For the upcoming school year, State High students will be experiencing a different scheduling process than before. This change comes with the addition of PowerSchool, which replaces the Synergy system that operated class scheduling last year.
State High Counselor and Coordinator Beth Burnham explained the reason for the switch.
“We have a lot of people behind the scenes that [scheduling is] their job and they do that, and they were really frustrated with our previous system, Synergy, because it wasn’t—it couldn’t do the things that they wanted it to do or what PowerSchool can do,” Burnham said. “Like run the reports and do other things that they wanted Synergy to do. So it’s supposed to be more streamlined.”
One of the most prominent aspects of scheduling in PowerSchool and Synergy is that students choose alternate courses for electives in case their first choices are unable to be scheduled.
“I like choosing the alternates because then if you don’t get like your classes, you still have a couple classes that you like but they’re not necessarily your favorite,” State High freshman Reagan Dare said.
Although PowerSchool offers this option in the scheduling process, requests that students make are less flexible if they want to make scheduling changes later in the year.
“I just don’t like things that are set in stone, I guess. I mean, like, what if I make a wrong decision and then I’ll regret that for the rest of my life,” Delta freshman Lily Hoy-Maruschak said.
This process adds extra challenges for Delta students, who don’t get a matrix with their class times until May. “I liked [with the Synergy system] how we could see the exact time, like the exact blocks last year, and how that way you could get like, a good schedule so you didn’t have to run back and forth between State High and Delta all day,” Hoy-Maruschak said.
The actual process of entering classes began last week, when counselors met with current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors to explain the new system and answer questions.
Burnham believes the change will ultimately be beneficial for students.“I feel as if the students are going to get more of what they want, what they requested,” Burnham said. “So the way the scheduling system runs, it goes off a student’s interests and what they want to take. So for example, let’s say, 200 students want to take [Language of Medicine], then the computer will tell us, you need this many sections of this class, because this is how many students want it, you know. So if only 50 students wanted [Language of Medicine], that’s obviously a lot less sections. So it just helps us prepare and figure out how many sections we need for each subject area.”
Although most of the transition has been smooth, there have been some rough spots.
“I just think it was organized well, but the only thing that I thought was a little bit difficult was like the PE and Driver’s Ed, because you have to email your counselor, if you’re doing it virtually and you can’t just like click it. They have to do it for you, which I thought was a little difficult,” Dare said.
Burnham made an important point by mentioning some of the issues with PowerSchool anytime there is change it takes some getting used to.
“Honestly, just working out the glitches for the first year and with, uh, like some classes changing like grade levels of what students can take,” Burnham said. “So we had to work out those glitches to make sure things were streamlined. So it’s just when you have a new system, there’s going to be hiccups that you have to work out.”
Hoy-Maruschak still has some doubts. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to just let a machine do all your scheduling because there’s probably going to be so many weird schedules next year,” Hoy-Maruschak said.
The students of State High will have to see how their schedules pan out in early June. However, the decision was made with the well-being of the State High community in mind.
“The higher-ups that choose the systems, they felt as though this was an easier system to work with and that it does more than our previous system,” Burnham said.
