Getting Started with Tech in Columbus Academy
Welcome to the Columbus Academy! Our Technology Office staff are here to assist you with understanding & familiarizing the usage of technology in the Academy, and to clarify any questions and concerns you may have with any aspects of it.
After your student's enrollment process with the Columbus Academy has been completed, you will be able to start exploring each aspect of the Columbus Academy digital experience by using the email address you registered with us in the enrollment application.
- The Columbus Academy Portal for families - mySchoolApp
You should receive an email from Blackbaud about your new login password to sign into the "mySchoolApp" web portal. This is accessible on any device with a web browser. The login ID should be your initially registered email address used in your student's enrollment application. If you are having trouble with the Blackbaud login process, please reach out to the Admissions office first at (614) 509-2220 or email at admissions@columbusacademy.org to verify your account's status.
Once you signed in successfully, you should set up your notifications by selecting your name in the right-hand corner then select Settings and from the left, select Notifications. From here, you can:
Input your phone number and email that you would like to use for notifications
Select which notifications you would like to receive. In some of the assignments there are additional categories that you can narrow down your selections - by clicking on Edit Options you can pick the categories to receive notifications.
Sign up for bulk mail groups which schools use to send out bigger email notifications.
You can access your student's class information from their Progress tab, their school day timetable from the Schedule tab, and view all their assignments from the Assignments tab. To get to these, you'll need to use the Children drop-down (unless you only have one student enrolled) to select the name of the student you would like to view.
Columbus Academy offers the Resource board to post information and gather links to other school-related online portals, forms, lists and reports. You can access the Resource board for Parents by selecting Resources in the menu across the top of the page.
Directories house contact information for users at your school, which includes Parents, Students and Faculty. This is a central place to look for contact information for your student’s teachers, classmates, or parents of classmates. You can also create your own custom Directory called My Contacts. This enables you to compile a personal directory of all the contacts you may need to frequently reach out to at your student’s school.
IMPORTANT NOTE: For new students joining Columbus Academy, their school email address and login credentials are available under your "Files" section - This will only be available briefly before the start of the school year, and removed shortly after. we are hosted by Google Workspace for Education, so your child will be using the CA login to sign into Google services such as Gmail, Classroom and Calendar, as well as other online teaching tools that rely on Google Single-Sign-On (SSO).
For additional detailed information, visual guides and frequently asked questions, please visit our CA mySchoolApp information site.
2. Students Attendance Management - SchoolPass
Columbus Academy uses SchoolPass to help empower parents to manage student attendance updates on their phones. Parents can make attendance and dismissal changes, authorize pickups, and manage after-school attendance all within the SchoolPass mobile app or web portal. All changes are communicated in real-time to administrators, teachers, and affiliated parents - which is then linked to SchoolPass Visitor Management unit located in each school division's front office that tracks students' and visitors' check-in or check-out each day.
Families should have received an email after enrollment with their SchoolPass login details. The CA SchoolPass web site can be accessed through the Resources matrix in our mySchoolApp portal or thru their mobile apps. As SchoolPass is linked to the Google and Blackbaud Single-Sign-On (SSO), if you are using Google SSO for mySchoolApp, you should 'Log in with Google' (the button is marked with their icon). If you are not using a Gmail address to login, you can enter your email address and the temporary SchoolPass password sent to you at the login prompts, and you will be allowed to change the password upon successful login.
Once signed in, you will be able to view your student(s) info, including their daily arrival & dismissal scheduling (e.g. for carpool or bus line), and make changes to your student's attendance defaults or your family profile - such as adding new vehicles or drivers.
For more information regarding the use of the SchoolPass web portal and mobile apps, you can view our SchoolPass information site.
3. Handling Forms & Tuition - Final Forms & FACTS Tuition Management
Final Forms is the online document signing tool that Columbus Academy offices use for school contracts and sports/event-related forms.
Parents or legal guardians will need to sign in with their registered email address (or link to a Google account) with Columbus Academy to access the documents linked to their CA student that requires signatures.
CA students can sign in with their Columbus Academy email accounts.
Families may have received an email with a temporary Final Forms password after their student's first school document needs to be signed. For full details on logging in and navigating the Final Forms portal, please review this online guide. If you have other questions, please contact the CA Tech Office at techhelp@columbusacademy.org
FACTS Tuition Management is the online tool for Columbus Academy to simplify school tuition and expenses payment tracking and management. It facilitates improved communication between the school and our students' families, while streamlining our admissions and enrollment processes. Families can access the FACTS web site from any device and set up payment reminders for each student account.
The FACTS web site can be accessed through the Resources matrix in the CA mySchoolApp portal. The login credentials is unique to this service so you should receive an email on your CA registered email address with your login account details. If you have any questions regarding the use of the FACTS tuition management tool, please reach out to our General Information phone line: 614-475-2311
4. Student Learning - Seesaw (PreK-5)
Seesaw is a digital student portfolio that gives students an audience for their work! It gives families a window into what's going on every day in their child's classroom.
Students add posts to their journals. Student posts showcase the creative projects they've been working on in the classroom. This could include photos, artwork, videos, activities, notes, projects they've created in other apps, and more.
Families get notified when there are new posts in their student's journal. They can view posts and add likes and comments.
Seesaw requires an invite from your child's teacher in order to sign up, sent via email. If you do not have an invite QR code or link, contact your child's teacher. Up to 10 family members can connect to one child's journal.
If you have more than one child using Seesaw in their classroom, you can subscribe to multiple journals on the same Seesaw account. Follow this link to learn from the official online guide on how to accomplish that.
5. Student Learning - Google Classroom (Grades 4-12)
Columbus Academy students are first introduced to Google Classroom at 4th Grade, and their teachers share documents and slideshows so that students can edit for written assignments and projects. Teachers also share Quizlet links to study and prepare for assessments, as well as share streaming videos from YouTube or the EnVisions math program for students to review. Once students enter Middle School (i.e. 6th Grade and up), they will then start to turn in assignments on Google Classroom. They will be able to access tools such as Notability, Google Docs + Sheets + Slides to work on their class assignments and upload them to Google Classroom. Their work is stored on Google Drive.
For our CA families, you can get email summaries about your student’s activity in Classroom. Teachers or administrators will be able to send parents & guardians an invitation for your student's Google Classroom to get email summaries (that emailed invitation will expire in 120 days). You can get email summaries sent to any email address. However, to view or update email summary settings, you need a Google Account. With a Google Account, you can change the frequency of your emails, update your time zone, see the students connected to your account, and unsubscribe from email summaries.
In email summaries, you can review:
Missing work—Work not turned in when the summary was sent.
Upcoming work—Work that’s due today and tomorrow (for daily emails) or that’s due in the upcoming week (for weekly emails).
Class activities—Announcements, assignments, and questions recently posted by teachers.
If there’s no activity to report or if a teacher turns off email notifications, you might not get an email summary. Email summaries do not include grades. For grades, please check with your student or contact the teacher of that class.