Snafu neuters Burbank High’s website

School web pages have a trove of information, from course catalogues, athletic schedules, homework assignments — and now pet food.

A miscommunication between Burbank High School staff and its Internet hosting provider resulted in a vastly scaled down BurbankBulldogs.org that featured links to pet supplies.

The school mascot is a bulldog, which probably explains the resulting links to pet supply retailers, said Assistant Principal Hani Youseff.

“They’ve put a rush on it,” he said. “They are working on it and we hope to have it resolved.”

The lease on the domain name requires renewal every few years. The process is triggered by a reminder the Internet hosting company sends school staff, but the notification never came, Youseff said. Because renewal is a one-time action every few years, school officials simply forgot, he said.

“What they do is they generate a reminder to renew,” he said. “They didn’t send the update.”

The problem was first reported Tuesday afternoon, he said.

In recent years, the web page was maintained by a student class as part of their coursework. But with budget cuts, that technology class was rearranged, and the website is updated by a school teacher and a few “generous” students, Youseff said.

The school website is equipped to handle many questions from current and perspective families, but Youseff said he hadn’t heard anyone call school officials regarding the faulty web page.

The real Burbankbulldogs.org site should be restored by Thursday, officials said.