
As of now we are running on a 60 day free trial of Charms. This trial version gives us full access to the program for 60 days. All student financial data has been added to the program and (as best as we can determine right now) is current as of today. Parents are encouraged to follow the setup instructions handed out last night to check their child's statement, as well as to browse around all of the other features Charms has to offer.
If you have any questions about how Charms works, or if you find that your financial statement is inaccurate, please email Mr. VanPatten ([email protected]).
The other, more important component is the parent communication tool. Like many student management systems (Powerschool is what the school uses), Charms allows the director to communicate many different pieces of information with students and parents. We will be using this tool mostly to maintain accurate financial records for students and parents over long periods of time. This makes the process of determining how much a student owes for band fees very simple. Things like payments, credits, fundraising profits, and other billable items can easily be added by the director and then viewed by the students and parents.
As of now we are running on a 60 day free trial of Charms. This trial version gives us full access to the program for 60 days. All student financial data has been added to the program and (as best as we can determine right now) is current as of today. Parents are encouraged to follow the setup instructions handed out last night to check their child's statement, as well as to browse around all of the other features Charms has to offer.
If you have any questions about how Charms works, or if you find that your financial statement is inaccurate, please email Mr. VanPatten ([email protected]).
Charms Setup Information |