With the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, came a new system to organize every aspect of school life, Genesis. The Somerset Hills School District changed its Student Information System (SIS) from PowerSchool to Genesis. PowerSchool is a program used mostly nationally, whereas Genesis is a New Jersey-based company only used in school districts across the state. This change has been a controversial switch that has affected everyone at BHS.  

The staff was introduced to Genesis during the spring of last school year and has had time to practice with the program. However, this was not the case for students, who have struggled with getting used to the program. 

While there are a variety of opinions coming from the users of Genesis, students have mainly expressed their dislike and confusion while using the website. 

“I’m trying to apply to colleges so I want to see my transcript and I’m not seeing that,” says senior Anabella DeRosa. 

Upperclassmen at the high school are having difficulties finding their past grades, GPA, and transcripts, which are needed to send to colleges. Not having this information accessible to them makes applying for college much more difficult. Students would have to check in with their counselors to know their past grades, which wasn’t the case with PowerSchool.

“I’ve been taught how to use PowerSchool, but nobody’s ever talked about Genesis,” said Emma Incarnato ‘25.

One of the biggest disadvantages of the new program according to students is the lack of a Genesis app. They find it to be inaccessible and more of a tedious process to log in. 

As a previous user of Genesis at Metuchen High School, English Teacher, Mrs. Volosin, states, “There is always that moment of uncomfortability but we will move forward,” Mrs. Volosin expresses that Genesis is a healthier system for students, not to get constant notifications about grades and assignments “I don’t want [students] to be hyper-aware of [their] grade.” She recognizes this could be frustrating for teachers to get used to.

She says, “It’s awkward and frustrating now but it will become a part of everyday life soon.” Mrs. Volosin understands the frustration but is confident that staff and students will be able to become familiar with the program. 

While most staff members had time to practice with Genesis since the beginning of last spring, Mrs. Pottheiser, who is in charge of attendance, could not get familiar with the system until Genesis went live and students were already in the school. Like most of her colleagues, she is facing difficulties at the moment, however, she believes there is hope for improvement. 

“I’m told that in 6 months I’m never going to want to go back to PowerSchool,” she said. One of the positive aspects of Genesis for her is interacting more with her colleagues. Previously with PowerSchool, this was not the case as communication happened through email. 

Despite rumors spread amongst students that Genesis replaced PowerSchool due to it being cheaper, Dr. Corbett explains that the true reason behind this switch is to share the same platform with the majority of schools in New Jersey. Although not everyone agrees, the administration believes it is valid reasoning to change the system. Since Genesis is a local company,  it is easier to fix in case of a technical issue. This was not the case for PowerSchool, as it’s a national company. Another important advantage of Genesis is that it makes state reporting a lot easier. “Genesis has everything built-in, this makes it a lot less time-consuming for the people who turn the data in.” State reports aren’t done in school or something that parents or students have to worry about but are required and are easier with Genesis. 

Throughout the school, the rollout of Genesis has affected everyone.