Those who've been following the recent discussion thread on open source MIS systems will be pleased to learn of the release of SchoolTool v1.0 after what developer Tom Hoffman describes as a long and winding road, stretching back to 2000.

SchoolTool, whose development has been supported by the Shuttleworth Foundation, is a web-based, open source, student information system and calendar server designed for primary and secondary schools worldwide. The goal of the project is for a simple, turnkey system. Today's version 1 release supports demographics, gradebook, attendance, calendaring (inlcuding timetables and resource booking) and reporting. With a well documented API and modular architecture, it should be possible for other developers to customize SchoolTool to local requirements and add in extra functionality, as well as supporting integration with other web-based tools. There are more details of the feature list at http://book.schooltool.org/htmlhelp/features.html

SchoolTool is released under the GPL v2, and is buit in Python on Zope 3, with internationalisation already in place via Launchpad's Rosetta service. It's a three step install on Ubuntu Linux.

Tom and his team are commited to continued, brisk development prior to a number of scheduled deployments for the next academic year, and are keen that "schools, service providers, government agencies, vendors, hackers and other interested parties" have the chance to test, use, deploy and offer feedback on SchoolTool over the next few months.

There's already been some discussion on the SchoolForge UK MIAS list.