Amherst district outlines move from Aspen to PowerSchool, plans July 1 go-live and staged training
March 03, 2026 | AMHERST CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT, School Districts, New York
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District administrators updated the board on a planned migration of the student-management system from Aspen to PowerSchool, saying the change is intended to centralize data management, improve state reporting and give families a more user-friendly app.
Dr. Shanahan (speaker 5) introduced the presentation and said the move is driven by the district's need for a single, reliable data source. Ashley Bridal (speaker 10), the district data coordinator, told the board that Aspen's limited support and the district's reliance on ad hoc spreadsheets made it difficult to produce timely, state-required reports.
"With PowerSchool, we'll now have a secure way to transmit that data from system to system," Bridal said, adding that the district had created a PowerSchool server last September and trained principals, counselors and student-support staff in January. Bridal said the district is running three systems temporarily (Aspen, PowerSchool and LevelZero) during migration and plans to "flip to PowerSchool" with a target go-live of July 1.
Administrators said the district is purchasing PowerSchool through the regional BOCES, which provides a dedicated support team and local training. Bridal described benefits including Google single sign-on, integration between Google Classroom and the teacher gradebook, improved parent and student mobile access, and direct integration with the state's LevelZero database to streamline mandatory reporting.
The board heard a training and communications timeline: summer and opening-day trainings for teachers (two 90-minute sessions: PowerSchool basics and PowerTeacher), 28 lead-trainer teachers distributed across four buildings to provide peer training, parent informational sessions (first scheduled March 25) and summer clerical and nurse training. Aspen will remain available through year-end as a back-up while the district and BOCES support team complete the migration.
Administrators acknowledged the workload of running parallel systems during the transition but said they were encouraged by initial pilot work with middle and high school staff and by support from the PowerSchool team at BOCES.
Dr. Shanahan (speaker 5) introduced the presentation and said the move is driven by the district's need for a single, reliable data source. Ashley Bridal (speaker 10), the district data coordinator, told the board that Aspen's limited support and the district's reliance on ad hoc spreadsheets made it difficult to produce timely, state-required reports.
"With PowerSchool, we'll now have a secure way to transmit that data from system to system," Bridal said, adding that the district had created a PowerSchool server last September and trained principals, counselors and student-support staff in January. Bridal said the district is running three systems temporarily (Aspen, PowerSchool and LevelZero) during migration and plans to "flip to PowerSchool" with a target go-live of July 1.
Administrators said the district is purchasing PowerSchool through the regional BOCES, which provides a dedicated support team and local training. Bridal described benefits including Google single sign-on, integration between Google Classroom and the teacher gradebook, improved parent and student mobile access, and direct integration with the state's LevelZero database to streamline mandatory reporting.
The board heard a training and communications timeline: summer and opening-day trainings for teachers (two 90-minute sessions: PowerSchool basics and PowerTeacher), 28 lead-trainer teachers distributed across four buildings to provide peer training, parent informational sessions (first scheduled March 25) and summer clerical and nurse training. Aspen will remain available through year-end as a back-up while the district and BOCES support team complete the migration.
Administrators acknowledged the workload of running parallel systems during the transition but said they were encouraged by initial pilot work with middle and high school staff and by support from the PowerSchool team at BOCES.
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