Not totally Y2-OK

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- It was Y2-chaos in Newport-Mesa Monday night as a

district computer called parents -- all night long -- telling them their

kids weren’t in school that day.

The glitch was the result of a Y2K upgrade, said Alan Engard, interim

director of information technology for the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District.

The district uses an automatic computer system to call the parents of

middle and high school students who have been marked absent.

The system is normally programmed to stop calling at 9 p.m., Engard said.

But after a Y2K systems upgrade, done by Williams Communication in Santa

Ana, which created the system, the shut-off time was not reprogrammed.

“This is the Newport-Mesa School District,” a recorded voice droned on

into the night.

“I saw in the log that parents answered the calls as late as 2:30 a.m.,”

Engard said. “Fortunately, if you answered the call, it wouldn’t keep

calling back.”

Newport Harbor and Corona del Mar high schools both received phone calls

Tuesday from baffled parents.

Pat Smith, who works in the attendance office at Corona del Mar High

School, said normally the calls are received earlier in the day, between

4 and 6 p.m.

“Naturally, it alarmed them initially,” Smith said. “I think we had four

phone calls, but there may have been other parents who knew it was a

mistake. Our parents were very cooperative.”