Technical problems mar first day back in Palm Beach County schools
Palm Beach County students began the virtual school year in frustration Monday as outages plagued the district’s computer network.
Many students opened the school day with this message: “The district portal is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later and we apologize for any inconvenience.”
In a video message to families, Superintendent Donald Fennoy said: “The majority of schools are online and students are in classes, but we are experiencing some outages. The team is working feverishly now and will be working through the night those problems.”
By 10 a.m., the district’s Information Technology department had devised a workaround to get onto the system.
Fennoy said those who couldn’t get on Monday would not be penalized for attendance.
Palm Beach schools, like Broward and Miami-Dade, decided to start the school year off virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Broward students experienced technical glitches on their first day Aug. 19. Miami-Dade schools also faced computer crashes when school began Monday morning.
“We understand Internet con
to
mitigate nectivity issues have been a challenge today. Students unable to connect due to these issues will not be penalized,” Miami-Dade schools tweeted. “We ask students to continue to work to make connections with assigned teachers, as scheduled. Any attendance discrepancies will be addressed.”
Hundreds of parents, students and teachers took to social media to complain about Palm Beach County’s technical woes.
“I have three boys and it’s been an absolute train wreck,” Kim Wolfram wrote on Facebook. “Good job dropping the ball and failing our children today Palm Beach County!!”
Parents who want
their
kids back in actual classrooms were particularly annoyed.
“How about just stopping this foolery and open the schools for brick and mortar. [Palm Beach County] is failing our children,” Tory Baker wrote on Facebook.
Palm Beach County school could open their campuses within a few weeks. County commissioners are scheduled Tuesday to discuss the possibility of moving to Phase 2 of reopening, a day after allowing tattoo shops, body piercing businesses and tanning salons to reopen.
The school system affirmed Monday that it will offer in-person classes one week after Phase 2 begins.