This December, our own Superintendent, Dr. Steve Olmos, was appointed to the State Board of Education Advisory Commission on Charter Schools (ACCS). Dr. Olmos is joining ACCS as the representative of parents of charter school students. ACCS plays a critical role in ensuring that charter schools are treated fairly in the authorizing and approval process. […]
On December 9, high school students from all academies got to attend our first dance since 2019! Over 130 students and their guests danced the night away, made new friends and took tons of photos at our Winter Wonderland themed event.
The energy was great and we loved seeing your winter-themed outfits. We can’t wait for the next dance!
Visions In Education’s Main Offices and Student Technology Services (STS) are closed for the remainder of the day 12/12/2022 due to a power outage. We anticipate that power will be restored this evening and our offices will reopen in the morning. If this changes for any reason we will send you another communication.
Visions In Education is an independent study charter school that serves Sacramento and its eight adjacent counties and is authorized by the San Juan Unified School District. Visions’ main offices are located at 5030 El Camino Avenue, Carmichael. We serve nearly 7,000 TK-12 students in three different home school and independent study high school programs. […]
From Superintendent Olmos: At our October board meeting it was announced that one of our original board members, Katie McCleary, would be stepping down at the end of this year. Katie has served as a member of the Board of Directors since its inception on December 14, 2017 and was Chairperson in 2020-21. But she […]
Thanksgiving Break for families is next week, Nov. 21 – Nov. 25. Visions In Education’s offices and Student Technology Services Hours: Open from 8:00 to 4:30 on Monday, November 21. Closed from November 22 to November 25. Offices will open again on Monday, November 28 when classes will resume. On behalf of everyone at Visions In […]
November is Native American Heritage Month, also known as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. The month is a time to recognize and celebrate the diverse cultures, traditions, and histories of Native people. Native American Heritage Month is also a time to educate others about tribes and raise awareness about the unique challenges Native […]
In the 21/22 school year students in grades 3 through 8 and 11 were once again required to take the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for English Language Arts (ELA) and Math. During the pandemic, assessments were put on hold and many schools were faced with the challenge of pivoting to virtual learning. Our at-home learning […]
Visions In Education and Student Technology Services (STS) will be closed all day November 11 in honor of Veterans Day. Visions will reopen on Monday, November 14 at 8:00 a.m. This year, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs has chosen the theme “Honor,” to represent the pride military service have in defending our nation. Veterans Day […]
Developed and refined for over a decade, Visions’ Launchpad Student Support System seamlessly integrates all technologies into one easy-to-use platform.
In September 2022, Visions In Education, a Sacramento-based charter school serving over 6,500 students throughout Northern California, applied for and received copyright protection for its Launchpad Student Support System. This unique system, built from the ground up by Visions, ensures that technology is an asset for the school, not a complicated patchwork of programs and systems that can often overwhelm and confuse users.
“As a non-classroom-based charter school, the effective use of technology is critical to our core mission of serving students,” said Tom Tafoya, Visions’ Chief Operating Officer who has been with the school for 18 years. “About 15 years ago, we really started seeing an acceleration of different programs and platforms being launched to assist students, parents, teachers and administrators. It was great to see so much technology being developed for the education space but it quickly became clear that all those different products had the potential to overwhelm users.”
Visions began exploring how it could spend its own time and technology resources to better integrate these different products into a single ecosystem, minimizing the need for end users to organize and maintain the different products.
“The Launchpad Student Support System creates a single point of entry for users regardless of the programs and platforms they are accessing,” continued Tafoya. “This was a significant investment for us considering the technological expertise involved and the responsibility to ensure that the data collected and shared through Launchpad was secure and protected. It’s amazing to look back years later and see how Launchpad has evolved as such an important part of how we serve students now.”
The Launchpad Student Support System is the single point of entry for parents to access student records, order curricula and supplies, manage events and more. Visions has partnered with major curriculum and supply vendors including Amazon, Staples, BNC K-12 powered by MBS, Bookshark, Lakeshore Learning, Rainbow Resource Center and TextbookX to create custom integrations within Launchpad. Staff use Launchpad to track enrollment and attendance, manage vendors, monitor and track student requests and streamline communication between different school audiences.
Launchpad was also critical in Visions winning a “Pivotal Practice Award” from the California Department of Education for its ability to quickly and effectively distribute technology to families and staff as the COVID-19 pandemic limited in-person interaction.
“We were incredibly proud of the fact that we were able to quickly adapt to meet the challenges of the pandemic with minimal disruption to our students and staff,” said Dr. Steve Olmos, Visions’ Superintendent. “Because Launchpad was already such an integral part of our work, we were able to avoid the struggles of maintaining student engagement and attendance that impacted so many other schools.”
After spending considerable time and resources building and refining Launchpad, it only made sense to seek copyright protection for this critical asset. As such, all versions of the software code have been copy written and the name of the software has been trademarked. This IP protects Visions significant investment in the system going back to 2011.
