MERIDIAN, Idaho — Students in the West Ada School District logged on Tuesday for the first day of school that was conducted entirely through remote learning. The first day got off to a rocky start after the West Ada websites were unable to load for some students.
District Spokesperson Char Jackson told KTVB that the web filtering software on the district devices triggered Microsoft updates to install at the same time, which then caused connectivity problems for the students in the district.
She said that software is commonly referred to as Content Control Software and is designed to restrict what websites a user can visit on their computer.
"We're asking that those devices get left on tonight so they can complete any updates and then restart them before they go on tomorrow," Jackson explained. "We're not expecting to have any further problems tomorrow but, we're dealing with technology and thousands of students and our IT is ready and they're prepared and we're hoping for a much more successful day tomorrow [Wednesday]."
"This issue is due to a nationwide server problem with Blackboard, our web hosting provider," she wrote Tuesday morning in an email. "We are also experiencing some web filtering issues that are causing slowness in other areas as well including Teams."
Some parents told KTVB their child was unable to log in to start class at all, while others say their student was able to get into their virtual classroom and hear the teacher, but can't get some of the content to load.
Courtney Collett was able to log onto her first seventh-grade class, but then when she went to log into her second class, she ran into some trouble and wasn't able to.
"It feels really upsetting like I couldn't do anything and I felt stuck," Collett said.
Still, others said they did not experience any problems.
"I want the district to know that we're here, we''re frustrated, but many of us support them," said West Ada parent Angela Voll. "We are West Ada we will get through it."
The service desk is working now to get everything up and running, Jackson said, but there is no estimated time for the websites to be fully fixed.
The West Ada school board voted to start the school year online if the area remained in the "red" category for coronavirus transmission. If Central District Health drops the level to yellow, students may be allowed to return in person.
At KTVB, we’re focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the virus. To see our full coverage, visit our coronavirus section, here: www.ktvb.com/coronavirus.
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