When Champaign Central students returned from winter break in early January, they were greeted with news of a new app called 5-Star which would be implemented the next week, with students entering the school building given the choice of either scanning their physical ID, entering their student ID number, or using the new digital ID which came with this new app in order to enter the building.
When first announced, administrators said it would help reduce hall congestion and streamline the general hall pass system. But many students have since asked, what exactly is 5-Star, and how exactly does it affect everyday life at Central?
5-Star is a mobile app which can operate like a digital student ID and hall pass. First piloted at Centennial High School in August of 2023, any student can download the app on an iOS or Android phone, and scan a barcode on the app instead of using their physical ID card when entering the building.
“There was nothing but glowing comments about it from the teachers and administrators over there. I also noticed it for the first time when we were having games and Centennial students would walk up with ID’s on their phone, which also counted because you get in for free when it’s a local game with ID’s.” Central’s Assistant Principal Bryan Yacko answered on why Central decided to adopt the new app. Highlighting some of the main features of the digital ID, Yacko mentioned, “we can actually have the ability to create events, for instance we have some students in here with an elevator pass or respite pass, and those can be added there too. So somebody just by scanning it or by having the ID put in their number, they’ll be able to see if they’re allowed to use those things.”
However, students who take the bus through MTD to and from school will still need their physical ID’s, as MTD is not affiliated with 5-Star. MTD does however use an app for University of Illinois students who can use their own digital IDs as bus passes, so the possibility of 5-Star or another digital bus pass for Unit 4 students could become a possibility in the future.
“It would be great if they would, I would like to see students be able to use 5-Star or their number to ride the bus instead of having to print an ID and the sticker. It would be a lot easier, and it saves some materials and resources.” Yacko mentioned future possibilities of digital passes like 5-Star also being used by students to board MTD buses.
Some Central students have already downloaded the app out of curiosity, after having first been introduced to it formally during a presentation in PE classes at the beginning of the spring semester.
“They were doing the presentation, and I figured I might as well download it. I kind of wanted to see what the user interface is like, and it’s really just school stuff, nothing special,” answered Junior Robert Russell on why he downloaded 5-Star. “When you open the app, it just takes you to the homepage, and there’s your profile where you can view points and other data, which I don’t know what they are. There’s also surveys which they haven’t done yet.” Russell’s main complaint with 5-Star is how bare the app is currently, with most of the app being blank pages, with checking into school currently the only function utilized by Central.
However, many other students, including senior Lilly Engelman, have criticized the new 5-Star app, arguing that it’s actually made things more complicated, rather than more efficient.
“I learned about it on the last day of winter break where they sent a random email out, though I’ve heard about it on social media before because other schools use it, and all I’ve heard is negative things,” remarked Engleman on how she first heard about the 5-Star app, “I have Mrs. Polarek and she was in the middle of a lecture when she had to stop at least five times to actually pull out the app on her second computer, type in the students name and make sure they’re checked out, only for something that’s gonna be five minutes.”
Engelman argues that the new digital hall pass system is inefficient since it forces the teacher to stop their lesson each time a student wants to leave class, something Russell also agrees with, commenting, “I haven’t used anything on the app besides the ID Barcode, I just flash them my cell phone which is probably the only thing that’s more efficient. I feel the passes are going to be kind of stupid.”
A few concerned students took their dissent against 5-Star to the next step. On January 10th, Sophomore students Apollo Breg, Miles Lunsford, and Caleb Mathias began a petition on Change.org in opposition to the new app, which has since received over 550 signatures.
“The day we came back to school we learned about it (5-Star). We learned alot about it during English though, so we decided to make the petition during that class.” Answered Breg on how they first learned about the app, and what made them make the petition. When asked about their current goal with the petition, Lunsford answered, “We want to hit 600-700, that’s about half the school,” with both Breg and Lunsford stating they want this petition to show Central’s administrators their students don’t like the new app.
Lunsford believes that this new process is a waste of money which could be used somewhere else, while they all believe that one of the main concerns with this app is privacy.
“I feel like the biggest concern with this app is safety concerns about privacy, and not really being good with managing data,” answered Mathias. “Apps like Facebook have faced class action lawsuits a lot about how they’ve handled data. I just don’t really trust this company that well, and it’s just kinda weird with the school being able to track you.” Mathias refers to the app’s ability to track how much time you’ve been out on a pass, and exactly when you arrived in the building or returned to class.
Yacko however states otherwise on economic concerns voiced by Lunsford, claiming the new 5-Star app will eliminate large costs associated with buying paper passes along with the environmental burden from the old system.
“I don’t think people realize that we go through hundreds, if not thousands of passes. Not only the single hall passes but the double carbon tardy and late passes. Not only is it unbelievably expensive, but just the amount of resources that go into it, it’s nice to have that off.” Yacko emphasized multiple times during an interview how expensive the old physical pass system was, and how important it was that 5-Star is able to eliminate that, summarizing with, “I believe it’ll be more cost effective in the long run.”
Yacko admits that while he does not have much knowledge of the petition in opposition or why the new app has caused controversy, he believed the general benefits of 5-Star could be seen when he had to fill in for another staff member’s lunch duty on the first day under the new system.
“I was in sixth hour, and a bunch of students wanted to go somewhere, and I didn’t have to remember passes and a pen, or have to write anybody’s name down. I just had to give them their number or scan their ID and they’d be able to go to the science room, library or anywhere else.” Said Yacko, who strongly believes in the app, “It was so fast and so efficient even the students were impressed.”
Yacko states that for hall monitors, 5-Star’s new system allowing them to simply scan someone’s barcode allows them to skip many of the extra steps they’d have to take with the old paper system.
“If we were doing late/tardy passes, those would have to be double entered into the system by hall monitors, so hall monitors were writing a pass, handing it to students for being tardy, and then having to go into a spreadsheet, entering the students name, what time they arrived, the tardies, and this eliminates that.”
The petition authors disagree however with the notion that the app will streamline Central’s hall pass system. Similar to other students like Engelman, they believe that it’s become a distraction to both staff and students in the classroom.
“It’s just easier when the teacher just says to go grab a pass,” Mathias claimed, stating he’s also had experiences where the teacher has to stop their lesson in order to write a digital pass for a student, while Breg commented, “If you don’t have the app then it just takes longer,” as teachers will have to enter the students lunch code instead.
Many students who have chosen not to download the app have since felt strongly against the school pushing the new process, with some emphasizing their freedom to choose what they want on their personal devices.
“I don’t feel they can tell me what to put on my phone,” said Engelman, “they don’t pay my phone bill, so I’m not putting it on my phone.”
While proponents of the new app like Yacko have focused on its long-term benefits, he does admit that adjusting to the new app will take time at first, stating, “there are some learning curves for sure, but as far as an improvement over the old system of just writing hand passes, I would say there is a very big improvement over that.” In spite of opposition, many who have found themselves in support of the new app believe strongly in the opportunity for 5-Star to become a long-term success at streamlining Central’s hall pass system.