It's not orientation, it's disorientation.
Today was orientation/meet your teacher day for Gwinnett County Schools. Although we have all survived the day physically unscathed, the mental condition of our family is under question.
Part of the problem is that orientation is only in the morning, and ended at noon. I have four kids. The oldest two needed to be at South Gwinnett High School, and one of the younger kids needed to be at Britt. The easiest solution seemed to be to park in the high school's parking lot, let the older kids walk across Skyland and do their high school orientation business themselves. While they did that, I would take the rising 2nd grader and his younger brother over to W.C. Britt Elementary.
What I can't figure out is why two old schools don't have registration/orientation running like a well-oiled machine. W.C. Britt Elementary School opened in Snellville in 1969. South Gwinnett High School opened in 1957. Every school year, each of these schools has been having registration and orientation.
It's less of a mess at WC Britt than it is at South Gwinnett. At Britt, I can see that many of the struggles are bureaucratic policies sent down from 'on-high' that the school just has to cope with. Some of the struggles are societal - getting parents to get involved and sign up for PTA. I had to go to about 4 different classrooms with my son today to figure out which 2nd grade class was his. That is because the school can no longer post the list of students and their teacher/class assignments on the door or wall anymore because of privacy issues. At first it seems over-the-top, but when you think about a non-custodial parent or a weirdo being able to know what child is in what class, you can see the safety problem that could cause. So that's okay.
South Gwinnett High School, on the other hand, has a lot of issues. You better go and get yourself a glass of tea. This is going to take a while, and here goes --
I think part of it is that there is no one main center of action - a main hub, if you will. There are so many buildings, and that makes it a management mess. They're dealing with construction right now, and that's adding to the confusion. My daughters experienced the confusion first hand this morning, and they were quite disgusted.
One daughter's teacher was supposed to be in the F Building, which she searched for quite a bit before she realized that F Building is just the new name for the E Building.
My other daughter's teacher's name was listed as S. Pritchett, but turned out to be Mr. Bell. Each student found locating her school schedule nearly impossible. One of my daughters did get her schedule from a teacher, but my other daughter didn't have such luck. Mr. Bell told my daughter that she could probably get her schedule in the Commons somewhere (the Commons is a large open area that is also used as the lunchroom). They checked out the tables in the Commons. None of them appeared to have schedules.
So, they went to the front desk. They stood in line, and when they explained that they needed to find out where to find their schedules, the lady looked confused, but suggested they try the "Help" table. So they went from one line to another. Finally, they reached the desk of the Help table.
The Help table person told them to try going to the Orchestra Room. When they arrived at the Orchestra Room, they were greeted by the longest line yet. After waiting in the non-moving line for awhile, my older daughter decided to give up on the schedule quest and go get a locker. Locker space goes fast.
When they rent their locker for $2, the student is given the locker number and combination but not what building or floor to find the locker. My daughters said they spent about 30 minutes searching for the locker. They ran into a friend who showed them to a classroom where a list was posted showing locker locations based on locker numbers. It said my daughter's locker was in D Hall, First Floor, but in reality, it was in C Hall.
I think what our kids are really learning at public school is how to deal with bureaucracy without descending into madness. My older daughter said, "I'm not really in favor of homeschooling, but on days like this, being home-schooled looks really, really good." My younger daughter said, "I can't believe they say Gwinnett is the best school system in Georgia." I feel sad to hear my kids say things like this - but, they are being honest and I'm pleased with how perceptive they are.
I think really what we need to do is stop cursing the darkness and light a candle. I really wish they wouldn't just keep adding on to SGHS - they need to rebuild a new school that has a layout and signs/wayfinding system that works, and administrators need to work to really get the registration/orientation to be a smooth process. What we have now is a mess, and this happens new school year after new school year. The public school I attended had a few thousand students, and I don't remember anything this disorganized happening. Nobody knows where to go, what to do, people just line up to be in a line - whether they know what the line is for or not!
Have you ever had a lot of junk and bought those clear shoe boxes and plastic bins to organize your stuff? It hardly ever works, because you really can't organize clutter. You have to clear the clutter and start over. I think South Gwinnett High School needs to start fresh. I wish they could build a new campus.
If wishes were candy...lol
How was your orientation day?
