Records center hosts open house

Records center

hosts open house

Former students wishing to

get copies of their school records can do so in one convenient location

now that the Fayette County School System's records center is open for

business.

The center recently hosted

an open house for school and county employees to tour the facility and

learn about the new imaging software that will enable records to be stored

safely for years to come. Now, through a program called LaserFische, all

records of every student who has ever been enrolled or graduated from

one of the county's schools have been scanned and stored electronically.

With a few strokes of the keyboard and a click of the mouse, system officials

can quickly locate a student's school record or transcript and print it

on the spot.

Before, former students who

wanted copies of their transcripts had to contact or visit the schools

they attended. Office personnel then had to wade through files of records

to retrieve the one requested.

Students who attended a Fayette

County school from the early 1940s to the present can now get official

copies of transcripts and grade records from the records center. Due to

limited staffing, the most recent student graduation transcripts will

not be moved into the center until one year after the graduation date.

"We get so many requests

that first year for transcripts that we don't feel like our present staff

can keep up with the demand. However, after that first year we will be

able to take a lot of work off the schools," said Juliette Babb,

executive director of school improvement and general education and head

of the records center.

Keeping records on a computer

disk in addition to regular paper storage practically eliminates the risk

of them being permanently destroyed due to flood, fire or other disaster.

As an added precaution, a second disk containing duplicate information

is being housed elsewhere.

During the center's open house,

representatives from Micro-Fix, the company that set up the school system's

software imaging program, anwered questions and performed demonstrations

of the software for visitors.

In addition to maintaining

student transcripts, the center is also going to be used to keep employee

records and data. The center's personnel have already begun scanning employment

records of both past and current employees. The oldest employee record

dates