Since its initial implementation last school year, SmartPass looks a little different for students and staff this school year. 

A common critique of the Smartpass system last year was the various scenarios in which the platform could be rendered unusable. Assistant Principal Ashley Kalfazade shared this as the main inspiration for the installation of kiosks in classrooms. 

“If you didn’t have your Chromebook charged or the teacher couldn’t figure out how to make a student’s pass, then you had to worry about how to do that,” Kalfazade said in regard to the general feedback garnered in SmartPass’s first year. 

Senior Abigail Fried, however, said she prefers the traditional paper pass system over the online system. 

“When I was a freshman, we would use our agenda books and we’d get a certain amount of passes per week signed by a teacher,” Fried said. “It was easier and less of an inconvenience for teachers.”

Freshman Charlotte Leetz also favors written passes.

“I think you need passes to know where the students are, but I personally liked writing on the paper. I think it just felt easier to me to do that,” Leetz said. “I do think the SmartPasses are definitely a little more organized though.”

Kalfazade is currently working with the technology department to smooth out connectivity issues. In addition to this, Kalfazade has been in contact with SmartPass’s team to work on implementing student and faculty suggestions into the app.

“I wish it allowed me to open and close rooms at certain times of the day, automatically,” Kalfazade said as one of the issues she’d like to address.

Another alteration to this year’s SmartPass system is the limitation of passes to certain locations in the school. Some students have expressed frustration with this change.

“I’m not the biggest fan, especially with how everything was upped this year,” Fried said. 

Despite Kalfazade’s concerns that students may see the new changes this year as micromanaging, she is hopeful that such changes could lead to improved student success. Kalfazade shared that upon reviewing the grades of students who were struggling in school, she found a correlation between their grades and the number of SmartPasses being requested to go to the bathroom. Kalfazade said she hopes the introduction of pass limits would benefit students the most. 

“I’m just excited that now we’re on year two of this, because year one was a lot to figure out, a lot of trial and error,” Kalfazade said, “and now I feel like we’re finally feeling a little bit of a smoother process at this point.”