As DCPS students, firstname.lastname@dc.gov has been ingrained in our heads as a fast and easy way to email your teacher. The process is so seamless, so catchy, the only road bump one might face is having to look up how to spell your teacher’s name. It’s just one of those rare protocols that is fantastically simple and uncharacteristically straightforward for DCPS. 

So why go through the trouble of changing all the teachers emails to add k12 before dc.gov? Why, Wilson?

Well, this policy isn’t Wilson’s fault. DCPS Central Office instituted the policy in the hopes of distinguishing educators from other workers in the DC government. The extension, k12, which signifies kindergarten through 12th grade, is unique to schools. Before, teachers shared @dc.gov with every other DC government worker. Now, “it better signifies that we’re a school and probably allows communication from the DC government to be more targeted,” 10th grade counselor Leslie Sargent said.

 But, rather than just waiting to bring in this new email with the new year, DCPS, very conveniently, made the change right before the end of last school year. Right before that crucial period of time students need to email their teachers about final grades. The change didn’t seem to get much recognition from teachers and staff. Quite a few teachers failed to even bring it up to their classes, leaving many blissfully unaware students with urgent emails left unread. 

So were Wilson teachers just as ill-informed about this new policy as their students? Or was it some cruel joke by the teachers to just leave students in the dark, so they didn’t have to receive any of their last minute nagging emails about grade changes?

 As annoying as it is, the extension is here to stay and it isn’t Wilson’s fault, so the question really should be… why, DCPS?