By TJ Ford
Arts Editor
Despite technological issues with PowerSchool in the past, the new PowerScheduler System to be used for the 2014-15 school year enrollment promises to improve the current system.
This school year, Mira Costa switched to PowerSchool. The program initially had problems with enrollment and accessing grades at the close of the first semester. However, PowerSchool’s inconsistency is on the decline due to constant software updates.
Direct registration for courses is traditionally done with the help of guidance counselors. Counselors input desired classes into generic portals while meeting with students. However, online enrollment is planned for the 2014-15 school year. Enrollment will begin on April 14, with two days allotted for students in each grade level to register. This forward-thinking measure to prevent a server crash during online enrollment will prove to be beneficial to the process by streamlining the system.
PowerScheduler, PowerSchool’s cousin, aims to eliminate the guess-work of the class-sorting process. Because the master schedule will be designed electronically, instead of hand-organized, more classes will likely be more efficiently available in that the system could organize the schedule so that popular courses do not conflict. For instance, clashing periods of AP classes that are currently only available during certain periods could be organized so that the needs of most students are met in terms of desired courses and teacher availability.
According to Costa Vice Principal Ian Drummond, one of the reasons for this switch is to maximize the percentage of students who are given their desired courses in their final schedules. The automated system is designed to balance the teachers’ needs for preparatory periods and courses they wish to teach with students’ desired courses, along with the number of periods in each subject area. This innovative scheduling could only benefit the entire Mira Costa population as a whole.
In addition to solving some problems in the trial-and-error work in terms of creating the master schedule, the system will consequently streamline the registration process as a whole. The time saved by the new automated system could allow for better utilization of the already-limited time guidance counselors and students have for meeting.
This will enable conversations between students and counselors to center around more meaningful subject matter. For instance, students’ placement into certain levels of courses could be discussed for better understanding of credit fulfillment needs. According to Drummond, this could herald an era of both increased administrative efficiency and more personal encounters between guidance counselors and their students.
However, for now, the new policy and software only applies to regular school year registration. Summer school registration will be completed online through the MBX portal, though both will open at different times for each grade level to avoid server overloads. Manual input of the information from MBX will be placed into PowerSchool afterward to record course credit.
As for PowerScheduler, seniority will determine which students have priority for which classes and enrollment periods will follow, along with the new rolling registration policy. With an intense amount of foresight and preemptive action, the first run of this new technology could be a win for all affected individuals.
The new enrollment system is incredibly promising and demonstrates foresight in the administration. It promises closer guidance counselor and student relationships and a more accommodating master schedule.
Leave a Reply