Annapolis, Maryland, Jan. 8— While parents across Maryland were horrified by scenes last week of freezing Baltimore students, today, Anne Arundel County Schools were similarly thrown into the dark ages with freezing temperatures in some schools and no internet communication throughout the entire school system.
According to several teachers who spoke to APat this evening, a broken water pipe drowned a main computer server at the Department of Education and shut down the entire school system’s communication that still was not functioning by 10:30 pm Monday night.
Both teachers’ and parents’ only way to communicate with the schools appeared to be Facebook comments. The Facebook post announcing the communication blackout was posted at 7:30am:
1/8/18, 7:30 A.M.
Due to weather-related issues at our Riva Road headquarters, telephone, email, and internet service is currently unavailable. All schools are open and operating, and have telephone service. We apologize for any inconvenience, and are working diligently to restore these services. Updates will be posted here as they become available.
The situation at Lindale Middle School appeared to be especially dire since there was no heat at all and the students and teachers wore coats and sat in freezing temperatures. Several parents reached out on the comments site of the Facebook post. There were no responses by officials in the comment thread about Lindale.
- I’m not even sure if you will get this in a timely manner, since the BOE phones, email, and internet are down, but:
- There is currently NO HEAT at Lindale Middle School.
- When I called the school office to verify, I was told there was heat, it’s just slow to come on. NOT TRUE. Apparently, what is happening is that the blower is on, but no warm air is coming out=no heat.
- The principal has told kids to wear their coats inside.
- The temperature is currently 30° in classrooms (16° outside). Why are these students not being sent home?
- Some parents called and were told the heat was working. Others called their kids who assured them they weren’t
- Also heard from our daughter at Lindale who also confirms there is no heat
- Every one of you please call the board office, or pick up your kids and go there. This heat thing is not ok. We need to not start any new construction projects until heat is fixed in every school.
- I was told the same thing when I called. However, when I showed up in person after my call, there was no heat in the school. Students were wearing coats.
One teacher told the Arundel Patriot that other schools were also very cold and had come up with ways to bring portable heaters in because the heating system was insufficient. Another said the only way the teachers learned about the early dismissal today because of the pending ice storm was a person going room to room with a photocopied letter.
On Monday night, teachers and other employees were still unable to access their files and were attempting to communicate on the same Facebook thread:
- Any update about when this will be fixed? All my stuff for my class is in the one drive!! 🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️
- Any updates? Can’t access anything needed for planning, lessons not to mention correspondence with staff.
- When will the internet be back up?
- Any updates on when services will be back up? Nothing like trying to take quarterlies or finish projects without technology.
- Any update on email service?- I need to contact one of my schools.
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