LMHS, Harriton Students Encounter Web Access Problems at Home

Students at  and  are being blocked from educational websites when they use their school district-issued laptops at home, an LMHS student told the Lower Merion Board of School Directors at its meeting Monday night.

Charlie Li—a senior who is head of Lower Merion High School student council’s technology committee and also serves on the Lower Merion School District’s technology advisory committee—said he was before the board to speak on behalf of Lower Merion and Harriton High School students who are being “adversely affected” by changes to the district’s laptop policies, which were updated in April but not implemented until September.

Li said he wanted to inform the school board of the “many bugs and problems that have arisen” since high school students received their laptops at the start of school earlier this month.

‘We are all very apologetic. It was never our intention to filter out educationally appropriate sites.’ — Superintendent Christopher McGinley

Li said due to Internet filtering, students have found that they cannot sign onto college board websites to sign up for tests or check their scores and “numerous educational sites have been blocked.”  All of these problems with blocked sites have occurred at home, not at school, Li said.

Superintendent Christopher McGinley apologized for the problems students have experienced.

“We are all very apologetic,” McGinley said. “It was never our intention to filter out educationally appropriate sites.”

George Frazier, the district’s director of information systems, said the district is “working diligently to unblock any sites that should not be blocked.”

Frazier said the district is taking time to review some sites to verify that they are educationally appropriate.

But other blocked sites are becoming accessible to students more quickly.

“Anything that’s clearly educational, we’ve been opening up immediately,” Frazier said.

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In August, the  Lower Merion School District Board of School Directors, on top of the two civil suits that drew nationwide attention in 2010, alleging invasion of privacy through photos captured from school-issued laptop computers. , with the district's insurance provider agreeing in a separate settlement to cover more than $1.2 million in accumulated legal fees.

Pool too for school

The new pool at Lower Merion High School will be open to the public for the first time on Monday, Sept. 26, McGinley said. The pool will be available for community use before and after school.

“We look forward to seeing lots of people back here using the pool,” McGinley said.

The brand new pool is accessible to the disabled and includes a “beach entrance,” or sloped entrance into one side of the pool, with a railing, racing lanes and diving platforms, McGinley told Patch after the meeting.

Residents of Lower Merion Township and Narberth may use the pool for open swim and lap swims from September through June by paying an annual membership fee, which ranges from $250 for families to $150 for an individual adult to $50 for an individual child, according to the district’s website. 

Swimming lessons and water aerobics classes will be offered for additional fees, the district website states.

More information about community swim times for the new pool and pool memberships can be found here.

The Lower Merion Aquatic Club will also be using the pool at Lower Merion High School, after the board voted unanimously Monday night to approve a one-year license agreement between the district and the club.

The agreement states which hours the Aquatic Club will have use of the pool and the fee the club will pay to the school district, which amounts to about $40 per hour, McGinley told Patch in an interview after the meeting.