This is our third year for Lumen, too. I don't know why it has to be so complicated. When I first came to the district, I bought my own gradebook program since the district didn't use one. I bought it over the Internet, and I didn't have instructions, although I'm sure there was customer service/help if I needed it. The point is--I didn't need instructions! It was so easy, I could use common sense to use it. It even had online parent access!
With Lumen, we started using it one year when I taught summer school. I was on the phone with Lumen nearly every day of summer school...
And why can't all of the reports be in the same place for crying out loud?!! And why does it sometimes just get stuck on something, such as attendance?!! And why does it update to make it more complicated, like right around the times grade are due?!!
I hear it has features that make it easy to send info to DESE, but I find it hard to believe that anything is easy about it.