Frequently Asked Questions
You might find answers to common questions about PowerSchool here.
Q: How do I (a parent/guardian) get access to GCHS's PowerSchool
system?
A: This year, all Parent Access to PowerSchool has been turned on,
by default. The user agreement is included in the Parent/Student Handbook. Provided
that a parental signature is included on page 5 when the student returns it, all
parent access will remain activated. If a "page 5" is not signed by a parent and
returned, or if there are any outstanding financial obligations, parental access
to PowerSchool will be de-activated.
Freshmen parents will receive the needed information at the Parent Back-To-School
night on September 22, 2011.
If you are the parent of an upperclassmen and have never attempted to create a parent
account in the past, please contact Tom Reed for information about setting one up.
Q: I lost my username or password. Now what do I do?
A: If you are a parent who already has a signed Parent Network and
Internet Systems Agreement on file at GCHS and has already successfully created a Parent Account, you
can start by visiting the PowerSchool Logon page and clicking on the "Having trouble
logging in?" link. This will allow you to enter your username and e-mail address and have
information automatically sent to your email account about changing your password.
If you've forgotten your user name, you can click on the "Forgot User Name?" tab,
enter your email address, and have the user name e-mailed to you.
If you have forgotten what email address you entered into the system
or have no success with the methods listed above, you can send an e-mail to powerschool@gchsrams.org requesting that your logon credentials be sent to either your home address or the e-mail address that is stored in the PowerSchool system. For security reasons, we will not send logon credentials to any street or e-mail address that is not already
stored in our system.
Q: How do I make sense of the absences in my child's PowerSchool Grades and Attendance listing?
A: In the Grades and Attendance section, the numbers of absences
and tardies listed to the right of course names represent the number of times this
student was absent/tardy from that particular class period. For example, in the
picture below, this hypothetical student was absent 10 times when the Computer Applications
teacher took attendance. 
If you click on the number, you will see a list of the days comprising the total, with a legend of the Attendance Codes at the bottom.
For specific information about these absences/tardies, please contact the teacher
directly.
To determine how many offical school absences your child has, please view the Attendance By Day section, which is lower on the Grades and Attendance page (see example below). This section includes all days of absence, including both excused and unexcused. 
For example, the hypothetical
student represented in this image has two official school absences. To get a clearer idea of what comprises that total, click on the number and use the legend at the
bottom of the page to determine what the Attendance Codes mean. For questions about
official school absences, please contact Sharon Previtera
(ext 216) or Ms. Saunders (ext 217).
Q: I have the Access IDs I need to create a new Parent Account, now how do I create it?
A: Go to https://gchsrams.powerschool.com/public/ and you'll
see a page that looks similar to this:
You'll want to click on the Create Account button. This will open a new page that
looks similar to the one pictured below:
You'll want to enter the information on this page. All information in the top section
(titled "Create Parent/Guardian Account) is parent information, and much is left
to your descretion, like the user name and password -- these can be whatever you
want as your future logon credentials. The information in the "Link Students to
Account" section comes almost entirely (except for Relationship) from the letter
you received from the school.
Once you've submitted this information and seen a "Congratulations" message, telling
you that the account has been created, you can then use the User Name and Password
you entered in the top section to login to PowerSchool.
Q: How do I make sense of the various icons in PowerSchool Parent Portal?
A: The image below shows the current setup available in the GCHS
PowerSchool Parent Portal Implementation (please note: these are the OLD icons...they
look different in Version 7).
Here is a brief explanation as to the function of each icon:
- Grades and Attendance - This view provides a general overview of your child's academic
progress and attendance totals in each of his/her current classes. To actually view
assignments and grades for a given class, click on the grade in the Term you are
interested in. For example, if you wanted to see the assignments/grades for Alg
1 during the first quarter, find the Alg 1 row and click on the grade listed under
the Q1 column heading. With regards to attendance, you can click here for more complete
information about deciphering the listed attendance numbers.
- Grade History - Shows a summary of grades for the current school
year.
- Attendance History - Shows a detailed list of the student's attendance
history for the current term/year. In this list, dashes (-) indicate that the student
was not scheduled to be in that class for a given day; dots (.) indicate that the
student was marked "present" by the teacher; and, all of the other codes are explained
in a Legend at the bottom of the page. Please note that teachers can only indicate
that a student was: present, tardy, tardy but excused, or UNV.
- Email Notification - This area is designed to allow you to choose
to have various information e-mailed to you on a schedule of your choosing. This
can be done on a per-student basis, meaning that you can personalize the settings
for each student you have at GCHS. You can choose what information you'd like to
receive, how often, and to what e-mail address(es) you'd like the information sent.
By checking the "Send now..." box before clicking submit, you can have the information
immediately sent to your listed e-mail accounts(s).
- Teacher Comments - Although not used extensively by GCHS teachers,
this area does provide a space where teachers can add on-going comments about students
for parents to view.
- School Bulletin - Updated regularly, this area of the Parent Portal
displays general information pertinent to the GCHS school community. You can choose
to have these announcements e-mailed to you by modifying your settings in the Email
Notifications section of the Parent Portal. (Note: unless you specifically opt to
have these School Announcements sent to your e-mail address, they will not be sent.)
- Class Registration - This section is available only near the end
of a school year, when students are being asked to choose courses for the upcoming
school year. When the registration "window" is open, you can select courses for
the upcoming school year in this area. Once the window closes, you may still be
available to view the course selections currently active for your student(s).
- Balance - You can use this area to view any non-tuition fees and
payments that are associated with your account. For the most part, this section
will show course-related fees, not handled by the SMART Tuition system.
- Account Preferences - This area can be used to modify account-related
information. There are two major tabs in this area: Profile and Students. The Profile
tab provides you with a vehicle to change account-related items like your e-mail
address, user name and/or your password. The Students tab displays the names of
all students associated with your parent account, and provides you with the opportunity
to add other students, if they are not already appearing in your account. You will,
however, need to have the Access ID and Access Password for any student you attempt
to add to your account.