Teachers at Knoch Middle School have been equipped with “an abundance of hand-held radios” as an internet outage that began Friday, when there was no school for students, is also affecting phone lines, superintendent David Foley said Tuesday, Feb. 20.

The internet outage continued when students returned to school Tuesday and will likely be in place Wednesday. The middle school is the only building in the district experiencing internet and phone issues, Foley said. One phone in the middle school is accepting incoming and outgoing calls, he said.

He noted that the network issues are the result of a faulty component in the high school switchboard that receives information from the middle school.

A replacement piece is en route, Foley said, and is expected to arrive sometime Wednesday. As soon as the piece is replaced, the network should return to normal.

Foley said that as the outage continues into Wednesday, teachers are finding alternative teaching methods to any web-based programs they have been using.

At this time, Foley said the short-term internet outage is not affecting security. The middle school principal and assistant principal are in the hallways to assist teachers in case any issues arise, he said.