Natick Public Schools Technology Update January 26, 2009 Dennis Roche, CISA Director of Technology

Technology Agenda Topics Project Updates Replacement Funds Summary Community Awareness & Fund Raising Challenges for School Year

Project Updates Library Circulation System First Class System Replacement –New Teacher Web Page Solution –New and Archiving Solution Network Improvements Laptop Refresh

Library Circulation System Upgrade Worked with district librarians to research and select best available option. Selected system based on best fit for Natick Public Schools in terms of cost, functionality, customer support, conversion of data and reputation within K12 market place. Follett Software’s Destiny product was the hands- down choice.

Library Circulation System Upgrade Upgrade is scheduled to occurred over February break (2/16 - 2/20). Solution is web based and will allow students, parents and faculty and staff access to all school book collections from home. Intuitive User Interface.

First Class System Replacement A system that tries to be all things for all people. Currently used as our web hosting platform for teacher web pages and our district system. Poor support from the vendor and very limited options.

First Class System Replacement New Solution for Teacher Web Pages –Piloted School World Product –27 Teachers across the district participated –Vendor welcomed our feedback and made numerous adjustments. –Now offering various training sessions to teachers so we can retire First Class by end of this School Year.

First Class System Replacement New and Archiving System –Currently building new MS Exchange backend as our new platform. –All addresses will be changing to use the new domain: natickps.org –Old addresses will forward for a period of time. –Cutover to new system will occur during Summer of 2009 to minimize disruption. –Archiving solutions are being evaluated and will be implemented when the cutover occurs.

Network Improvements Transforming our backend network infrastructure to utilize various virtualization technologies: –VMware for Windows platform –Parallels for MAC platform Benefits include: –Server consolidation; able to provide same level of service with fewer physical boxes. –Added redundancy without incurring additional hardware costs. –Quicker provisioning of new requests when not waiting for new hardware. –Less demand for electricity and cooling within main data center. Deployment scheduled for Summer 2009.

Laptop Refresh New Software Image - Scheduled for Summer 2009 –New client –New network domain settings –Software updates to operating system and browser plug-ins –Retraining of staff on all new features

Replacement Funds Summary

Community Awareness & Fundraising Taste for Technology - February 7th A big THANK YOU! to all party hosts and organizations that have volunteered to help with this initiative!!! Any individuals or organizations still interested in getting involved may contact one of the co-chairs of the Parent Coordinating Council: –Amy Mistrot at –Chris McLarnon at

Challenges for School Year How do we continue to move technology forward during challenging economic times?

Challenges for School Year Technology is a moving target and requires regular annual investment. It will not wait for us to catch up. Staying where we are is simply not an option because it means falling behind and repeating a costly and vicious cycle.

Challenges for School Year Funding replacement of equipment on an annual basis is a good step forward but we need to advance the conversation. To fund a sustainable technology program will require a new way of thinking and a new model.

Challenges for School Year The new model should allow us to share the cost of ownership. Trends in the marketplace continue to evolve and more mobile devices than ever are being introduced every day. School Districts need to be aware of these trends and prepare the network infrastructures to support them. Doing so may put districts in a position to share the cost of the ever changing client devices.

Plan for School Year Year 2 of Laptop Lease203,000 Pilot Managed Wireless Infrastructure70,000 Pilot Mobile Devices30,000 Wiring Closet Upgrades69,000 Fund Raising and Community Awareness (LCD Projectors and Interactive Whiteboards) Private Funding Totals$372,000

New Requests School Year Middle School Multi-Media Computers Minimum level to ensure each Middle School has effective computers for today’s multi-media demands 75,000 Network StorageDevice currently out of warranty. 15,000 IStaff ModuleNeeded to consolidate multiple data bases. 11,000 Total$101,000

Technology Operating Budget History YearBudgetInc/(Dec) FY06143,5780 FY07139,432(4,146) FY08139,4320 FY09543,578404,146 FY10597,62454,046

Additional Costs in FY10 Technology Operating Budget ConnectED17,000 IPass Annual Support25,000 Eutactics - Expanded Use5,000 Atomic Learning6,000 NetTrekker2,000 Library Circulation Systems8,000 United Streaming11,000 Total74,000

Technology Staffing