Parsippany middle-schoolers receive schedules
Middle school students in Parsippany are back in class after receiving hard copies of the schedules the district was unable to provide them last week during the first two days of the school year.
“We will do this each morning so that students will be able to see up-to-the-minute accurate schedules while we make our ongoing changes,” the board of education wrote in a release sent to parents on Tuesday. “Students should report each morning to the same locations they did on Thursday and Friday (Sept. 3-4). At these locations, they will have attendance taken, receive hard-copy schedules and then move on to their classes.”
The district warned there would be continued adjustments to the online Genesis Parent Portal scheduling system, which was brought online Monday.
The scheduling problem, which did not affect other grades, surfaced last week as students reported to Brooklawn and Central middle schools, where the district implemented new period scheduling after the 2014-15 school year.
“We have been encountering challenges with our middle school student schedule (Genesis) over the past 10 days,” the district wrote in a letter sent to parents dated Sept. 1. “While we initially attempted to make corrections and apply fixes in real time, we could not and therefore needed to close that system. We have brought in Genesis experts for guidance and continue to rebuild student schedules for middle school students. However, with over 1,600 students involved this requires significant time to remedy. It is a most intricate and detailed process. We continue to appreciate your patience and apologize for this disappointing start to the middle school year.”
As many parents expressed anger over the problem, Brooklawn and Central schools spent their regularly scheduled half days on Thursday and Friday attending assemblies and required safety drills, participating in sports and recreation activities and breaking into groups for language arts, math, science and social studies.
Friday, the district announced that Superintendent Scott Rixford was taking a 30-day medical absence beginning that day.
“As best I can, I would like to assure you that our entire administrative team — from central office administrators to content area supervisors, to building administrators — understands your frustration with our middle school scheduling issue,” Assistant Superintendent Dr. Nancy Gigante, as acting superintendent, wrote to parents on Friday. “We are working hard alongside our dedicated counselors and technicians to remedy this before school resumes next week.”
Over the weekend, the district also sent an update to parents to clarify the nature of the problem with the Genesis Portal, which appeared to conflict with its original announcement about the scheduling problem.
“The issues we are having with our middle school schedules do not have anything to do with our student information system software, Genesis,” the update stated. “The design of the middle school schedule presented our district with various problems when it came time for implementation.”
Tuesday’s update from the district stated “The Genesis student information portal is fully working as expected. We have focused all of our resources on our students and their schedules.”
Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-917-9242; wwesthoven@GannettNJ.com.