HAYS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — “It’s been nonstop,” said Kris Peterson, administrative support director with Hays Consolidated Independent School District.
On its first day of virtual school, the district fielded about 576 calls to its help hotline, she says.
“They’ll leave voicemails, so then we try to go back and get to the voicemails, and as soon as I hang up on the voicemail and lift my finger up–it’s a call,” Peterson said.
And that’s just calls to the support line. A spokesperson for Hays CISD says they have a total of 70 phone lines. For the first time in recent history, he says all lines were tied up for about 25 minutes Tuesday morning.
San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District experienced a similar wave.
“I actually went by the technology building around 7:30 [a.m.], and all the lines were being put to use,” said Andrew Fernandez, spokesperson for San Marcos CISD.
He says as of 10:30 a.m., their technology support team had fielded about 600 calls.
“My middle child, she could not log on yesterday when we practiced,” said Sylvia Muzzy, who had a practice run with her freshman student.
She says they emailed the teacher and were able to avoid calling tech support on Tuesday.
Both districts’ tech teams are now identifying ways to improve for day two and beyond.
“Getting into Zoom meetings and stuff like that, so we’re going to have to do some tweaking and try to figure out the best way to handle that,” Peterson said.
“Making sure the devices are running as we want them to, and then if we missed anybody… We want to get a hold of those families,” said Fernandez.
He says if a campus parent liaison cannot reach families, they will make house visits. For now, school officials are reassuring parents that troubleshooting is part of the plan.
“Just relax. The first week is exactly what we’re doing; figure out how to log in, figure out how to get to your classes, call us if you have problems,” Peterson said.
For Muzzy, who was stressed about navigating virtual school for her kindergartner, it’s a mindset she’s taking on this week.
“I don’t feel like I was 100% prepared, but I also didn’t put too much stress on myself to mess up,” she said.
The help hotline for San Marcos CISD is (512) 757-8880. You can also find more online resources for SMCISD here.
The help hotline for Hays CISD is 4-HELP. Hays CISD encourages you to email the help desk if phone lines are tied up at helpdesk@hayscisd.net.
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