Wed Nov 18 2020, 6:15pm
Via Zoom Video Webinar and Telephone
Regular Meeting

REPORTS TO THE BOARD

Technology Report

To: Michael Green

From: Steve Rippl

Date: November 12, 2020

RE: Tech Dept. Executive Summary

Keeping up with demand is still a strain for our department. The continued high use combined with a rapidly evolving landscape of needs has us still struggling to keep up with the day-to-day things, and ignoring anything not immediate. As an example, our current method of printing on Google Chrome devices is being depreciated. We have a replacement system ready but haven’t actually transitioned all printers and devices over to it yet, because it just hasn’t reached the “must be done now” point. Our current system will stop working at the end of December so it is fast approaching our priority list! 

We haven’t usually operated in this very short-term mode for long, but haven’t been able to shake it with current circumstances. Getting some additional support temporarily for the department will be a relief and hopefully allow us to redistribute our workload and catch up some.

We’re also trying to plan for the next round of Federal Erate support as that deadline is looming. The rules have changed slightly, rather than each building having a 5-year budget we now have a central district budget, allowing us to put resources wherever they are most needed. Our focus this year is continuing the maintenance cycle for our UPS batteries (these support our network switches and ensure our network and phones remain up for a period of time even in the event of a power outage), and replacing some of our large central switches which are now getting on for 15 years old (put in place just around the time I started here!). 

I believe our hybrid setups in classrooms are working well. We’ve kept it simple, but I hope engaging enough for both the students in class and at home. Our teachers and support staff are certainly now well versed with the various tools involved and are having no problem running their classrooms. We’ll continue the same model into the secondary grades when they are ready to return for hybrid school.