TJ Brayboy

Achievement & Support Coordinator, (ASC) Chris Nordstrom, checks in with students in the hallway Oct. 10. He has worked closely with the implementation of SmartPass at Park.

Recently, Park implemented a new “Smart Pass” system – I believe it was a complete failure. It’s a method of hall passes through student and teacher computers. This can be troublesome for many students at Park and feel like a hassle for teachers.

The reason for switching from physical passes to an online system is unclear. Park covered it briefly in Park Connections last year, but most students I’ve talked to don’t understand why. The biggest reason is safety purposes; there were a lot of problems in the past with students leaving class to do things they weren’t supposed to. Park staff felt that smart passes would allow for better organization and let the hall monitors keep better track of students.

In my experience, the smart passes are not meeting the expectations that were set. Students can still leave class without a pass, and monitors still don’t know where everyone is. Teachers forget to end passes constantly, making it look like a student is still out and doesn’t let the monitors know if someone is past their limit. The passes also set time limits on doing things. For example, students get four minutes to use the restroom. The set time is non-adjustable and there are often variables, like closed or overpopulated bathrooms. It’s also very common that a student’s Chromebook is dead or they forgot it somewhere. In these cases, the student typically has to wait for passing time if they need to go to the bathroom and still be expected to make class on time. Teachers have to stop lessons to find their computers and accept the pass, and there are plenty of other minor difficulties that should not be necessary to get a pass.

The old passes allowed students to feel more comfortable going to the bathroom or leaving class for whatever they needed to do. They caused less trouble and made things operate smoothly in class. If kids were caught abusing the passes, there would be consequences set for them. For example, if a kid were walking around the hallways for a while, they would typically be noticed by a teacher.

Another reason we switched to Smart Passes was to make sure students don’t roam the hallways or waste time outside of class. When the teachers forget to end a pass it looks the same to the monitors which basically negates that purpose of the smart passes. Having teachers constantly needing to keep track of passes takes away from a student’s learning and the flow of teaching.

The old passes were good because they taught kids responsibility. If a student left class for a while and had the freedom to waste their time, they would see its effect on their grades and their peers. If a student wasted time using a pass, their classmate might be waiting to use the pass. Hopefully, this would teach students to grow and change their habits.

In conclusion, there were plenty of reasons for switching to Smart Passes but I think most of them either didn’t work out or could be solved in other ways. I think switching back to physical passes would greatly benefit Park.