So, last Thursday the construction contractor at Hartford Public High cut the power without telling us, resulting in a two-hour blackout that knocked out network or phone service (or both) to sixteen other sites in the city. Tuesday we met with the contractor and the project management agency and were given many sincere sounding promises that this would never happen again.
Well, today at five thirty the power went out at HPHS again, for two hours. At this time I don't know whether this was due to accident, storm damage (there was a very fast moving violent thunderstorm that blew through around 3:00), or planned activity. I'll find out in the morning. If it turns out to be 'planned activity' all the kinds of gentle that I was with the project manager last time will be out the window.
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In other news, I was part of a meeting this morning with the principal of one of Hartford's new magnet schools. The meeting was to hammer out technology detail about how their program would integrate with our systems and the systems of their host site. For the second time I found myself locking horns with the principal over CIPA (the Children's Internet Protection Act).
The good man just does not seem to understand that the law doesn't make any exceptions whatsoever to its requirement that we filter student Internet access. No, saying that this is a mixed college/high school program and that parents expect their kids to be exposed to more 'grownup' stuff in a college setting won't cut it. No, getting the parents to sign a waiver won't cut it. Nothing will 'cut it'. Senator McCain saw to that when he sponsored this miserable piece of legislation.
And, Mr. Principal, the consequences of being caught out of compliance are the loss of a whole shitload of Federal funds. There would be a very, very long line of people wanting to wring your neck if you thought that being a "special" school caused you to ignore the law and get us in hock with the Feds. I would probably not even qualify to be first in line. I might not even be in the first twenty, after the Superintendent and all of his senior staff.
Some people just refuse to learn.
Well, today at five thirty the power went out at HPHS again, for two hours. At this time I don't know whether this was due to accident, storm damage (there was a very fast moving violent thunderstorm that blew through around 3:00), or planned activity. I'll find out in the morning. If it turns out to be 'planned activity' all the kinds of gentle that I was with the project manager last time will be out the window.
In other news, I was part of a meeting this morning with the principal of one of Hartford's new magnet schools. The meeting was to hammer out technology detail about how their program would integrate with our systems and the systems of their host site. For the second time I found myself locking horns with the principal over CIPA (the Children's Internet Protection Act).
The good man just does not seem to understand that the law doesn't make any exceptions whatsoever to its requirement that we filter student Internet access. No, saying that this is a mixed college/high school program and that parents expect their kids to be exposed to more 'grownup' stuff in a college setting won't cut it. No, getting the parents to sign a waiver won't cut it. Nothing will 'cut it'. Senator McCain saw to that when he sponsored this miserable piece of legislation.
And, Mr. Principal, the consequences of being caught out of compliance are the loss of a whole shitload of Federal funds. There would be a very, very long line of people wanting to wring your neck if you thought that being a "special" school caused you to ignore the law and get us in hock with the Feds. I would probably not even qualify to be first in line. I might not even be in the first twenty, after the Superintendent and all of his senior staff.
Some people just refuse to learn.
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