Seven weeks into the school year, some students still had not received their course materials from MBS Direct, Lab’s course materials provider, but all missing materials have now arrived at Lab, according to Brent LaRowe, director of registrar services and information management.

Families may schedule a time to pick up their missing course materials. 

“Under normal circumstances it would be done in August, and here it is the end of October, so it’s pretty frustrating,” Mr. LaRowe said, “and I definitely sympathize with the people that are affected because this is tough. This is unacceptable.”

As a result of insufficient communication during the planning process, about 15% of course materials were listed incorrectly for families on MBS Direct, setting up a string of delays, according to Mr. LaRowe. Middle and high school students taking math, language, science, history and art were affected. 

“There wasn’t really any single point of failure, which makes it even more frustrating,” Mr. LaRowe said. 

Although the issue was discovered in June, it was only recently resolved due to unresponsiveness from MBS Direct.

MBS Direct adjusted customer service staffing and hours due to the pandemic and acknowledged the order fulfillment delays on its website. Due to persisting backorders, some of the missing materials were ordered from Amazon. 

“If we have reports of that same level of unresponsiveness, we’re going to be looking for a different vendor,” Mr. LaRowe said. “They’re aware of it.”

In addition, department chairs were more involved in the textbook selection process, and responsibilities were not clearly established, according to Mr. LaRowe. 

Families who still have incorrect materials may contact the Office of Registrar Services & Information Management for a reimbursement.

Mr. LaRowe said, “We’re looking behind us and there’s like piles of broken dishes behind us, but the best thing to do is to figure out how to do it right going forward.”