ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP — The Buckeye Local Schools Board of Education focused on technology during its December meeting, held at Braden Junior High on Tuesday evening.
A consulting firm, Vartek, assessed the district’s technology program earlier this year and prepared a number of options for the district to follow as a road map to improve its technology resources, said Superintendent Nancy Williams. School district employees Ken Veon, technology and curriculum supervisor, and Bruce De Ridder, maintenance supervisor, updated the board on how implementation of that plan is progressing.
De Ridder said the district is moving from Novell servers, which are nearing the end of their life span, to Microsoft. Conneaut Telephone Co. provided the preliminary design and implementation work. As part of that, the district is centralizing servers and moving to fiberoptic cable to increase the ability to move more data among buildings.
The district is starting implementation with Edgewood Senior High, the newest of the buildings, because it most likely has the longest remaining life. Ridgeview Elementary will be next.
Servers being installed under the plan will have sufficient memory and storage space to meet the needs of every student and staff member in the district, and a backup system for the entire network will be installed.
Their equipment plan also includes centralization of high-quality laser printers in key areas of each building. The district has adopted a policy of not replacing inkjet printers, which cost the district 20 to 30 cents per page printed. By contrast, laser printers produce prints for about a penny. The plan also calls for office copiers to be used for bulk-print jobs.
A study of service-call data handled by De Ridder showed that response time August through November was three days for the first response and two days for the full repair. Vartek recommends one to two days.
Accordingly, the board approved a one-year service contract with Conneaut Telephone Co. to provide on-site technology services and ease the long service-call times. The contract is for up to 96 hours per month, which can be used however De Ridder sees fit.
“Bruce is in charge of vendor support,” said Williams. The services can range from low-level tasks such as installing software to providing network design and implementation.
The idea of paying a vendor $4,000 a month, or $42.50 an hour, to install software raised questions among the board members, but Williams pointed out it was still less than what the district pays De Ridder when his benefits are factored in. She said the large amount of work to be done on district networking would dictate mostly high-level use through at least the end of next summer.
“I expect to use up the hours,” De Ridder said.
Board members also questioned hiring the firm without use of competitive bidding, but Williams said technology is an area where the district is not required to seek other bids. She said rates at other vendors were in the $90-an-hour range and she felt Conneaut Telephone has expertise in working with school districts, which makes the local company a good match.
The resolution to hire Conneaut Telephone Co. passed 5-0.
The board also approved a one-year contract with Meritech for printing services. The contract advances the district toward its goal of centralized printing and reducing costs. De Ridder said the contract will save the district about $3,000 annually. Under the agreement, the district will not own the printers but will be allocated 45,000 printed pages per quarter.
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