HH rolled out a replacement for the HATS portal at the beginning of this year. And so far, it hasn’t been very smooth.

For starters, it crashed on the first day of official use. Granted, this is probably to be expected since it is a brand new system being implemented for the first time. In fact, assistant principal Mr. John Zuk explained why there are so many issues with the new system. He said, “The program’s functionality greatly exceeds the HATs portal. However, anytime you implement a new program there’s going to be bugs. The company that produces FlexTime Manager had to adapt their program specifically for HH’s system of red and black days. So there’s been a bit of complication with that.”

English teacher Mr. Drew Berchick says that although continues to be some glitches, FlexTime is still better than the HATs portal. He said that he sees more students using it because it’s easier, and that it encourages students to take ownership of where they are during HATs.

Mr. Zuk commends students for being so adaptable to the new system. He said, “Students have been awesome with it. They have done a great job with using it, unlike the HATs portal which was heavily disregarded.”

If students still have problems logging in, he said that’s a cache problem they can solve that by clearing their cache or using an incognito tab.

An issue that is slightly inconvenient is the rule that you cannot sign out for a teacher if you’re not on their roster. It makes sense that you would have to communicate with your teacher before coming to them for help, but what if you are studying during 3B HATS and have to go see your teacher during 3C?  Students should be able to select all of their teachers, but not all teachers had these rosters complete right away because of the problems with the system.

One advantage of FlexTime Manager is that there are several cutoff times for signing out. That way, if you realize in the middle of 3A or 3B HATS and you would like to see a teacher in the following period, you have the option to sign out during HATS, and not just before 10:15 a.m. Although this was also true of the HATs Portal, it is definitely more obvious this time around.

Students can sign up to see teachers or go to meetings during their lunch. However, one issue that they have been struggling with is when to buy lunch from the cafeteria. If students are not eating in the cafeteria during their lunch period, they are allowed to buy their lunch in the first 5-10 minutes of lunch. Students with yellow passes will not be permitted to enter the cafeteria in the middle of the period.

When it comes to the use of yellow passes, regulations have also been confusing. For students who need to spontaneously see a teacher, it is unclear whether their HATS teacher will allow them a yellow pass to do so. Some students, however, do not come back after being given a yellow pass. Some teachers won’t place you on their roster either, instead choosing to e-mail your HATS teacher that you were with them.

Mr. Zuk knows that these are issues and hopes that they will be remedied eventually. He discourages the use of yellow passes, but understands that they are needed in certain situations. Mr. Zuk said, “One of our goals is to ultimately eliminate the use of the yellow pass entirely. But it is hard to do when not all HATs abide by the same rules.”