Dozens of Montgomery County parents feel schools not ready for virtual learning

POTOMAC, Md. (FOX 5 DC) - Dozens of frustrated parents don’t seem to think that schools in Montgomery County are ready to take on the first day of virtual learning on August 31.
 
Many of them have been venting and sounding off on social media about not being able to navigate through some of the parent portals they need, in order to set up their kids for online learning. 
 
The frustration is mostly surrounding the portal called the Synergy ParentVue which is also linked to ‘MyMCPS.’

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It’s the portal that allows parents to view assignments, class schedules, grades, and attendance.
 
According to a social media post from Potomac resident Golru Ghaffari, who is also a mom of two kids in elementary school, she was unable to register her daughter Layla into the profile. 
 
“There was more information that was actually given to me through Facebook that I didn’t get through the county,” said Ghaffari.
 
Ghaffari was not the only one having problems, as many other parents within that same private group chimed in as well.
 
“I feel like MCPS definitely dropped the ball in preparing for this,” said Ghaffari.
 
“I could not get my daughter linked into my profile and so when you click on the help tab it asked: ‘If you need additional assistance please contact your child’s school,’” which Ghaffari proceeded to do so, followed by several other steps in between including calling a help desk number.
 
The number didn’t work at first so Ghaffari said she called multiple times with no one picking up. When someone finally did answer, Ghaffari said she was on hold for half an hour. 
 
“They’ve had all summer to prepare for this,” said Ghaffari, “and you know, my belief is that for any sort of a large system you prepare for the worst and hope for the best. But here we are, over 24 hours later and I still don’t have her (Layla) merged on to my account.”
 
Some parents like Maria Mantzouranis said that although they too had some trouble at first, they were able to get it straightened out. 
 
“What I did was to look at the emails that were sent from each school and I went through the process and called the help center and they helped me,” Mantzouranis said.
 
“I’m just trying to give them (MCPS) benefit of the doubt.”
 
In response, MCPS sent FOX 5 a statement: 
 
“It would be hard to know exactly what issues they ran into without knowing the process they followed and if the system was accessed correctly. We've also heard from many parents who have been able to get in and are seeing schedules, teacher assignments and other pertinent info. We certainly understand their frustrations and are here to help. We shared the parent technology support line information with all families last week through multiple channels and will continue to push the information out so parents know exactly where to go to for help. Some items are still being loaded in on the school side (teacher assignments, etc), so we ask parents to give their schools some grace as they work to get all of the information in.
 
You may not know, but we have offered a series of parent webinars all week long to answer questions and help parents troubleshoot some of the issues they may run into. You can find that information here: https://bit.ly/34DaIFx.“
 
An MCPS hotline that has been set up for students and families can be dialed on: 240-740-7020 or email communitytechsupport@mcpsmd.org.
 
The help desk line won't be staffed over the weekend but the line is open ‪7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.