Wyoming — Deb Sellers is the behind-the-scenes person who manages the data of thousands of students and teachers under one system.
“I enjoy making people’s lives easier,” said Sellers, Wyoming Public Schools’ data training specialist. She is in charge of the system that houses student information in Wyoming, Godwin Heights, Tri County Area Schools, Northview and Kelloggsville.
For her work, Wyoming Public Schools recently received Edupoint’s eighth annual Partner for Life Award and a $10,000 scholarship (to allocate as they choose) at the Synergy Connect Users Conference in Orlando, Florida. Among more than 6,500 districts nationwide, only one is selected for the award annually.
Through Edupoint, the company that owns the Synergy Education Platform for K-12 student information and learning management, Sellers manages state reporting and collaborates with other districts’ IT teams. The Studentvue, Parentvue and Teachervue features allow access to grades, emails, conference information, attendance and other data.
Sellers and programmer Chris Goron work to keep it constantly updated, often working directly with the company to make sure things are running as smoothly as possible.
Wyoming, along with Godwin Heights and Tri County, began using Synergy in school year 2012-2013.
“We are pretty much 90% paperless in our district and that is because of the resources and tools we have using this system, which, of course, saves time, energy and money,” Sellers said.
Superintendent Craig Hoekstra said Sellers is “a champion” of Synergy.
“She works tirelessly to address needs and is continuously looking for ways to make improvements so that all who engage with the system have the best experience possible,” he said. “Deb is a go-getter, always focused on solutions, and I am proud to have her on the Wyoming team.”
Sellers has worked in the district for 34 years. She also has served several terms on the Kelloggsville Board of Education.
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