Ctrl, Alt, Delete, the power button, the monitor, the screen, the keyboard, little black words in an Arial font. We’ve grown very accustomed to these things, and I’m sure many of us can’t even remember the first time we logged into our school accounts. We do it every single school day without fail, and even though our passwords have been tweaked a bit over the years, there hasn’t been much change. But now, our old usernames and passwords are lost to the abyss, complete with a brand new Google account, and many people have questions and mixed opinions about our brand new logins. 

So, why did our logins change? What was the purpose? Some students have theories.

“We were having too similar of names, like I know people who were siblings and they had names that began with the same letter, at least that’s what I think,” junior Lauren Tiedt said. 

This is true, according to St. Charles School District Technology Director Kevin Richmiller, “The district was also running into issues with students that left the district years ago and their account would be deleted,” Richmiller said, “and if a new student arrived with the same first initial and last name they would be re-issued the previously used student gmail address.”

There were also other reasons for the changed logins. 

“The district wanted a better way to differentiate staff and student accounts,” Richmiller said.

So, how did the technology department go about changing the logins? 

“All previous student accounts were disabled.  Student information was then pulled from SISk12 to create the new accounts and then uploaded to Google,” Richmiller said.

Originally, there was some confusion about the logins, which teachers had to navigate as school began. Bryan Doss, a teacher with desktop computers in his classroom, figured out the new logins relatively quickly.

“We’re pretty prepared for this stuff, I mean I have everybody’s passwords, the school sent to me a sheet from Mr. Doll, it slowed me down just a hair,” Doss said.

While there was some difficulty for students logging into the computers within the first week of school, there are also benefits for both the students and faculty. 

For example, one benefit is “Better differentiation between staff and student accounts. No longer an issue of accidentally creating an account that previously existed years ago,” according to Richmiller. 

There are other benefits, such as a simpler system for the technical faculty of the district, as well as more security precautions.

“I assume that things work behind the scenes for Mr. Doll and the technicians are a little bit better and there’s a little more security as far as other people being able to get into your stuff,” Doss said.

However, there are also cons to the logins changing, such as lost student data.

 “I kinda don’t like it because I had 10 years of stuff on that email so it definitely felt like it was being wiped away,” Tiedt said. 

Our old accounts will always remain favorably in our memories, they contain our endearing, nostalgic and embarrassing memories. They’ve followed us loyally from kindergarten to middle school and until their subsequent deaths during our high school years. It’s time to salute our old logins for their service, and welcome our new logins.