Another NJ school district has to cancel classes because of internet outage
A problem with "internal servers" caused an early end to classes Monday at the Hudson County Schools of Technology Secaucus and Jersey City campuses.
The district told students and parents about the problem in an email. The school’s website was down early Tuesday morning and there was no mention on the school’s social media.
Spokeswoman Darson Hover said that classes were back in session Tuesday with an early dismissal as IT professionals evaluate the situation to determine the cause of the outage. The district expects its network to be back up "soon."
"The district instituted an early dismissal for students yesterday and today so that teachers and staff have time to alter their lesson plans to accommodate the outage," Hover said.
It’s the second school district in New Jersey to be impacted by an internet issue in the past week.
Classes were canceled for three days for the Monroe Township school district in Gloucester County because of an “an unauthorized third party” that affected the school’s internet.
Class was back in session Friday but the district did not offer any further explanation about the internet issue.
The need for the internet
The internet has become an important part of the daily classroom experience with students using laptops and teachers able to show video.
Brick schools Superintendent Thomas Farrell said that while the internet and wireless is a vital tool for instruction, a similar problem would not likely cancel classes in his district.
"We would not cancel school as we have a backup plan for just that occasion where we would use print resources," Farrell said. "So not the ideal situation or a conducive environment for 21st century learning but we would adapt as in-person learning is still the best solution regardless of technology support."
The importance of the internet in the classroom became apparent during the pandemic with an increase in the use of laptops and Apple devices, according Central Regional superintendent Tommy Parlapanides. The classrooms in the district all have white boards and other interactive tools.
"If you want to 'see' the Battle of Gettysburg you can bring up a video of the movie Gettysburg," Parlapanides said, adding that his district doubled its internet capacity during and after the pandemic.
But there's still books available if the internet were to be lost. And markers can be used on the white boards.
"If there's a bad storm you still have to have a backup," Parlapanides said.
Dan Alexander is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at dan.alexander@townsquaremedia.com
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