Superintendent Apologizes for Class Schedule Screw Up

School system knew about the problem week before classes started

The superintendent of Prince George's County Public Schools apologized Thursday for the school system's false start this week.

About 8,000 high school students couldn't go to class when school opened Monday because they didn't have schedules.

"I want to offer my sincere apologies to the students, families and the staff of Prince George's County Public Schools for the inconvenience and disruption to the school year that this scheduling has imposed," Dr. William Hite said.

Those unscheduled students were sent to gyms, cafeterias and anywhere else with room for lives in limbo.

The school system knew about the problem a week before school started, officials said. They are blaming it on a $4 million computer system introduced last year called SchoolMax, which sorts the schedules, NBC4's Keith Garvin reported.

Dark Helmet was right: Even in the future nothing works.

"We are our reviewing our contract with SchoolMax to see if there are possible damages that can be recovered," Hite said. "We are implementing steps to ensure this problem is not repeated."

Fewer than 2,000 students lacked schedules as of Thursday. Some of them were given mock schedules so they can fake learn until their real schedules are produced, which may not be until next week.

Hite promised parents that their children's academic records will not be negatively affected by the fail.

"Let me assure those parents that their children will not be penalized," he said.

Because that would just be really cruel.

"This is our fault and your child is in no way responsible for an administration issue," Hite said.

The school system is taking measures to help kids who didn't have their schedules on time. Schools will offer additional instruction time in class, packets of condensed reviews for students to use in school and Saturday walk-in study sessions.

OK, now that is really cruel.

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