CURRITUCK COUNTY, N.C. — As North Carolina students sat down in front of laptops and Chromebooks on August 17 for the first day of school, some had trouble logging in to the new, virtual program.
The issue involved IAM/NCEdCloud, and it was having an impact on school districts across the state. Many of them shared news of the problem through their social media accounts, including Facebook.
Among those in northeastern North Carolina that posted about the IAM/NCEdCloud outage were Currituck County Schools (CCS) and Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools (ECPPS).
The Currituck County post said:
NC EdCloud is experiencing a statewide outage this morning. Staff and students across the state are experiencing problems logging into PowerSchool. We will update everyone when we receive information from the state.
“Charlotte, Durham, Wake, some of the larger school districts felt the impact, but some more than others it just depends on what you had planned for the first day,” said Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools, Superintendent Dr. Catherine Edmonds.
Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools' shared some additional information in posts on its Facebook.
ECPPS said the outage was affecting Canvas, PowerSchool, Edgenuity and Schoolnet, but not affecting Google Meet or Zoom.
Edmonds said “NCedCloud,” has crashed before, but that means they knew how to handle it.
“When it’s time to get the work done, we are going to make it happen,” said Edmonds.
Dr. Edmonds said the district pivoted fast and is committed to making sure students continue to learn every day.
“So, we want to be here to support our community and we know that there’s some frustration and we understand,” said Edmond.
For some parents, the technical issue only added to the frustration of virtual learning this fall.
Charles Mahaffey said he’s disappointed in the preparation for this first day of school. He said, “all of this work they’ve supposedly been doing, and now it’s flat on its face.”
“With parents, they’ve got so much to do as it is, and kids don’t look at their parents the same as they look at the schoolteacher,” said Mahaffey.
Other parents told us they understand.
“It’s going to get better. They’re going to work out the kinks,” said Currituck County Public School parent Rhiannon Hartley.
ECPPS parent Sonda Brown was one parent who was more understanding.
“You know, they’ll get it together. It’s the first day of school and this is something new for everybody,” said Brown.
She’s looking at what virtual learning has to offer her children, students and educators.
“It doesn’t frustrate me at all. It would frustrate me more if she fought COVID and had to go to the hospital," Brown said.
Around 1 p.m. Monday afternoon, Currituck County Public Schools posted that the glitch is fixed, but “NCedcloud,” officials said they’re still looking into what caused it.
Later Currituck County Public Schools officials sent us this statement:
"This morning as our teachers and students began trying to access the NCEdCloud, our portal that houses PowerSchool, they were unable to log in. Our district technology staff logged a technology trouble ticket in with the state notifying them of the issue we were encountering. Soon thereafter, we received a notice from DPI indicating that the problem was not isolated to our district, but was rather a state issue affecting school districts throughout the state. At approximately 11:20 am, we received word from the state that the system was back up and running. At this point, NCEdCloud and PowerSchool are accessible to staff, students, and parents."
Since Governor Roy Cooper called for caution in mid-July, schools have had the option to decide between limiting capacity in their buildings and going completely online.
Currituck County opted for a virtual track, and a flexible start to the year.
Dr. Matthew Lutz, the interim superintendent, sent out a letter with plans for this first week of school back on August 7.
"Our first week of school for our K-8 buildings, August 17th- 21st, will be a soft start," he wrote. "During the first week, school staff will be working to make sure all families have what they need to be successful with remote learning. We will be providing devices to all students K-12 to start the year."
This is a developing story. It will be updated when more information about the technical issue becomes available.