With the school year coming to a close, preparations for the 2010-11 year have begun, which includes online registration for students’ future classes.
In previous years, students have turned in slips of paper with their class preferences on them and relied on administration to construct a schedule for them.
This year, however, students will select their own classes by logging into PowerSchool and submitting their schedule preferences. The computer program will then create the schedules based on individual student needs, with limited work for administration to do.
Principal Todd Bennett says that the new software will reduce the amount of minor schedule changes, which consumed many hours in previous years.
“Last year, there was a need to change almost every student’s schedule in some way,” Bennett said. “I spent an average of four hours a day just making schedule changes. Having students register using PowerSchool will allow the computer program to formulate the most efficient schedule based on the students’ needs. I’m hoping there will be fewer conflicts and needs for schedule changes in the fall.”
IT director David Martens says the software does the work for administration, rather than having to do it manually.
“The software actually builds the schedule for us,” Martens said. “It takes into consideration all of the class requests, sets periods and finds out which teachers are available for it.”
While the change will not significantly affect the process for students, it will expedite the process for the administration.
“It won’t make the process any faster for students, but it will be much faster for the administration,” Bennett said. “In order to set a class schedule manually one would need to review every schedule request, student grades and transcripts to make sure the prerequisites have been met, and then match the student need with the number of teachers. It was a very involved process, but now the computer will take care of most of the work.”
Despite the improvements the software offers, Martens claims that constructing a schedule that works for everyone is still a challenge due to decreased enrollment for the 2010-11 year.
“The schedule will be pretty much locked in once it has been created, and because of the decreased enrollment, the classes are not going to be offered as many times as before,” Martens said. “So, instead of having three options for English, there may only be two. The reduced options makes creating schedules more difficult for students.”
While she has not actually registered yet, sophomore Julianne King feels the new system will be more effective.
“Before, I would always have to go in and talk to them personally since it was never right the first time,” King said. “Hopefully this year I won’t have to and this new system will work well. It seems like a very simple idea because once you do it you won’t have to worry about it anymore. It should be a cleaner, more organized way to get everyone’s class choices at one time.”
Freshman Dominic Mendoza says that the new system will make registering faster and benefit the future school year.
“I feel like it is much easier than the system we used last year, because last year the pencil I used didn’t work right and my registration sheet was misread so I had to go to the wrong classes for a few days,” Mendoza said. “I had to go in and fix my schedule several times, and I missed a lot classes because I was changing my schedule so much. This year they won’t be able to misread it, because it’s online.”
For more information about registering online, e-mail Bennett.
