Centre SIS, the premier Open Source Student Information System
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License
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Centre SIS is "free" software released under the GNU General Public License version 2.
A copy of this license is included in the 'LICENSE' file part of this distribution, and
can also be found online at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html.
You MUST read and agree to the terms of this license prior to installing Centre SIS.


Documentation
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For installation and usage directions, please refer to the online documentation wiki
accessible at http://doc.centresis.org or within Centre SIS in the Resources module.
Amongst others, this documentation provides:
  - an Installation Guide to guide you through a new installation of Centre,
  - detailled Upgrade Instructions to go through updating an existing Centre installation,
  - Administrator, Teacher, Parent and Student Handbooks and many task-oriented Quick Guides.

And yes, YOU NEED TO READ THE ABOVE DOCUMENTATION prior to attempting any install or upgrade,
and before asking any question in the user forums ...


Get help and support
--------------------

In addition to the Community Forums and User Groups, the http://www.centresis.org website
offers an array of professional services aimed at facilitating your Centre SIS deployment
- data import and quickstart services, customization, training and support - as well as a
complete turn-key solution priced as a yearly, per-student subscription.


About Centre
------------

Centre has been designed to address the most important needs of administrators, 
teachers, support staff, parents, students, and clerical personnel. However, it 
also adds many components not typically found in student information systems. 
Consider the following:

	* Student screens that include all the critical information necessary for 
		reports and decision-making can be accessed with a point and click. 
		Several customizable features are also included that allow you to gather 
		data important to your school or district.

	*  Employee screens that not only provide quick access to demographic 
		information, but also assign email addresses, admittance to the system, 
		passwords, and more.

	* Students can be searched by not only gender, ethnicity, grade level, etc., 
		but also by their schedule, activities, absences, eligibility, grades, 
		GPA, and class rank, where appropriate.

	* A comprehensive grade book that allows teachers to establish grade ranges, 
		weight assignments, track assignments, and issue quarterly and semester 
		grades as well as progress reports. Report card and transcripts are also 
		available.  Furthermore, report cards and transcripts can be configured 
		to display grades for any or all of your schoolÕs marking periods Ð on 
		the fly.

	* Attendance can be taken electronically by teachers and submitted to the 
		office almost instantly. Also, office staff can modify attendance 
		reports based on information not available at the time roll was taken. 
		The attendance component further provides report capabilities to 
		identify average daily attendance, to provide daily attendance 
		summaries, and to track attendance each day.

	* Middle grade and high school educators will appreciate the eligibility 
		feature of Centre. No longer will paper or spreadsheets have to be used 
		to report what students are eligible for athletic or academic 
		activities; instead, the grade book will determine electronically if a 
		student is passing or not. The teacher then merely verifies the 
		information and sends it through the system.

	* Scheduler in Centre allows the scheduling of entire classes or groups as 	
		well as the scheduling of a single student. Revisions to a studentÕs 
		schedule can be performed quickly.  Scheduling based on a studentÕs 
		requests is extremely efficient.  Running the scheduler on an entire 
		high school takes minutes instead of hours.  So, the scheduler can be 	
		run several times a day Ð allowing you to scheduler more thoroughly.  
		Also, each time you save a studentÕs requests, the scheduler is run 	
		under test mode for the student Ð allowing you to resolve conflicts as 
		you have the student in front of you.

	* Courses can be added easily to include weights, instructional assignments, 
		and periods. As well, you can determine if each course requires 
		attendance, affects the honor roll and class rank, and/or has any 
		restrictions. Of course, scheduling reports can be generated through 
		this application also.

	* A calendar is included that details events, activities and student 
		assignments.

	* A school set-up screen is used to establish marking periods, the grade 
		levels in the building, and the number of periods scheduled each day. 
		School demographic information (e.g., name, address, phone numbers, 
		etc.) is entered on this same screen.  Your schools can have any number 
		of marking periods in three tiers.  For instance, a school could use the 
		conventional two semesters, four quarters, four progress periods model, 
		or a school could establish its only system of marking periods with 3 
		semesters, 18 quarters, and 36 progress periods.  Everything is 
		completely customizable.

You will find Centre to be a full-featured student information system that 
facilitates your decision-making, provides data necessary for reports to the 
federal or state governments as well as local boards, and affords convenient 
access to all of the stakeholders in your building or district. And, because it 
is web-based, the system can be logged into from any Internet connection.