BENTONVILLE — Scheduling problems persist at Bentonville High School but are improving, the principal said Wednesday.
Bentonville has had an unusually difficult time arranging students’ schedules correctly since the school year started Aug. 19. Chad Scott, principal, wrote in a letter last week the school was experiencing “significant problems” with eSchool, the state data management system through which schedules are managed.
Staff members are working through a process that involves getting students into the classes they need while also assuring classes don’t exceed the maximum number of students allowed by the state, Scott said Wednesday.
At A Glance
Enrollment
Bentonville High School had more than 4,200 students enrolled as of last week. Enrollment for the 2012-13 school year was 3,898.
Source: Staff Report
“We’re working on it very hard, but it’s been a slow process,” Scott said. “Our staff has been working some pretty long hours for what’s now going on two weeks.”
He couldn’t say how many students’ schedule change requests remain unaddressed.
Lisa Law said her daughter, a sophomore, just got her schedule settled Tuesday. Wednesday was her first day on her correct schedule. Before, she had been enrolled in only four of the eight classes she wanted. Her old schedule included a class she already had taken and passed, Law said.
“I know there are still plenty of people who don’t have (correct schedules),” Law said Wednesday.
Law said she thinks more could have been done to avoid the scheduling problems, especially if counselors had started more than a week before school started.
Scott said the date staff members returned from their summer break is not an issue. Counselors are on contracts with specific start and end dates, he said.
“But many of our counselors came up and started long before their contracts started,” he said. “We do what it takes here and work as much within reason to get the job done. That’s just the way our people are.”
The eSchool software, besides being used for scheduling, also tracks student demographics, medical issues, testing, grades and disciplinary issues, said Kimberly Friedman, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Education.
About half of Arkansas’ 239 school districts are using eSchool this year. Bentonville began using it last year. Other Northwest Arkansas districts on eSchool include Decatur, Gravette, Prairie Grove and Siloam Springs.
Siloam Springs began using eSchool this year. Connie Matchell, district curriculum director, said their only problem with it has been the usual challenges that come with learning new software.
“It has been slow at times, but the state (Department of Education) has been addressing that,” Matchell said. “It’s getting better all the time. We’ve gotten great support from the state.”
Gravette also is in its first year on eSchool. Julia Amos, registrar at Gravette Middle School, said eSchool’s speed is improving.
“Right now in the middle and high schools, all of our students have their schedules,” Amos said. “I like eSchool. Once we become more familiar with it, it will become much better.”
Bentonville is much larger than Gravette, which might explain why Bentonville High School is having more difficulties, Amos said.
Friedman said last week there were technical issues with eSchool that come with any wide-scale implementation of new software, but those issues were improving.
The state has been attentive to Bentonville’s issues with eSchool, Scott said.
“I feel like they’re doing everything they can,” he said. “It’s new territory for them with many new schools going on that system. I think they were caught by surprise and maybe had not planned for the capacity they were going to need for all of the schools being added this year.”