Dear High School Families,

Thank you for your understanding, persistence, and patience during our first ever, district-wide, online registration process.  Our intent behind going electronic has been to provide 24/7 convenience for families and to free up limited school resources such as staff time for classroom-centered work as opposed to administrative tasks. Because of your diligence, we have confirmed 95-percent of our high-school enrollment, logged almost 2,000 payment transactions, and heard back from the PTSA and Issaquah Schools Foundation that membership and contribution numbers are strong.

This being the launch of a fairly complex process, however, we acknowledge that families encountered problems and experienced frustrations. I apologize and want to let you know that we are listening to your concerns and are already working to make this a better, more efficient, more user-friendly process before next summer.

From the high schools and through direct conversation with parents, we have heard that these are some of the main areas of frustration:

·         Online payment: The payment function was sluggish to the point of logging users out or not loading; parents had trouble with log-on and password; specific items to purchase were not available or parents were unclear on what to purchase; automatic receipts were not produced; and there were some processing irregularities.

·         Family Access: The system logged users off too frequently; parents had confusion about who the primary guardian was and why only one family member could access the registration process; it wasn’t clear that users had to click the check boxes to move on in the process; the interface was generally not user-friendly or intuitive.

·         Forms: The forms were non-printer friendly; it would be much easier to have forms that can be submitted electronically.

·         Support: Families needed a clearer statement that the traditional option for payment was still available with the bookkeeper’s hours of availability listed.

·         More clarity on who to call, and how to talk to someone when it was not working.

This feedback has been very helpful. Much of it we tried to troubleshoot during the registration window—doing such things as migrating the payment system to a new server—and all of it we will take into consideration for next year.  If you have comments you do not see reflected above that will help us improve the process, please contact my office at 425-837-7050 or leonardj@issaquah.wednet.edu. 

Finally, I want to thank the secretarial staff at each high school that provided the interface to help families make their way through the registration process when necessary.   Their effort to overcome some of these problems was and is greatly appreciated.

We have heard you, and we will use your feedback to do better.

Sincerely,

—Patrick Murphy,

Executive Director of Secondary Schools

Note:  Although the online registration process is now closed, you may still get the required registration forms from the District website.  If you have not yet registered your high school student or if you still need registration assistance, please contact your school directly.