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An official transcript is a school’s documentation that the grades the students have earned are factual and accurate. Unfortunately, there was a problem here at Granite Hills with the accuracy of the transcripts that were being printed and sent out.

The problem was first noticed by Advancement Via Individual Determination senior, Sonya Lopez. She opened her copy of the official transcript to scan into her computer, as directed by the scholarship for which she was applying. As a 4.0+ student, she was shocked to see that her grade point average listed on her transcript stated a 2.0. Lopez immediately reported the problem to her counselor, Arlina Gillett.

“I felt like I had spent all that time getting good grades for nothing,” said Lopez.

By that afternoon, Principal Jeff Bottoms was made aware of the situation by AVID teacher, Tiffany Ross, and had spoken to the district about the errors with the calculation in the Aries program.

According to Ross, Bottoms was determined to get to the root of the problem and do whatever was necessary to help students fix any potential issues that may arise from the incorrect transcripts being sent out.

The district’s Information Technology Department had been notified of these issues since last September. However, it was never elevated to Aries to handle the issue. The district employees did not ask for the help from the makers of the software.

“I was horrified when I found out that something of this magnitude was not immediately given to the manufacturer of the software. When you are talking about calculation errors, you are messing with these kids future,” said Ross. “These kids have worked too hard to have this kind of issue not addressed immediately or communicated to the powers that be.”

Angelica Reyes, another senior AVID student, has a 4.31 GPA. She soon learned that the day her official transcripts sent to Santa Clara University, it stated she had a 2.9 GPA.

Luckily, Christine Amann, Special Projects Coordinator at Granite Hills, knew the officials in the admissions office and was able to explain the situation to them. A new set of correct transcripts were sent with a cover letter that stated there was a calculation issue and to disregard the old transcripts.

Yesenia Goodin, registrar for Guidance and the person who responsible for sending transcripts out, had documented and reported issues with these calculations at other various times throughout the year.

Goodin had sent emails and made phone calls throughout the year explaining her concerns about occasional issues with the calculations.

“I went to talk to Mr. Bottoms to make sure the seniors knew that this issue was not one person’s fault,” said Ernestina Quintero, “It was the actual program, Aries, that messed up the transcripts.”

Another big concern was the decision made at the district level was to have another company tap into the Aries system to get the GPA’s and send the transcripts.

It was thought that this would streamline the transcript process. The problem with this process is that if an off sight company is sending transcripts from a flawed data base, no one on sight will know if the GPA stated on the transcript is correct.

“The problem is that if the system is wrong on the day that company decides to get the GPA’s, the registrar has no way of knowing,” said Ross. “At least right now, the counselors, teachers, and students can review them to make sure what is stated is correct.”

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