This is the fourth year my district has used the online application system. The first and second year, there were a lot of ... unexpected consequences ... of things the Magnet Office asked the system to do - some good, and some very not.
Now, however, the system has relatively few problems. Coordinators that have been using the system for awhile know that action A causes result B. Of course, the Magnet Office continues to tweak things, and that has a ripple effect, but most of the regular / mundane processes go off without a hitch. Except when they don't ...
Me: Hey, I think we have a problem.
Magnet Office: What happened?
Me: The twin-sharing-a-lottery-number feature doesn't seem to be working.
Magnet Office: Send us some names and IDs and we will look into it.
Me: Check your email.
Aftermath: Sure enough, parents that opted for their twins to share a lottery number were not actually sharing the lottery number. It took Magnet a while to hook them all and get them correctly placed (which meant, to be most fair, moving them up the waitlist to the twin that got the better lottery number). Which, of course, resulted in a ton of phone calls wanting to know why some other child had been moved backwards on the waitlist. -- Sometimes making the system work as advertised means taking the heat from disappointed parents.
Now, however, the system has relatively few problems. Coordinators that have been using the system for awhile know that action A causes result B. Of course, the Magnet Office continues to tweak things, and that has a ripple effect, but most of the regular / mundane processes go off without a hitch. Except when they don't ...
Me: Hey, I think we have a problem.
Magnet Office: What happened?
Me: The twin-sharing-a-lottery-number feature doesn't seem to be working.
Magnet Office: Send us some names and IDs and we will look into it.
Me: Check your email.
Aftermath: Sure enough, parents that opted for their twins to share a lottery number were not actually sharing the lottery number. It took Magnet a while to hook them all and get them correctly placed (which meant, to be most fair, moving them up the waitlist to the twin that got the better lottery number). Which, of course, resulted in a ton of phone calls wanting to know why some other child had been moved backwards on the waitlist. -- Sometimes making the system work as advertised means taking the heat from disappointed parents.
