Concord School District Computer Servers Failed Due To Overheating – Patch
CONCORD, NH — School is expected to be back in session Tuesday after issues involving the SAU 8 school district computer servers crashed due to overheating on Monday.
Kathleen Murphy, the school district’s superintendent, said a custodian discovered the district’s servers down around 5:30 a.m. on Monday and notified her and others in the district. It was later discovered the servers housed in a specialized room at Concord High School had crashed due to overheating, she said. The air conditioner, which is on its own system, and a backup system, used to keep the servers cool, went offline.
Just before 6 a.m., the district posted a two-hour delay, assuming officials could quickly get the system back online. But despite running fans into the room as well as portable air conditioners, the servers failed to come back online. Since both the Internet and phone systems would be down, classes were canceled for the day, Murphy said.
“I did this out of an abundance of caution,” she said, citing safety issues of the district’s more than 4,000 students. “I didn’t have a choice.”
Murphy said she inspected the room herself and was surprised at how hot it was. She noted only a few people in the district had phones with emails connected to them, which allowed her to communicate with others even though the system was offline. Murphy said cell phone signals are also poor in some areas of the city, including the Broken Ground Elementary School.
Murphy said she canceled school as quickly as possible to ensure Deerfield and the Concord Regional Technical Center could be informed about the change before they sent their buses out to pick up students.
Some sports programs will still have practice tonight, and the school board will host its monthly meeting.
There was some question as to whether school would be canceled on Tuesday. But the district’s vendors were able to fix the system, repair the air coolers, and get the servers back online, she said.
“We appreciate everyone’s patience as we experience this unexpected loss of connectivity,” Murphy said.
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