Internet glitch knocks out district teleconference
The Kingston school district started the 2020-21 academic year with a technological snafu that might have given staff and administrators a lesson in how to handle an internet outage.
During a Board of Education videoconference Wednesday, district Superintendent Paul Padalino said, video service failed as efforts were being made to provide employees with information they’ll need when classes begin next week.
“We did have a glitch today that was actually not our fault,” Padalino said. He said it came from the Ulster BOCES Regional Information Center, “and that glitch has been fixed.”
Padalino said the problem with the videoconference began because usage increased suddenly.
“When our broadband system saw how much use we were getting — which was so much more than we usually do — it assumed we were experiencing a cyber attack and started shutting off channels,” he said.
Padalino said the problem, which also was experienced by the Onteora and Rondout Valley school districts, occurred with less than 65 percent usage of the broadband system but has been corrected.
“That won’t happen in the future,” he said. “That was a kind of safety piece that slowed us down, but we got back up and moving.”
The glitch occurred on the first of four training days and was simultaneous with the district’s distribution of laptop computers to students and the installation of “hot spot” wireless service in areas of the district where internet access is unreliable.
“Three days are a really good time to test it because everyone is working on their professional development from their classroom with their computer,” Padalino said.
“We’re pleased with the fact that this was a really
good test,” he said. “I think that there was some concern ... if we could really teach remotely here with our broadband and our internet access.”
Padalino initially blamed internet service provide Spectrum for the problem, but that turned out to be incorrect. Instead, Ulster BOCES said its system thresholds for detecting cyber attacks needed to be adjusted for greater bandwidth use by school districts.
“When they all went onto their meetings ... it [appeared] something was targeting those [systems],” BOCES Senior Supervisor Danielle Yeomans said. “It’s put in place as a protections.”
Spectrum does provide internet service to Ulster BOCES, but security measures come from a company called Radware.
Spectrum spokeswoman Lara Pritchard said the company’s system “performed exactly as it should.”
Padalino said the district’s first conference day drew high staff attendance.
“We had an absentee rate of [less than 1.4] percent,” he said. “So people are here. They are participating in workshops and ... really excited for the start of a new year.”