Class Scheduling Problems Still Have PG County Students Stranded

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VIA WASHINGTON POST:

More than 3,400 Prince George’s County high school students remained without class schedules at noon Wednesday as top school officials acknowledged rising parent fury over logistical problems that have plagued the first week of the academic year.

“We’re working to resolve it,” Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said at an afternoon news conference in Oxon Hill. “We appreciate the patience of the parents. We know this is difficult.”

When schools reopened Monday, about 8,000 of the county’s 41,000 high school students were shunted into gymnasiums, cafeterias and auditoriums because of problems with a computer system that left them without schedules. By Tuesday evening, that number was down to 4,000. On Wednesday, school officials were seeking to put the remaining students in classrooms even if their schedules were not finalized.

School officials attributed the difficulties to a new computer system, known as SchoolMax, but said late registrations and absences also contributed. “We are working as fast as we possibly can to correct the scheduling issues that happened on Monday,” county schools spokeswoman Tanzi West Barbour said Tuesday. “Our first priority is to have kids at school. Anything that stops us from doing that is a major concern.”

But figures released by the school system this afternoon showed widespread problems remained at the county’s 22 high schools: 425 students without schedules at DuVal High; 350 each at Eleanor Roosevelt and Suitland high schools; 300 at Parkdale High; 293 at Crossland High; and many others elsewhere. The total countywide stood at 3,415.

At Bowie High School, 100 were still out of class.

“We’ve just been sitting there,” said Deborah Kuranga, 17, a senior at Bowie High, who was still waiting for a schedule Wednesday morning. “Today they gave us stuff to do. . . . We had SAT prep, but most of us don’t even need it. I’ve already taken the SAT.” She said she was worried that the glitch would leave her behind classmates, particularly in advanced placement physics and statistics.