Ames Community School Email 98 Percent Successful

Anyone who hasn't received messages from the just needs to mark the email address as safe, also known as whitelisting.

The district had an over the summer months that prevented them from communicating electronically. But Karl Hehr, Technology Director of the Ames Community School District, said that a very high percentage of e-mails are now in fact getting through.

If people want to ensure that mail is received they can add the district's email address “ames.k12.ia.us” to a safe list, keeping messages out of spam and junk mail folders.

The district's email was identified as a spammer over the summer when some email accounts were compromised and began sending spam in the school district's name.

Hehr said he doesn't know the content of the messages but received a voicemail from GM asking for the district to stop emailing them.

A network administrator has logged overtime to deal with the issue and they are increasing security in the hopes that this doesn't happen again, Hehr said. Removing the school from a blacklist was easy but Hehr said major email providers like Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail don't subscribe to blacklists. Those servers have their own safety programs in place and the district had to work with the companies to have the district removed from spam lists, Hehr said.

In the next few weeks, Hehr said videos teaching people how to whitelist the district's email will be available on the district's website.

Last week, 98 percent of all emails were being received or delivered, Ames Community Schools Superintendent Tim Taylor said.