A perfect storm of beginning-of-year calls from parents and professionals resulted in a near-complete failure of the phone system at ConVal High School, South Meadow School and SAU 1 offices.
As a result, district officials have set up emergency phone lines until repairs can be made.
According to Assistant Superintendent Kimberly Saunders, the phone systems at ConVal High School and the SAU/SMS building began failing in early June. At that time, employees and parents began to report dropped calls, line static and persistent busy signals. The problem gradually escalated until yesterday, when they came to a head.
District officials will meet tomorrow morning with representatives from FairPoint, Paetec and Black Box, the three infrastructure and service providers that manage the telephone lines for the buildings. District officials hope to begin repairs as soon as possible.
When asked whether the district could face significant costs for the repairs, Saunders said “that will likely be one of the topics in tomorrow’s conversation. FairPoint is in Chapter 11, so I don’t know what that will mean.”
For more information and emergency contacts, visit www.conval.edu.