In an attempt to ease the transition from one school year to the next, Diamond Bar High School administrators are implementing a new process for class registration.

In past years, students were assigned Fall appointments with their GLCs through a raffle system.

Students were given colored cards and assigned dates based on the order in which the colors were called.

This year, students were able to register online through the SignUp Genius software, allowing students more flexibility when choosing their meeting appointments. For current juniors, signups began the week of April 3, followed by the other classes on a grade-by-grade basis.

“What we did before just seemed kind of crazy. We would get 800 people in the amphitheater, and we had a system for it, and it was organized, but this just seemed like eventually it would work better,” said Dave Desmond, one of the GLCs for the Class of 2018. “Before, you were just given a time, and we would try to avoid vacation times, but basically you were just given a time.”

According to technology coordinator Randy Thomas, plans to implement a new system have been in the works for several years due to the complexity and perceived inefficiencies of the old one.

Marc Natividad and Sonja Burns, Class of 2020 GLCs, recently led the push for the new system.

“The individuals that were involved, we met quite a few times, from September to October, up until [the week of March 27] , trying to make sure everything was ready to roll out,” Natividad said. “It was exhaustive, because we met a number of times on all of this.”

Despite minor problems, the system has not yet encountered major setbacks but will be fine-tuned for coming years.

“This was a way that we could open it up to everyone and say ‘here’s what is available, go ahead and try to choose your appointment,’ and you can change it online yourself. This is our first year doing it, so we’re ironing out some of the kinks, but I think it will work very well,” Thomas said.

SignUp Genius was chosen as the foundation for the new software due to its ability to handle a large database of students.

However, a problem arose when the system began using parent email addresses as the primary identification for the site, preventing administrators from setting up accounts for younger siblings.

While older students will be registering their siblings for appointment dates in person in front of the LINC, Thomas says he plans to use district-issued student Google email addresses in the future to prevent similar situations.

In addition, some students failed to receive notices about signups, which Thomas hopes to rectify by using the district-issued Google accounts.

Though students were given two days to register for appointment times, the window was reopened for those who were not able to sign up in time, as well as for students transferring in from other school districts.

“I’m still a little nervous about it. I’m kind of an old-school fellow, and I don’t like something that I don’t have complete control of,” Desmond said. “I’m nervous about something going wrong, like some old-school parents not knowing how to log on, but we’ve been working that out.”

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