Tucked next to a fireplace decorated with pictures of senior classes past lies the office of the Parker Registrar: Matt McCaw. For four weeks each year, around three hundred Upper School students bombard his office, anxiously waiting to make major changes to their schedule. But what does McCaw do the other 48 weeks of the year?

Few students know the answer. “I think he’s a nice guy, but I would like to know a little bit more about what he does other than the schedule part,” junior Adrian Bustamante said. “I think that would give more of an inside thing for people to know because I think most people just think he’s just someone who makes our schedules and that’s it, and that’s what I know, so I think it would be better to know more about him.”

McCaw has several unique responsibilities. “The registrar is technically the custodian of records,” McCaw said. “The position started because, a very, very long time ago, universities needed to be able to confirm or deny somebody’s status with the institution.”

McCaw’s job is not constant: his duties and responsibilities change as the year progresses. “My busiest times are probably from mid-July to mid-September,” McCaw said, “and then once students are in classes and classes are settled and schedules are made, then things slow down, and I’m usually doing catch-up with things I haven’t done.”

Some aspects of McCaw’s workload that he has to catch up on include meetings with students, parents, teachers, staff, and administrators to ensure proper enrollment of students in classes, and designing templates of grades, comments, and transcripts in the Portal. “He also communicates with schools and businesses to confirm the enrollment or graduation of Parker students,” Upper School Technology Facilitator and McCaw’s office mate Lisa Williams said. “Mr. McCaw maintains student data in the Portal, and provides statistical information to administrators regarding enrollment, schedules, and grades.”

A majority of McCaw’s workload during his busiest time is focused on students and their schedules. “During Drop-Add, the morning is spent completing schedules,” McCaw said, “and then after lunch is meeting with students, and the afternoon is taking care of the things that the other divisions and departments need.”

The Drop-Add period is a time in which students are able to schedule appointments with McCaw and make any changes they desire to their schedules for the upcoming school year. Such changes include the adding or dropping of electives, switching the levels of core classes, and completely rearranging schedules. 

McCaw’s biggest challenge often lies with seniors. “I think the biggest job is just getting seniors into classes,” McCaw said. “Towards the end, it’s probably gym changes. Towards the end of Drop-Add, a lot of people decide they don’t want to take a gym class.”

However, when the Drop-Add period ends and students cease to make drastic changes to their schedules, McCaw has a variety of other responsibilities. “One thing I do is data research. People need numbers on something historical or something they want to analyze, then I put together tables and studies and things like that,” McCaw said. “I help a lot of users, teachers that can’t access things or are having trouble with their grade books—that’s a big thing in the spring and in the fall, a lot of the time it’s walking through setup with teachers.”

According to Williams, McCaw usually focuses on assisting teachers with the intricacies of the Portal, as well as all of its functions. “He helps them set up their grade books, teaches them how to enter student grades, and assists them with accessing historical student data,” Williams said. “He also helps teachers and advisors with the scheduling of their students.”

In his six years on Parker staff, the hardest task required of McCaw usually has to do with the schedule and its functions. “In the course of my year, I think the hardest thing is coming up with a schedule and maintaining an academic structure that works for everybody,” McCaw said. “Everyone has competing needs and expectations, all those things push and pull on each other, so finding something that works for everyone is a lot of work for everyone involved.”

The bulk of McCaw’s workload after the Drop-Add period is immense. “Afterwards, he devotes his time to the preparation for mid-semester grades of the different divisions of the school,” Williams said. “Once the grades are filed, he is very busy again preparing transcripts, updating Naviance and the physical student files. The rest of his year consists of three more busy grading periods, another busy drop/add period, working on the registration process for the next school year, various annual statistic reports, and the enrollment of new students.” 

“If an up-and-coming young registrar were to ask me what was hardest and most important, I would probably say knowledge of information and data science,” McCaw said. “The more data science you know, the easier the job will be. Whether that’s just knowing a lot of Excel, or knowing how to write SQL, or beyond, that’s probably the hardest part.”

After sharing an office with McCaw for four years, Williams feels that he is an integral part of the school. “He is skilled at his job and is able to create and maintain Parker’s complicated schedules in the Portal for the entire school,” Williams said. “He is the best colleague anyone could hope to have. He’s intelligent, caring and has a strong work ethic, and is willing and able to help his colleagues, students, and parents.”