High school students in the Everett School District are tailoring their course schedules with the help of the Internet.
This is the third year of online registration in Everett Public Schools, one of two districts that still use the computer program.
Online registration lets students have more control over their class schedule while giving them the flexibility of signing up at home or while on vacation.
After pre-registering for classes last spring, giving the school the information it needed to create a master schedules, students now are crafting their final schedules with updated course times and teacher lists.
“It’s nice to pick out what classes you want and what periods and teachers,” said Shavaun Tegman, 16, who will be a junior at Everett High School when classes start Sept. 7.
It’s first-click, first-served – meaning many teens wake up earlier than usual on their registration day to get the classes they want.
Even then, there’s no guarantee.
Despite getting to a friend’s house by 8 a.m. and managing to log on to the clogged Web site a half-hour later, Tegman was unable to get into a leadership class she wanted. Instead, she’ll take physical education and “get it out of the way.”
And even though Everett High School senior Calinda Davis, 18, was in the part of the class to get first dibs, she set her alarm clock early.
“I was surprised. In one of the classes in the period I got, about a half-hour to an hour later there were only two seats left. So I was glad I got up early,” Davis said.
Only Everett’s three high schools and Sultan High School still use the free program, called Bolero, which was created by former Arlington High School teacher Jim Bassett.
A company that many schools use to manage student data stopped importing Bolero data, prompting a return to other methods, Bassett said.
Bassett also created Basmati, a program used by many schools that lets students and parents keep track of grades and assignments online. The free program has been picked up by schools across the country, and Bassett just signed up a new client in Australia.
Now working full-time in Arlington’s technology department, Bassett said he came up with Bolero about six years ago after watching students line up for mass class registrations in a gym.
“I noticed kids would stand in line for 20 minutes, get up to the front of the line and then see the class they wanted is closed. I figured there has to be a better way to do that,” he said.
The online program allowed one Everett High School student this year to register while on vacation in Australia, Principal Catherine Matthews said. There’s not as much flexibility for school staff, however.
For example, Matthews was up until 11:30 p.m. Monday, using her own computer to help students arrange their schedules. “There’s no perfect and simple way to register 1,650 kids,” she said.
Cascade High School Principal Jim Dean said he enjoys watching students scramble to get onto the system, saying, “Oh, it’s open! Go, go, go!” Teens will talk to each other over cell phones, trying to get into the same classes, he said.
“It’s the same game we played in college,” Dean said.
“Most kids do end up getting what they want,” he added. “They may not get the teacher they want or the order of classes they want or get with their buddies.”
As with many computer programs, there are some glitches. This year, some families had trouble downloading software needed to run the program. Everett high schools open their computer labs on registration days for students who don’t have a computer or want help.
Mallorie Starkenburg, 16, didn’t trust her freeze-prone machine at home, so she came into the lab early Monday and was glad she did.
“I thought it’d be a quick and easy thing, but the principal had to do it for me because I logged in, but then it wouldn’t let me schedule my classes,” the junior said.
Melissa Slager is a writer for The Herald in Everett.
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