Many Cobb County students and parents who tried to attend virtual classes on the first day of school were unable to start their lessons due to a “server issue” on the district’s website.
This issue affected users who used that website to access the Cobb Teaching and Learning System (CTLS), a spokesperson said. Those students, as well as their parents and teachers, were unable to sign in to the program and had to use an alternate method of classroom instruction such as Zoom. A school district spokesperson said the issue had been identified and solved later in the morning.
Smyrna parent Austin Wagner was one of those parents. The Smyrna city councilman said his two children, who are in first and second grade at Smyrna Elementary School, tried to log on to CTLS 15 to 20 minutes before the day began and couldn’t access the program.
Fortunately, teachers on Sunday emailed Zoom links to parents and students to access in the event the system wasn’t accessible. His children’s classes were held on the Zoom platform until the day wrapped up around noon, Wagner said.
Wagner said he was able to check out CTLS over the weekend and was impressed with the system. However, he said he hopes the district is able to work out any issues so students won’t have their lessons interrupted.
“We’re trying not to be too hard on the people who are having to change everything to make this work,” he said.
The Cobb County school district has just under 110,000 students enrolled, but official numbers won’t be known until October, the district said. More than 100,000 students “successfully logged into the remote classroom” by noon, the system added. Principals are working to identify which students were absent, their reasons for not attending class and how they can help prevent another absence, the district said.
Cobb School Board Chairman Brad Wheeler said he expected there would be some “glitches” on the first day because thousands of students were logging on at the same time. However, Wheeler stressed that “everyone has to have patience” because CTLS is still a new program.
“It’s not the answer to everything and it’s not the best method of instruction, but it’s the best we have to offer at this time,’ he said.
The system was “easy peasy” for Marietta resident Sharona Sandberg and her son, an 11th grade student at Sprayberry High School. Sandberg said her son logged on to CTLS Monday and was kicked out for about five to 10 minutes before he was able to log back in. CTLS isn’t perfect, but it’s better by “leaps and bounds” than the system Cobb County implemented for remote learning in the spring.
Sandberg said her son and his friends have been able to interact with his teachers as well as his friends. She said they are already easing back into their normal routine of cracking jokes when they have time.
“They are able to do all that virtually and safely,” she said.
The district initially offered both face-to-face and remote learning choices for students, but decided to go all virtual due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Cobb County schools has received 32,658 requests for laptops from families in need and has distributed 26,012 to students. About 20 percent of those requested devices have not been retrieved by families, the district said.
