Bug Means High School Students' Schedule Errors May Last Days 443
Hugh Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that thousands of high school students in Prince George's County missed a third day of classes Wednesday, and school officials said it could take more than a week to sort out the chaos caused by a computerized class-scheduling system as students were placed in gyms, auditoriums, cafeterias, libraries and classes they didn't want or need at high schools across the county and their parents' fury over the logistical nightmare rose. 'The school year comes up the same time every year,' said Carolyn Oliver, the mother of a 16-year-old senior who spent Wednesday in the senior lounge at Bowie High School. 'When I heard they didn't have schedules, I was like, "What have they been doing all summer?"' When school opened Monday, about 8,000 high school students had no class schedules and were sent to wait in holding spaces while administrators tried to sort things out." (More below.)
Schedules are important. (Score:5, Funny)
Class scheduling is hard work, yo! (Score:4, Funny)
I remember talking to the admin at one of the colleges I attended. We asked them how they did their scheduling. The rumor was that the Dean would lock himself in a hotel room with a map of the school, the student list, the course catalog, and the teacher list, and 3 bottles of whiskey for a long weekend.
After which, he would take a weeks vacation while everyone marveled over the new schedules.
-Rick
I know who's to blame... (Score:1, Funny)
Damn you, COBOL!!!!
Re:Can't do it by hand (Score:3, Funny)
but it's so much more exciting to give them $4mil and pray it works the day it goes live, untested.
Solution (Score:4, Funny)
Send the programmers and administrators to detention!!
Holding spaces? (Score:1, Funny)
When school opened Monday, about 8,000 high school students had no class schedules and were sent to wait in holding spaces while administrators tried to sort things out."
Mooooooo...
Re:School doesn't work like you think. (Score:2, Funny)
So what your saying is if the job is too hard, don't worry about it till the last minute? To me its just another poor example left by the peers of our future. Next they will all go on strike for poor working conditions...
Re:Class scheduling is hard work, yo! (Score:3, Funny)
I think my university computing department had (has?) a Prolog script to do the scheduling, but I don't know if it was seriously used or not.
I assume you gave it some inputs (room sizes, class sizes, lectures required, etc) and then spent a week trying to work out why it wasn't giving the right result. But maybe that's just my Prolog :-D
Re:This is high school? (Score:5, Funny)
My high school had sewing and piano, those classes were held on Thursdays (aka "foie gras and caviar day" at the cafeteria, between yachting class and equestrianism.
Ha, actually I am a proud product of the New York City public school system, where we counted ourselves lucky if the history books were published late enough to let us know when WW2 ended.
Re:What have they been doing all summer (Score:5, Funny)
RON PAUL is always relevant.
Re:Schedules are important. (Score:4, Funny)
I guess reading the summary is hard
It's not his fault. The government also screwed up his schedule so he couldn't take reading 101.
Re:Schedules are important. (Score:3, Funny)
No, no, no. On the internet you must say "your a moron". It's like a natural law or something. Get with the program!
Re:Happened in Dallas ISD too (Score:4, Funny)
This reminds me of where I went to high school. They sent you through a metal detector, and if you didn't have a gun, they gave you one.
Re:Send the kids home? (Score:3, Funny)
Touché. And you are only in 78 minutes after someone posted how to get Slashdot to render it.
Re:Class scheduling is hard work, yo! (Score:3, Funny)
>If I recall correctly, the scheduling problem (or at least some
>variants of it) is NP-complete.
Phew. That means that there is no hope of it accidentally summoning Yog Sothoth.
Re:Big deal (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Send the kids home? (Score:1, Funny)