Lawrence school district officials said they are experiencing network outages this week that are affecting telephones, email and the district's website.
District spokeswoman Julie Boyle said the problems are related to the process of installing new routers and switches that are part of the district's technology upgrades being funded with the recent bond issue.
"The switch installations are in buildings that do not have major reconstruction plans — the high schools, middle schools and some elementary schools that are not being heavily remodeled as part of the bond issue," Boyle said.
Boyle said installations at the other buildings will be done in conjunction with the remodeling projects. District officials have not yet decided on the schedule for those projects.
She said the intermittent phone and network problems began occurring Tuesday. Although she could not say how long they would continue, she said the current installation projects are expected to be completed before classes resume Aug. 14.
In April, voters in the district approved a $92.5 million bond, most of which is for upgrading and remodeling elementary schools, with particular focus on the six older buildings in central and east Lawrence.
That bond issue also included $6.5 million to upgrade technology throughout the district. Much of that is intended to expand the district's wireless network to provide more bandwidth and enable schools to shift to "blended classrooms" that use a combination of online learning and traditional teacher-led instruction.
In July, the Lawrence school board agreed to purchase 212 Juniper network switches from JMA Information Technology, based in Overland Park, at a cost of $545,993.
Comments
Carrie Coffey 8 months, 3 weeks ago
The only time I seen where SHE was knowledgeable was when we tell her everything that is done and how it was done so she can take the credit.
Alceste 8 months, 3 weeks ago
We reject kings, presidents and voting. We believe in: rough consensus and running code.
usesomesense 8 months, 3 weeks ago
Outages are to be expected when migrating technologies.
They're also to be expected when migrating to Juniper products - NOT a fan. The real question is this - where's the other $6 million going?
kusp8 8 months, 3 weeks ago
All your schools belong to us. LOVE IT!!
Don't start talking about token ring vs spoke network setup. You'll make their heads explode.
aRobot 8 months, 3 weeks ago
Wow. Half a million dollars for network switches. What exactly was wrong with the old ones?
paul85 8 months, 3 weeks ago
Yep, thats what happens when you mix stale cookies with RG5 cables. They can't handle the packet i/o and collide which causes the intermittent loss. Seen it tons of times before, normally we upgrade these setups to token ring and limit the flow with a K56flex modem. Hopefully someone here will have half a brain and take these suggestions to heart.
Darin wade 8 months, 3 weeks ago
Network crashes are from overload located in the cookies network that causes a overload to shutdown networks transmission from employers taking home business routers.
Darin wade 8 months, 3 weeks ago
no its not the routers in some verified cases some are taking their employers network routers home and using them and causing excessive network load from the cookies of their employers that take their routers home.
Dan Alexander 8 months, 3 weeks ago
Don't worry, the network staff will work all of this out way before school starts, there will be no consequences for students or staff. The people behind the improvements know what they are doing and have every right to make a few missteps here and there.
They have a very knowledgeable leader who is qualified to lead a tech department, she has shown time and time again to be professional, savvy, and knowledgeable.
Furthermore the district administration is keeping a tight grasp on the current situation, in the possible event that staff is to blame for any inconveniences then they will be sure to act swiftly and fairly to remedy the situation. There is absolutely nothing wrong with USD 497 administration or the ITS department. Those who claim otherwise must just be jealous of their pure awesomeness or whining brats. I'm sure they all would comment for themselves but they are having some technical difficulties at the moment.
Just listen to the Boyle. Do not question, do not opine, all your schools belong to us.
irvan moore 8 months, 3 weeks ago
remember the state motor vehicle department upgrade
aRobot 8 months, 3 weeks ago
Ladies and gentlemen, your local school district is completely overrun with incompetence. Some of us have been warning about this for years. You have now given a bunch of inexperienced, uncertified, uneducated technology people millions upon millions of dollars to "tinker" with technology. This series of outages is only the beginning.
Demand a list of tech department employees and their qualifications if you don't believe me.
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