Template for a letter to the local Board of Education regarding your school system's Y2k compliancy     

You have my permission to copy this letter and send it to your local school officials. Items in red should be removed and replaced with local references.


Your name
Your street address
Your town, state and Zip
Date

Superintendent of Schools
Board of Education  address



Dear your Superintendent of Schools,

As of mid-summer 1999, there has been no  official word to parents from the your School System school board regarding Y2k issues and how they may impact our schools.  On August 5, the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion Third Summary of Assessment Information had this to say about the readiness of our educational system to confront issues of Y2k compliance:

          "More information about the Y2K readiness of the nation's schools has been forthcoming in the past quarter and it is clear that educational organizations need to increase the pace of their efforts to prepare for the date change.
A troubling number of institutions, especially in the elementary/secondary area, have not yet completed their assessment of systems and are lagging in remediation and testing. According to spring/summer 1999 Department of Education survey data, only 28 percent of more than 3,500 Superintendents/Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) indicated that all of their mission-critical systems are now Y2K compliant, and only 30 percent of roughly 2,100 postsecondary educational institutions reported that all of their systems are Y2K compliant. Furthermore, many school districts and postsecondary institutions project that they will not complete Y2K work and contingency planning until after October 1, 1999. Y2K-related failures in schools are unlikely to have a direct impact on teaching and learning. However, such failures could have an adverse impact on other factors critical to the education environment, such as building safety/infrastructure, student records, payroll, and curriculum involving use of information technolog."

How does the  Your school district school system measure up? Here are some questions that need to be answered by the school board:

1/ In New York State we are required by law to complete 180 days of school. What is the policy on how we fulfill that requirement if we lose substantial amounts of our calendar due to Y2k disruption?  While Your electricity provider feel confidant about their ability to provide electricity, there may be circumstances beyond their control that hamper their ability to provide services due to problems with their suppliers. Do we have written plans for how the school would deal with rolling blackouts? What is Your school district's stated policy  regarding how long to keep children at school waiting for a power outage to be fixed, before deciding to send them home?

2/ We usually don't even have our hundredth day of school until February. If there is a need to close the schools for longer than planned and we use up all our snow days and work through our vacation days, will we be required to continue school through July to make up extra days? Will we make our school days longer so that we can avoid the summer heat? How much time could the school system write off in an emergency situation and still enable the children to get credit for that year?

3/ If there are contingency plans that require that our schools be used as community shelters in the event of a considerable Y2k disruption,  do we have specific staff members who are working with the Red Cross and town officials?

4/ Do any of our schools have generators?

5/ Have the following systems been checked for embedded chips and other issues of Y2k compliancy:
    ·fire alarm systems?
    ·ventilation?
    ·telephones?
    ·cafeteria cash registers?
    ·vending machines?

6/ Are all our vendors compliant? Has this been independently verified?

7/ If any vendors are not compliant, do we have compliant vendors lined up? 

8/ If our customary vendors claim they are still working on compliancy, what dates are set as absolute deadlines so that other vendors can be contacted if the initial vendors cannot be counted on?

9/ Have our food suppliers verified that their software and hardware for checking food freshness dates and keeping food at appropriate temperatures are compliant?  Has this been independently verified?

10/  Do our school kitchen and food handling areas have a means of telling whether there has been a power outage while school is not in session (overnight/weekend/holiday) that could have compromised food safety but which might not be readily apparent to visual inspection?

11/ Are our the school payroll systems compliant?  Are the systems that deal with pensions, transcripts, and insurance  Y2k compliant?

12/ If funds are transferred electronically from Federal and State and other sources to our school, are the systems transferring those funds  Y2k compliant?

13/ Is the school system's bank Y2k compliant?

14/ Are there plans to add any special Y2k programs to the curriculum?  What plans do the school psychologists have to offer support to children who are worried about the potential impact of Y2k? When our teachers
discuss Y2k with the children, how do we know that they are all sufficiently aware of the issues? Will the children be getting mixed messages about the importance of Y2K preparation  if their teachers are poorly informed? How can we empower the children to make them feel less helpless about the uncertainties?

I would like a written answer to these questions, please. Thank you for your time and attention.

                                                                                                                                        Sincerely,

                                                                                                                                      Your name

cc:  each member of the Board of Education
      each school principal