Janine,
Our district uses Barracuda web filter. Prior to this year, the only way to access a blocked site was to send an email to the Tech Director and have them review the site and remove the block. This never happened as fast as you wanted it to, and didn't always resolve the whole problem with the site.
Recently, the Tech dept. in our district opened up teachers' accounts to access blocked sites with a password. The tech department knows instantly that it's a teacher accessing blocked sites and not students, and you get instant access to most site you need to research what you a looking for. Possibly this is in the future in your district?
Good Luck!

WOW! That would be great if our district would do that. This year they added BArracuda, but even if it is a teacher, they are still blocking us. It is very frustrating. What school district are you in?