LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – Fayette County Public Schools tech staff are in the process of handing out Chromebooks to students enrolled in the virtual learning academy and distributing them to schools that still need them.

Director of Technology Bob Moore says the district still needs about 10,000 chrome books. He says the district has already ordered them and they should be coming in smaller shipments over the next few weeks. Students have been in virtual classes for two weeks now and tech staff are seeing common problems.

“We’ve had a lot of password resets that we’ve had to do, some software that needed settings changed,” Moore said.

Zoom has also been an issue, with instances where students are kicked out of classrooms.

“It could be an internet connection that drops out for a few seconds, a hardware issue, or it could be on Zoom’s end,” Moore said.

Moore says the platform can be sluggish at times with so many schools across the country using it. The district has taken steps to ensure student safety by posting Zoom links to private web pages. Many parents, though, are complaining about long wait times for the help desk.

“It has been very busy, especially that first week of school. We did have some wait time that were up in the 20 minute range.”

Moore says the tech department is working to reduce those wait times. He acknowledges that some students are having problems with internet speed and explains hot spots can handle only two to four people at a time. But for students living in rural areas, hot spots may not be the best option.

“These hot spots are cellular devices,” Moore said. “Whenever we go into some of the more rural areas the cell coverage just isn’t very good.”

He says staff are exploring ways to provide wired and satellite internet.

Jessica Hiler, president of the Fayette County Education Association, says teachers are becoming more aware with technical problems and how to address them.

“If there’s something going on in your house that continues to happen every single day with your device or with the platform to make sure you’re reaching out to the teachers so that they know,” Hiler said.

If you are having problems, staff say you should try to reboot your Chromebook and reconnect to the internet. If you still have problems, they say you should call the help desk at 859-381-4110.

The tech department has hired outside contractors to repair Chromebooks so staff can assist with calls. The department also plans to set up a call forwarding system.

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