Technology Overview

Welcome to Newburyport Public Schools!

Newburyport Public Schools is a Google Suite for Education district. You have access to all of the tools provided in G Suite, including Gmail for your school email, Google Classroom, Google Meet, and many others. Whenever possible, you are encouraged to use these tools with staff and students. You can find information and training on Google's Teacher Center.

Students all have access to the G Suite as well, providing them with the same tools available to you, with some exceptions. For example, the district decided to not grant access to email for students in K-4th grade.

We use a Single Sign-On (SSO) service for school accounts, which syncs usernames and passwords across multiple applications throughout the district. In effect, you have a single account for most services, with some exceptions. For example, your computer login, G Suite, Destiny, and Microsoft Office 365 all use the same account information.

First Day

After you arrive and get settled, please log into your new account. Traditionally, your username is your first initial and last name. For example, John Smith’s username would be jsmith. Your password is identical to your username for this initial login. When you log in, you will see a message telling you to change your password. This password is entirely your choice, but please choose a secure password that someone will not be able to guess. Your account is vulnerable to the whole world and the only thing securing it is your password. We recommend you visit...

https://howsecureismypassword.net

...and check how long it would take a standard desktop computer to crack your password.

If you are unable to access your account, you can unlock it or reset your password from any web web browser using our SSO portal. Instructions are located on the How To Reset Your School Account Password page.

In the Google Suite, you can also turn on “two step verification.” This will send you a text message every time a new computer tries to access your account giving you the opportunity to deny it.

The next item on your list is to log in into your Google Suite environment and agree to Google’s “terms and conditions.” The quickest way to sign in is visit our Single Sign on Page.

http://sso.newburyport.k12.ma.us

To make your day more productive we suggest you use Google Chrome as your default browser. If you sign into Chrome with your school Google account all of your bookmarks, saved passwords, extensions etc. are synced with your GSuite account. It will also negate the need to sign in every time you wish to check mail, calendars etc. If you choose to sign into chrome on a new device (ie home computer, laptop) all of your information will be brought down and synced across all devices.

Mailing Lists

To simplify communication each school has its own mail group. To send an email to everyone in a building, address an email to the group and all will receive it. The groups are:

Bresnahan: ftbstaff@newburyport.k12.ma.us
Molin: upperele@newburyport.k12.ma.us
Nock: middle@newburyport.k12.ma.us
High: high@newburyport.k12.ma.us
Central: central@newburyport.k12.ma.us

These groups can be used by anyone in the district but drop all mail from outside. For example, a teacher at the High School can email the Bresnahan School but a parent cannot use these lists. If an outside person/group wants to use these lists, they need to send an email to someone inside the district and have it forwarded. There are many groups setup by buildings, teachers admins that you can find in the…

Address Book

Every account in the district is in your address book. Begin typing the name in the “To” box and a search will begin. When you see the right account click on the name and the “To” box will be filled in.

Students are also present in the address book. To differentiate between students and teachers they have different domain names. All staff have accounts that end in @newburyport.k12.ma.us and all students end in @newburyportschools.com. Also MOST (not all) student account names end with the year of graduation. John Smith’s as a student would have an account similar to jsmith21@newburyportschools.com. When addressing emails look out for the domain name and that grad year.

Follett Aspen X2

For security purposes, usernames and passwords are maintained inside Aspen. There is no syncing between accounts. Usernames and passwords will be given out separately. To request info please use our Ticketing system.

How To Get Help

We have an automated ticketing system that will contact everyone in the tech department to ensure the fastest service. Emailing a technician directly can result in delays if the tech is out of the district, working on another problem etc. To get help please submit a ticket through our NPS Technology Helpdesk.

While you can submit a ticket without signing into our helpdesk, we recommend using the Google login option and signing in with your district email. This will allow you to track the status of your tickets, submit updates, etc, without anything getting lost in your inbox.

When submitting a ticket, please tell us what the issue is, being descriptive as possible. Include any error messages and any troubleshooting steps you might have performed. Also, include what room you are in and what time you are available for support. Submitting a ticket and then entering a parent meeting or leaving for a half day will result in the techs having to visit you more than once. To maximize our technician’s time we try to prevent as many return trips as possible.

Often we can fix problems remotely so even if you don’t see a technician keep an eye out for emails and messages from the helpdesk. They could be requests for more information, a request for you to perform a task such as rebooting the computer, or notification that your problem was solved.

If you need immediate support, our number is: 978-465-4440 ext. 5555. We do, however, recommend using our ticketing system in 99% of cases, as this will ensure the entire department sees your request and that it can be quickly directed to the right person.