NEWS

Parsippany hopes to have new middle school schedules by ‘early October’

William Westhoven
@WWesthoven

Administrators in the Parsippany-Troy Hills School district hope to have a new permanent schedule in place for middle school students by “early October,” according to an update letter sent to parents on Wednesday.

Parsippany Troy-Hills Superintendent of Schools Scott E. Rixford during a school board meeting last year. He is currently out on a medical leave.

Acting superintendent Dr. Nancy Gigante, who previously announced the district would scrap its new eight-period schedule and return to a nine-period schedule, said the district staff is doing its best to accelerate the “intricate” process of building the new schedule and uploading it to the Genesis portal that can be accessed online by teachers and parents.

“We know that historically in our district this process has taken us about five weeks to complete,” Gigante wrote. “We had been given a similar estimate of time from Genesis. We are doing our best to complete all of this in much less time. And we are doing all of this for two middle schools. As it stands now, barring any unforeseen circumstances, I feel comfortable in changing my estimate of ‘sometime in October’ to ‘early October,’ specifically.”

Once an implementation date is set, the district warned parents it will have to shut down the Genesis portal to move the new schedule from a test server to the live server.

“This Genesis shutdown and the ensuing reopening of Genesis will be communicated to staff and parents in as much advance as possible,” Gigante wrote. “As always, we appreciate the patience of our parents and students with this frustrating situation and I continue to applaud the efforts of our teachers, counselors, administrators and technicians as we approach this solution as a team, and with all effort to do this as successfully and as quickly as possible.”

Middle school parents in Morris County’s largest public school district packed a Board of Education meeting on Sept. 10 to criticize the district after implementing the new eight-period schedule into Genesis, resulting in students at Brooklawn and Central middle schools spending the first two days of the school year in assemblies and group activities instead of classes.

Hard copy schedules were later issued to the students while Gigante took over the district after the abrupt departure of Superintendent Scott Rixford on a 30-day medical leave beginning Sept. 4, the second day of classes in Parsippany.

Until the new schedule can be implemented, Gigante said students will continue on the current schedule.

“Parents can expect what they have come to expect in the normally-running courses their children are enrolled in,” she wrote on Sept. 12. “For some students this means a full schedules of classes, core and elective. For some it may mean core classes and two, one, or no electives. For the classes students were successfully scheduled for, teachers will be instructing and assessing students and entering information into Genesis Gradebook as usual. Parents will be able to see how their child is progressing in that course as they always have.”

Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-917-9242; wwesthoven@GannettNJ.com.