By Susan Bromley
Staff Writer
Brandon Twp.- The days before computers may seem like a distant memory, but for students and staff in the district it was a reality for about 24 hours this week as technology failed.
At around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, every computer in the district, roughly 1,600 of them, went down when the virtual network controller stopped working.
‘It’s sort of a fluke thing,? said Technology Director Paul Spoor. ‘IBM is not sure why it happened, it may have been something when the drive rebooted. They said it is extremely rare.?
IBM technicians and Mark Stanley, the district’s engineer on staff, fixed the problem by about 11 a.m. Wednesday at no monetary cost to the district, since the computer system is under contract.
Students were without the use of computers for classroom instruction, of course, but Spoor noted that is just one piece of a large electronic puzzle.
‘It was 24 hours of a very difficult time, because we are so dependent on the computers,? said Superintendent Lorrie McMahon. ‘Things like serving lunch, where all the payment is handled electronically, and taking attendance were affected. We had to go back to the way we always used to do it? with paper and pencil. We could still do it, but it really slowed things down and took longer.?
E-mail, a major source of communication in the district, ceased and McMahon noted substitute teacher needs are also handled electronically, as well as gradebooks.
Spoor said it was fortunate that payroll, also done by computer, didn’t have to be completed Tuesday.
‘Our entire existence relies on technology,? said Spoor, who had never before experienced a complete computer system failure throughout the district and added that this particular problem will be avoided in the future as they now have copies of the programming to fix it.
McMahon said the one-day return to life before computers gave her mixed feelings.
‘It’s been so many years since we’ve been in that situation and it reminds you where you’ve been and where you are now,? she said. ‘I’m not sure it’s better or not. We can do so much more with the computers, can do everything faster, but then it puts you way back when you don’t have it.?