US school hopes lights can finally shut off after costly computer glitch

In a November 2021 story, the school’s student newspaper, The Smoke Signal, reported that a computer server that controlled what was supposed to be a lighting system designed to save power, failed in August 2021 and could not be fixed. — Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

WILBRAHAM, Massachusetts: It’s hoped that the lights at a Massachusetts high school will be able to be turned off by the end of next month, about a year-and-a-half after a computer glitch kept the lights on night and day, officials say.

The unusual challenge faced by Minnechaug Regional High School, located in the western Massachusetts town of Wilbraham, means there has been no way to turn the lights off short of unscrewing bulbs or flipping circuit breakers that leave entire sections of the building in the dark.