As the first semester drew to an end, both Dublin High students and parents were reminded that the Campus Parent Portal would be closing on December 22, 2016 at 3 PM, and would reopen only on January 19, 2017 at 8 AM.

“This is to provide teachers every opportunity to complete grading and ensure the final semester grades are updated,” wrote Dublin High Principal Maureen Byrne in the December letter sent out to parents. “Please take a few moments this week to check the portal, talk with your child, and communicate with teachers if necessary to be sure all homework, projects, and assessments are up to date.”

After this news was made public, many members of the student body were left feeling anxious and confused. “I started to feel much more stressed than I was when studying for my finals,” said freshman Joshua Koh. “I knew that this change would prevent me from seeing whether my results were good for a long period of time.”

“I felt annoyed because the portal was closed before some of my teachers had inputted my final grades.” added junior Sophia Lim.

A few students were more optimistic, hoping that the portal closing would allow them to relax and concentrate on spending time with their families over winter break. “I initially thought that it would be a good thing,” said sophomore Sameer Yasar, “because I wouldn’t have to stress about my grades during break, and I could actually take a break from school-related things for a while.”

“I didn’t really think much of the parent portal closing over break,” senior Amy Peng confessed. “If anything, it just gave me less to think about, as we now had a break after finishing the semester.”

Yet, even they had to agree that a major point of frustration was that final grades were not revealed during the first week of school after winter break. Students were unable to view grades previously entered for homework, quizzes, and other assignments as well.

Sophomore Matthew Adrian expressed his general discontent: “I get very anxious about my grades, and they really mean a lot to me…it is actually inducing more stress on all of us. Not only did they close the portal for winter break, but for about 2 weeks after…This made me even more agitated.”

Luckily, some Dublin High teachers had already entered in final exam scores before December 22, or chose to review them with students during the first week after break, while the portal was still closed. “I liked how when we got back to school my math and history teachers showed us what our final grades were even though the portal was still closed,” said junior Karah Pedregosa. “I was freaking out earlier that my grades could possibly be super borderline, and I would have no idea and wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.”

“I felt bad for the other students who were watching their grades closely and couldn’t look at them until they got back to school,” said senior Jerri Lopez. “As a senior, I didn’t have very many finals and it wasn’t the biggest priority of mine to know what grade I received on them right away.”

Yet, it seems that the original intent behind the portal’s closure was at least partially achieved.

“It gave me and the other students a chance to really wind down, take a break and spend time with family,” said sophomore Janice Lee. “I never thought about it once and it was great. However, once school started again, I realized that students weren’t able to see their grades until another week later.”

“I only found myself dreading what my grades were when I got back to school and whether or not I did well,” added Sameer Yasar. “I feel like if Campus Portal wasn’t closed during break and I could actually see my grades, I would have more time to go over them and find a plan to do better in classes if I needed to, but the lack of seeing them just brought me more stress over break.”

“I started to feel anxious about my grades, worrying that I had messed something up, or one of my teachers put in an incorrect grade for me, and I couldn’t take any action to check it,” concluded Joshua Koh. “I was frustrated at the lack of information that I had concerning my results, and this stress and frustration left me unable to properly enjoy my winter break.”