Presenters

Eric Schaitel

Eric has been working with PowerSchool at Marcia Brenner Associates since 2009 focusing on PowerSchool customization, state reporting, and plugin development.  He is the developer responsible for popular plugins such as Customization Documentation, Report Card Creator, Fees Plugin, and Adaptive Scheduler.  Eric has participated in over 35 PowerSchoool users’ group events as an instructor over the last 8 years.

Roger Sprik

Roger grew up in Puerto Rico, went to college in Michigan, and then started a career in California as a Spanish teacher. Formerly at Valley Christian Schools, he is now the full-time PowerSchool Administrator for Green Dot Public Schools in Los Angeles. He is a longtime and well-known member of the PowerSchool community through his contributions to PSUGCal.org, authorship of the mobile web pages, frequent posts on community forums, and presentations at PSUGs in the United States and internationally. While Roger is incredibly knowledgeable about all aspects of PowerSchool, his specialities are customization, GPAs, and SQL-based Reporting. When not hacking PowerSchool, Roger loves to spend time with his family, playing guitar, and volunteering.

Romy Backus

Romy leads the Middle East & Africa PSUG and has been part of the PowerSchool SIS world since 2010. She’s currently the Student Information Systems Specialist at the American School of Dubai and was previously PowerSchool Coordinator at Zurich International School in Switzerland. Apart from founding the European PSUG in 2012 and organizing annual conferences since then across Europe and the Middle East, she also trains regionally and nationally in the United States. She contributes to the online forums, maintains a number of published customizations on PowerSource Exchange, serves on PowerSchool’s Global and MENA Customer Advisory Boards, and enjoys working closely with international schools around the world to represent their voice to PowerSchool product managers and create connections with the wider community.

Vance Allen

Vance has worked in all areas of computers since 1994 and has been a PowerSchool Administrator since 2012 in districts between 1,500 and 10,000 students in size. His PowerSchool expertise includes advanced customizations, building automated data extracts, leading the PowerSchool’s Idaho State Reporting Focus Group, and much more. He moderates the Idaho Education Technology Association’s PowerSchool forum and actively participates on the international PowerSchool Users Group forum. He has presented PowerSchool topics at several conferences and has consulted for districts throughout Idaho and across the United States. Vance was selected as PowerSchool’s 2020 Champion of the Year.

Jason Springel (PowerSchool)

Jason Springel is the PowerSchool Evangelist of Insider Screencast fame and has been assisting schools with their technology needs in a variety of roles for the past 25 years at Apple, Pearson, and PowerSchool, and uses that experience to provide guidance and leadership to help shape future product development. Jason delights in meeting and working with customers and educators at user group conferences and other events, where he has become a well-known speaker. Jason has been a fan and user of PowerSchool since 1999, and feels privileged to officially represent the product.


Kerry Ferrara (PowerSchool)

Kerry is the Senior Director of International Customer Experience and will be joining us to represent PowerSchool and meet with customers.

Mohammed Essam

Essam will be teaching a session on APEX (Enterprise Reporting). He has been working at the intersection of technology and K–12 education since 2009, with a focus on driving digital transformation in schools. His journey with PowerSchool began in 2018, and in 2021 he was appointed PowerSchool Lead for one of the largest K–12 education institutions in the region. Currently, he serves as the EdTech Operations Administrator and PowerSchool Lead at Maarif Education.

Ken Simonds (remote)

Ken Simonds is the Data Analytics Specialist at the American School of Dubai. He will be presenting two sessions on Google Looker Studio and Data Dashboards at ASD.

Raelyn Wallock (remote)

Raelyn is Implementation Specialist at MBA. She will be presenting a session on MBA Plugins.