Virus disrupts grade entries

Hundreds of elementary school teachers were shocked recently when they attempted to enter student grades on district computers and found themselves either barred from logging on or unable to save information.

Much of the problem appeared to be the work of a computer virus that entered the system because virus software had not been set to update automatically, according to Tony Tortorice, chief information officer for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Tortorice said the system is old and nearing capacity.

By Monday morning the situation had improved considerably because technicians were able to allocate more capacity to the overrun system, and the district was working with a private vendor to eradicate problems the virus caused. The issue did not affect secondary schools, which operate on a newer system.

At elementary schools, 60% of grades, due Thursday, had been successfully entered as of Friday.

The computer system is set to be replaced in fall 2010.

--

-- Howard Blume