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Imagine, for a moment, a possible scenario for the
first day of school next January: Administrative computer
systems scramble student records. Heating and ventilation
systems shut down. Districtwide computer networks
grind to a halt. Security doors won't open. Voice
mail systems fall silent. Payroll and accounting systems
print nonsense numbers -- and the staff doesn't get
paid.
Houston, we have a Y2K problem.
Chances are, few school districts will experience
a computer meltdown this severe when classes resume
on Monday, Jan. 3, 2000. But the extent to which your
district will be affected by administrative and instructional
disruptions will depend in large part on the steps
you take now to head off year 2000-related computer
failures. (For a look at what some districts have
done, see the sidebar below.)
No one knows exactly how many computer systems will
choke when the clock strikes midnight on Friday, Dec.
31. This much is clear, however: With less than 300
days remaining to eradicate the Y2K bug from your
school district, time is quickly running out.
The two-digit dilemma
By now, the cause of the Y2K problem is common knowledge:
In the not-so-distant past, software programmers and
hardware designers commonly identified years by using
just the last two digits. The implicit assumption
was that the computers would never need to manipulate
dates outside the 1900-1999 time frame. But with unforeseen
longevity, many computer systems designed with this
memory-conserving shortcut are still performing tasks
crucial to the operation of school districts today.
The affected systems range from large mainframes
to personal computers to so-called embedded microchips
that control such functions as building security and
energy management. Unable to distinguish the year
2000 from 1900, some of these computers may crash,
make incorrect calculations, or fail in unpredictable
ways. Some Y2K errors are likely to show up early
in computer systems that forecast into the future.
Similarly, the start of the 1999-2000 fiscal and academic
years could trigger latent Y2K bugs in accounting
and scheduling software.
Two missing digits might sound like a trivial matter,
but many school districts are discovering that the
enormous scope of the problem makes eradicating the
year 2000 bug a time-consuming and expensive proposition.
Computer systems that depend on dates for correct
operation are pervasive and often interconnected,
with multiple and interdependent points of failure.
As an illustration, consider that attendance data
-- on which funding levels typically hinge -- are
often shared among several computer systems within
a school district, as well as exchanged between the
school district and the state department of education.
That information could become corrupted by Y2K bugs
in the hardware or software of one or more of the
computer systems, in the way the systems exchange
data, or even in the network itself. If the errors
are subtle, they might go unnoticed until extensive
damage has been done.
Even in the unlikely event that every single piece
of hardware and software in your district is Y2K-compliant
by design, that in itself is no guarantee that users
have entered data into the computer systems in Y2K-compliant
ways. In fact, two-digit year entries could be hiding
in spreadsheets and desktop databases all over your
district, causing incorrect calculations on dates
in the next century.
What's more, even if your school district is able
to rid all its computer systems of Y2K bugs, it could
still be adversely affected in the event one or more
business partners and suppliers -- such as electric
utilities, Internet service providers, or food service
companies -- fall victim to their own Y2K gremlins
and are unable to deliver their services as a result.
There is an upside to all this doom and gloom, however:
Many school districts have found that the Y2K problem
has prompted a much-needed reevaluation and modernization
of their data processing systems -- and provided an
opportunity to brainstorm alternative ways to conduct
business in the event the current systems fail. As
it turns out, even the computer bug of the century
has a silver lining.
Kill bugs fast
Clearly, the Y2K bug is much more than a computer
glitch -- it's a high-priority management issue. Because
the Y2K threat affects nearly every aspect of the
operation of a school district, it needs to be addressed
at the highest levels, starting with the school board
and superintendent.
"Identify the problem at the board level, put someone
on it, and fund it," says Bob Hughes, a school board
member in the Lake Washington School District in Kirkland,
Wash. "There's a specific deadline, so you gotta get
on it." (A former computer programmer, Hughes readily
concedes that he is part of the problem: "We had no
idea those programs would still be around today.")
Once the board has identified the Y2K bug as a top
priority for the school district, the next step is
to assign a high-level administrator the task of coordinating
the district's response. Although your district's
needs will vary depending on its size, school technology
experts who spoke with Electronic School suggest
the following general action plan for exterminating
Y2K bugs:
* Assemble your team. To succeed, you need
broad support and high visibility for your Y2K remediation
efforts. A cross-departmental team will help you gain
that support as well as help provide you with a complete
picture of your district's computer systems and of
how the various departments produce, store, and share
information. Your team should include staff members
from your district's administrative, data processing,
facilities and maintenance, transportation, security,
food service, and instructional units.
* Take inventory. This roundup should include
comprehensive lists of all the hardware, software,
and embedded systems currently in operation in the
district. Although potentially tedious to compile,
an up-to-date inventory is essential to performing
an accurate assessment of your district's Y2K risk
level.
* Set priorities. With your inventory in
hand, decide which systems are absolutely necessary
for your district to continue normal operations. Considering
the limited amount of time left, your best bet is
to focus on the most essential systems first. Obviously,
if your district runs its own payroll system, that's
a high priority. Similarly, fire and safety systems,
telephone systems, and heating and ventilation systems
should be considered mission-critical. In most cases,
instructional computer systems can be considered low-priority
-- after all, teachers will still be able to teach
even if the computers are down.
* Get it in writing. Contact the hardware
and software vendors of your in-house computer systems
and ask them to produce statements of Y2K compliance.
If the products are not compliant, ask whether upgrades
or patches are available. Similarly, contact your
mission-critical suppliers and ask for statements
of their Y2K readiness. If your district outsources
its payroll or other data processing, start there.
* Test, don't trust. Every computing environment
is different, so don't rely on vendors' Y2K compliance
statements (assuming you get them). Begin with your
mission-critical systems and conduct your own tests
by using off-the-shelf Y2K testing software, or by
setting clocks ahead and "aging" your data. Keep in
mind that computer systems that test fine in isolation
might fail when they're interconnected with other
systems, so don't forget to look for Y2K bugs in the
interfaces between computer systems as well.
* Upgrade, patch, replace, or abandon. Here,
your options are likely to vary according to the computing
platform. Mainframe computers often run highly customized
applications that must be patched in-house or by a
consultant. This is not as big a problem as it might
appear, as smaller districts are less likely to rely
on mainframes, while larger districts are more likely
to have in-house programmers who can provide Y2K fixes.
In some cases, you might find that replacing an ancient
system is the easiest solution, or even that a particular
system has outlived its usefulness and needs no replacement.
If your district is typical, chances are that Windows-based
PCs run many of your computer network services, such
as printing, e-mail, and district web servers. Solving
Y2K bugs in affected PCs might require upgrading the
BIOS (Basic Input-Output System) chip, the operating
system, and individual software applications, as needed.
Check with vendors, and run commercially available
hardware and software tests to see whether upgrades
in these areas are necessary and available. Software
that scans for and repairs noncompliant data in spreadsheets
and databases is also available.
Apple Macintosh computers are internally Y2K-compliant,
but older software applications written for Macs can
still have Y2K bugs. Again, your course of action
should be to check with the software vendor and run
your own tests if necessary. The same advice goes
for network hardware such as routers and hubs, as
well as embedded systems: Contact the vendor and upgrade
or replace if necessary.
* Have Plan B ready. Because there are too
many factors over which your district has no control,
your team should prepare contingency plans in the
event of Y2K failures. In many cases, district staff
members will need to know how to perform vital tasks
by hand -- such as payroll processing -- in case lurking
Y2K bugs bring one or more computer systems to a halt.
Give yourself a head start by checking in during the
New Year's weekend to look for obvious problems. You
might even consider delaying the start of classes
by a week. Of course, if ever there was a good time
to have back-ups of your district's most vital data
on hand, the year 2000 would be it.
* Document, document, document. To limit
your district's potential legal liability, be sure
to keep a thorough paper trail of every step you've
taken to ensure Y2K compliance. Ask your board attorney
for advice.
* Toot your horn. Don't wait until the job
is done (it'll be too late by then) to let the community
know about your efforts to squash the Y2K bug. Panic
feeds on a lack of information, so publish Y2K progress
reports on your district's web site and in school
newsletters.
I'm OK, you're OK
In the end, the most you can do about the Y2K bug
is to raise awareness, take prudent steps to prevent
it from affecting your district, and restrain the
tendency to overreact, board member Hughes says.
"Keeping a rational level of understanding is the
most important thing," Hughes advises. "Y2K is not
as critical an issue for a school district as it might
be for a fire department or hospital. And the things
that are most critical -- such as the power grid --
are not under our control."
And if -- despite all your careful preparations
-- the computers go down anyway, it might not be such
a big deal, Hughes adds: "This isn't the kind of thing
you move to the desert over. People might get a life.
The kids might have to use the blackboard and read
books for a while."
And that could be the Y2K bug's hidden blessing.
Lars
Kongshem is an associate editor and the webmaster
of Electronic School and The American School Board
Journal.
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