This school year, the Gunn administration has implemented several schoolwide initiatives designed for greater accuracy and efficiency, including the Digital Hall Pass system, shifting PRIME and Study Hall scheduling to Infinite Campus and adjusting the PAUSD guest Wi-Fi network.
As part of the Digital Hall Pass system, students must now scan their student ID barcode or manually type in their ID number into a Chromebook connected to Infinite Campus to record their attendance at the start of class. Students also must digitally sign in and out of class for bathroom and water breaks, replacing the physical hall pass that was used in previous years. Plans to add new campus destinations to the computers, such as the nurses’ office, are in progress, according to information The Oracle received during an admin press conference at the beginning of the year.
According to Assistant Principal Erik Olah, the system aims to track students who are out of class with more accuracy. When a student signs out to use the restroom or get water, they are given seven minutes to come back to class and are automatically timed. Supervisors can also track who has signed out and follow up if the timer expires.
“For students that miss a lot of class, (we) can actually pull data, and it’s all in the system,” he said.
Select classes piloted the system last April, with some teachers raising concerns about the technical aspects. These issues were addressed before the school year, according to Olah, and he along with site techs Chris Munoz and Zamir Zamora worked to apply the system in every classroom.
According to French teacher Julia Angeles, admin members trained teachers on the use of the scanner during professional development.
“I’m using (the) Digital Hall Pass right now for passes, not for attendance in the morning,” she said. “So far, that has been working well for me.”
Rolling out the setup wasn’t initially flawless, though. According to Olah, during the first few days that the Digital Hall Pass was implemented, there were hurdles if the computer wasn’t set up correctly.
“If (a teacher) doesn’t realize they had attendance on, and one kid signs out to go to the bathroom, (the computer) marks everybody absent,” he said.
Additionally, PRIME and Study Hall sign-ups moved from FlexiSCHED to Infinite Campus. FlexiSCHED’s inability to sync with students who are out of class with more accuracy. When a student signs schedules on Infinite Campus required teachers to take attendance on both interfaces manually last year.
“Ultimately, with both (PRIME and Study Hall), getting everything on Infinite Campus is the goal, so it should all be (working) long-term,” Olah said.
For junior Chloe Coponen, the first week of adjusting to the new method of signing up for PRIME and Study Hall classes presented an initial challenge.
“I feel like a lot of people forget that they’re assigned to a certain PRIME where they can’t switch it easily,” she said.
Another updated system was the PAUSD guest Wi-Fi. Assistant Principal Harvey Newland says that the Wi-Fi network was fixed in the summer due to students and staff auto-connecting whenever near a Palo Alto campus. The adjustment also now requires personal laptops and phones to log in every 24 hours.
“There were thousands of devices that were occupying this space in the servers as IP address leases,” Newland said. “We got rid of those and then consolidated the networks to the one (for) Chromebooks.”
