With La Cañada High School quickly assimilating to the technological world, there are bound to be bumps along the road, but on September 20th, the system took a huge crash. This year’s administrators had the idea to do the STEP signup process through email instead of having physical sign up sheets that has been used in the past years. The email system was noticeably less reliable, contributing to students being enrolled in STEP classes that they either didn’t sign up for or not getting STEP classes at all.
“This was the first time we tried [the system]. Next time we’ll probably release the forms earlier. The old system where they put them on the wall we noticed there were issues where names were crossed out. We wanted a system that was more accurate.” Dr. Jonathan Lyons said.
Some students who filled out the registration just a few hours after the email was sent out were not able to get any of the STEPs that they were signed up for. To fix their schedules, they went during STEP period, with some unlucky students waiting almost all the way through lunch. A line of hundreds of students formed at the attendance office, stretching almost to some of the booths that were set up outside of the North Gym for Club Day. The students had to stand in the sun for hours, missing out on lunch time and the chance to check out interesting clubs.
“I signed up for STEP right when I received the notification.” Julie Chyun (11) says. Despite this, “It took me an entire STEP period and halfway through lunch just to fix it. The limited information released and the last minute emails detailing the process was a mess not just for students but probably for the teachers and counselors. Maybe more organization for next year will help run things smoothly.”
The new system that was used was ultimately unsuccessful and caused several issues that would not have happened through the simple clipboard method that has been used for the past years. What is also questionable is the fact that some students were not able to get into STEP classes that normally don’t get an extreme amount of traffic, making it hard to explain why some students were assigned to unwanted homeroom classes. Furthermore, homeroom classes designated for certain grade levels were populated with students who were not in that grade. The lack of organization with the newly tried system resulted in great discomfort among the students. It brings to question what to expect in the future and makes students hope that they will not have to deal with the issue next year.
“Any time we do scheduling there are schedule changes that are made. It’s never going to be 100% perfect. The second time we go through something, it is more ingrained in the fabric.” Dr Lyons said, hinting at a better showing of the system in future years.
Photo courtesy of Brooke Steele-Nicholson
