HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Within a week of students returning to school in the Tennessee Valley, school districts have experienced both network and power outages.
On Monday, Huntsville City Schools addressed how they plan to keep students and teachers connected amid these technical issues.
"Last night as you know, there was a power outage across Huntsville...While that did not impact the students to access the learning platforms at home, it did impact some teachers and their ability to get on WiFi," says Huntsville City Schools Chief Communications Officer, Craig Williams.
Teachers could go home to resume online learning, and power was restored. However, another large power outage happened this morning that lasted until 2.
School leaders say six campuses in the Northern and Western parts of the city were impacted. As for more access to online engagement, school leaders say Zoom is something the district plans to implement.
"One piece of feedback we've heard from teachers is they've been using Zoom a lot throughout the summer. Zoom is what they're familiar with. Zoom is what they're comfortable with. And ultimately they ask if we as a district would consider returning to Zoom," says Williams.
However, Zoom also experienced an outage today. Leaders say the school district has a back-up.
"In the event one of those platforms crashes, we have a couple of alternatives in place whether that's Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and even just traditional emailing."
There was an outage last week with Schoology, the district's online learning platform. Morris Middle School Principal William King says it will take time to get used to these different systems and the problems that can happen.
"I will say to the parents that it's going to get better. Each day that we go through this, we're learning more and when you learn a new platform, whatever it is it takes a little time to ramp up," says King.
King says although thousands were affected by the power outage today, his school was not.