TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN
Current Situation
Clear Creek School District consists of two school buildings and an administration building. The Kindergarten through 8th grade are in one building. The other building is a high school. The district is growing as new families move into our area to work at the software warehouse that has recently opened up. The community voted to build a new building for the school and to upgrade the technology facilities in the older schools. A bond issue was put to vote and passed. This plan is intended to guide us through all of the decisions that this large change means for our district.
At the present time there are LANs in both the lower school
and the high school. These LANs run the automated card cataloguing system
in the libraries and are limited to the Media Center. Each school also
has a few stand-alone computers. Teachers or PTA purchased these. Some
of them were earned in grocery store receipt drives. The administration
uses a UNIX mainframe to do the payroll and other administrative functions.
The Superintendent and his secretary both use Wintel machines.
FUTURE SITUATION
The School Board is committed to having a state of the art networked school district. The plan is to install a WAN that would unify the administration and the schools. Each school would have an up to date lab that can easily be used by a whole class. Every classroom would have 5 network drops and computers so that integration of technology into the curriculum could work smoothly. An extra drop will be added to each room so that there is room to grow. Of course the WAN would provide access to the Internet and the World Wide Web.
After much research the school district has decided to go with a leasing plan on the computers. We have found a company that will lease the machines at $50 per machine a month. In three years we have the option to upgrade and lease again or purchase the machines we have for a small amount. Since technology is changing rapidly we want to provide for the future as well as now. A fund is being set up with part of the money from the bond issue. This fund will take care of the monthly payments. We are beginning a fund raising campaign in order to add to the fund so that in three years it will not be depleted and we can use it for further upgrading as needed.
One of the first priorities is to get teachers, administration and staff communicating via e-mail. In order to open our learning to the world, classes could participate in Internet projects with people from all over the world. All of our faculty and students will be able to look at the automated card catalog from their class, and in the future even be able to check out books virtually.
The technology that is being added to the school will benefit our community as well as the school. Labs and auditoriums are being planned with community events as well as school activities in mind. This plan was created in consultation with teachers, principals, students and community members. It has taken longer to plan this way, but there has been much more buy in by all of the people involved which will make for a better plan.
We are hiring a local security company to install an alarm system in each of our buildings. This company monitors the alarms and responds when one goes off. It will be difficult at first for the staff to adjust to the extra security measures, but they do recognize the need for it.
The school district has decided not to filter the Internet
at this time. The software to do it would prevent us from purchasing other
software of more direct educational value. We have written an Acceptable
Use Policy that clearly describes the expectations for proper use of the
Internet and the penalties for crossing the boundaries. In the elementary
and middle school buildings the AUP will be distributed, but only students
doing extensive Internet work (putting their pictures, names, or work on
the www) will have to sign them. In the High School each year as part of
registration students will have to bring in this form signed by both the
student and the parents. In the event of any disciplinary measures the
document will assist in taking action.
Purpose of the infrastructure
This is the most important question that we will consider in this report. An undertaking of this kind requires significant resources, both financial and physical. We have deliberated long over the costs and benefits of networking our District. It has become clear to us that our world has changed in important ways. A WAN will open up the windows of our school to the world. We live in a small town and many students never have a chance to see the ocean, a beach, or a big city. We feel we are doing a disservice to the students if we do not at least expand their experience.
We cannot predict the jobs that our students will be doing in the future. Our goal then is to teach them the skills and introduce them to the tools that will help them to be successful at whatever they try. Technology is central to providing students a smooth transition from school to work.
The WWW also offers learning opportunities for our teachers that we could not provide in any other way. Several Universities are offering Online courses that would allow our teachers to advance their learning without leaving their jobs here. We hope that it will help the turnover rate in teachers.
Another reason we have decided to follow this particular Infrastructure Plan is we are hoping in the future to make better use of the lines of communication between administration and specific buildings. This would effect our attendance system and policies, assessment, and possibly even lunch count.
The community is the final consideration in planning the network. The taxpayers have voted for this plan and we feel that it should be a project that ties the community together making a stronger town. We are planning e-mail connections between our students and senior citizens in our community. The labs and auditoriums are being planned with community uses in mind.
Future proofing
The Infrastructure that we are planning here can be added onto in the future. We have been careful to purchase items with open specifications, so that they will be compatible with changes that may come in the future. We will be running more wire in this plan than will be used right away with an eye to growth. Each classroom is being provided with an extra network drop for easy expansion of the network.
We are budgeting for the future knowing that the equipment will need upgrading and eventually replacement. Leasing equipment and planning a future budget need to maintain that payment should insure that we are able to keep up.
The leasing agreement that we are signing provides us with a replacement server each year. This should keep our network problems to a minimum.
The local Telephone Company has run wire up to each of our buildings. We are contracting to use that fiber as our backbone. We wish we could put fiber into all of the buildings, but it is too expensive at this point. We have put wire and casing into each of the buildings in a way that will make it easy to rearrange or replace in the future.
Size of infrastructure
The technology infrastructure that we are planning will connect the three current buildings and the building that is in the planning. It would provide for all of them access to the Internet. Below are more details on what will be included in each building:
Networking
After consulting with the teachers and principals we decided to install a client/server network. See the diagrams for an idea of how things will be connected.
Video
The local Cable Company is donating its service for free to wire each of the school buildings for video access.
Bells, paging, intercom
There will be an Intercom System put into each of the buildings except the Administration building. This will allow communication throughout the building. Included in this effort will be telephones in each classroom in each of the school buildings.
Hardware selection
We have elected to purchase Wintel Machines from Gateway
because they offer a good service contract. We will not be able to hire
a whole technology staff, so we will have to rely on outsourcing for some
repairs.
Vendors
There is a contract with outside companies for these items:
Growth
What we have planned here is much more than we need now.
It is like buying clothes that are too big and growing into them. There
is money being budgeted and built upon for the future when we need to upgrade
and change some of what we are doing.
Staffing
The Technology Staff currently consists of one Network Administrator who was hired to get this plan going. Next year the plan is to hire two other people in the technology department. One would be a technician who would be responsible for the repairs. The other would be a Technology Integration Specialist who will be responsible for helping the teachers to use the technology in ways that support learning. See the Logical Diagram for more detail.
Ideally we would have one Integration Specialist in each
school and at least two technicians. It has been recommended to the school
board to plan for future hires in this area.
| Drawing of The Administration Building | Drawing of the Elementary School |
| Drawing of the High School | Drawing of the Middle School |
| Drawing of the Entire District |
