Education

Beaufort Co. schools state testing continues after delay for district internet outage

The internet is back up for Beaufort County schools, following a 90-minute outage Monday morning as students took state-mandated end-of-course exams, which are administered online.

The internet was down for approximately 90 minutes, between 9:30 and 11 a.m., district spokesman Jim Foster said. EOC exams are proceeding after a 90-minute delay, he said.

The district still does not know the cause of the district-wide outage, Foster said Monday.

“Our tech folks are still figuring out what occurred,” he said.

A similar incident in 2013 was caused by a cut fiber at a Savannah connection facility of Hargray Communications, the district’s then-internet provider. The district’s internet was down for more than four hours then, according to previous reporting by the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.

The district’s current internet provider is Segra, formerly known as Spirit Communications, Foster said Monday.



This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 11:33 AM.

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Rachel Jones
The Island Packet
Rachel Jones covers education for the Island Packet and the Beaufort Gazette. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has worked for the Daily Tar Heel and Charlotte Observer. She has won awards from the South Carolina Press Association, Associated College Press and North Carolina College Media Association for feature writing and education reporting.
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