On Monday, October 28, at 4:12 p.m network connection to Los Altos High School was cut. For the next 24 hours, the MVLA Information Technology (IT) department worked tirelessly to get it back. Coincidentally, as a part of a plan that has been in the works for months, a backup fiber was added this Monday, November 11 to prevent similar future outages. 

Network Administrator Miguel Calvillo was notified immediately after the network failure. Within seconds he was on the phone with Department Director Bob Fishtrom, who found that all wireless access points and network switches were offline. This outage wasn’t enough to cancel the school day, but a serious concern for Fishtrom and his team. 

“We weren’t worried about a safety issue on campus, but we were worried instructionally because we want to make sure teachers can teach and students can learn,” Fistrom said. 

Within the MVLA district, there are two network providers: Comcast and AT&T. One AT&T line goes to the district office, and then branches out to individual schools. These lines are provided for free by Comcast, under a contract from 1988.

4:39 p.m

Calvillo drove to campus and called Comcast while Fistrom was updating Principal Tracey Runeare and Board members. Unfortunately, because the school’s contract with Comcast was so old, everyone Calvillo called was unfamiliar with the system. After hours on Comcast’s service line, a specialist was finally sent to find the root problem.

“It took Calvillo a little bit over three hours to get a human being not to hang up on him,” Fistrom said. 

10 p.m.

The technician met with Calvillo on campus to test the fiber within the power lines. He confirmed that the outage must be from a breakage around two miles from the district office, somewhere on Grant Road. Usually, within half an hour of the initial assessment, Comcast will deploy a truck to fix the fiber, but for some reason they didn’t.     

“We were really waiting on Comcast to get their act together and come out and fix it,” Calvillo said.

1 a.m

Calvillo returns home after exhausting his options. The IT team decides to sleep on it, as everything seems to be out of their hands at the moment. Tired and stressed, they await Comcast’s call.

“It’s a lot of frustration because we know what’s happening and we just don’t have the ability to do the work ourselves,” Calvillo said. 

5 a.m

Comcast calls Calvillo confirming that they will send a truck sometime around 9 a.m that morning.

5 p.m

In the afternoon on Tuesday, October 29, within 24 hours of the initial disruption, the network connection was back online and WiFI was restored at LAHS. 

The IT department is proud of their timely work, but still recognizes the unfortunate circumstance that interrupted learning for many. 

“I take it personally when things don’t go well, because I really care about my job, and I care about the safety of the students, the integrity of our network, and the instructional environment,” Fistrom said. “I’m glad we were able to deliver what we’re supposed to deliver.”

In particular, Fistrom commends Cavillo’s hard work, and that of his team, including Data Systems Specialist, Victor Escatal. 

Calvillo said he has since received emails from Comcast apologizing for the inconvenience of the situation. However, the MVLA IT Department has never seriously considered switching providers from direct site lines, as their current plan saves them a lot of money.