The first week of school in Lynnfield had more than its fair share of ups and downs.
The good news is that the town learned Wednesday that the most recent Department of Public Health color-coded risk assessment data on the rate of average daily cases showed a significant shift from red (more than eight average daily cases per 100,000) to yellow (four to eight cases per 100,000). In response to the data, the School Committee voted Thursday to pivot from a fully remote learning model to a hybrid-learning model effective this Tuesday.
The bad news was that, after a relatively uneventful first day of school on Sept. 16, a major technological glitch caused a near-total breakdown in internet connectivity.
“It happened the day after school started when we started to get attacked and those attacks began inundating our systems in terms of bringing our internet down,” said Superintendent of Schools Kristen Vogel. “What we do know is they were from outside sources, from other countries, all over the world that basically brought the district-wide system down and essentially disabled our major network.”
Vogel said the district received 17,000 attacks last Thursday alone and that, while the system was brought back up, it couldn’t sustain the zooming demand.
“We started to have these intermittent in and out in terms of getting on throughout the day last week on Thursday and Friday,” Vogel said.
Vogel said the district reached out to its technology consultant and major internet provider, but those efforts were unsuccessful. The district reached out to an alternative provider late in the week to “increase and change our systems so that we had a substantial backup equivalent to our major provider.
“However, over the weekend we didn’t know when we would continue to get attacked so we decided we needed to have a way to decrease the numbers of people using our backup internet in case our major line got attacked again,” Vogel said. “So we made the decision to allow teachers to zoom from home. Our teachers love being in their classrooms where they have their materials set up, so they chose to come in but were still struggling.”
The attacks continued into this week, prompting an emergency meeting at Town Hall on Wednesday.
“This should not be taken lightly, what was done behind the scenes over the last couple of days. There were elbows greased, favors called in by state reps, selectmen, Rob Dolan, that got us to yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon,” said School Committee member Rich Sjoberg who represented the School Committee at the emergency meeting. “I’m proud of the team for everything they did.”
Board of Selectmen Chairman Chris Barrett, a former School Committee member, said he is always ready and willing to help make sure the students, families and teachers have everything they need to succeed. Barrett, a principal at the Webster School in Everett, was instrumental in connecting the district with NorthEast Technology, Inc., a company Barrett works with on a daily basis in Everett.
“I have a prior relationship with that team helping to lead the tech efforts in Everett, and we have had absolutely zero tech issues, so that was a direct connection I had that I knew would work in Lynnfield after all the problems,” said Barrett. “As a Principal, I also know full well the challenges of remote learning and what is needed to be a complete success. The Board of Selectmen was happy to work with all involved to make sure our students and staff are back on track for the 2020-2021 school year.”
Vogel said she is confident that “now we have a plan to support our teachers.”
School Committee Chairman Jamie Hayman said he still has a lot of questions about how this could be allowed to happen.
“Could we have foreseen this coming, could we have done something different?” he asked. “These are all valid questions. We want to get to the bottom of this and we will. Our first step was we had to get the kids back online. It’s about making sure our technology is working correctly and kids are learning, but we will circle back to make sure we understand what we have to do to prevent this from happening again.”
On a more positive note, Vogel said switching to hybrid is great news for extracurricular activities.
“Extracurriculars and athletics are a big part of students’ school experiences and life, so this is very good news for them,” she said, adding fall tryouts will be held throughout the week.
