Sign up for newsletter

November 15, 2001

Tech Support: More for Less

By Bridget Murray

Today's school districts face a daunting challenge: providing and maintaining the most advanced technology for the least amount of money. Here's how three districts are getting the biggest bang for their technology buck.

Reallocating Funds to Build a Support Infrastructure

When John Porter took the helm as chief information officer for the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, he was surprised to find that the relatively wealthy suburban district-the nation's 19th largest-was lagging behind the rest of the country in technology integration.

For Porter, the county's Global Access Technology program, a plan for putting computers in all the county's schools over 11 years, fell short on several fronts: 11 years was too long; there was no provision to refresh outdated machines; and, under the allotted budget, some of the county's schools would still lack computers, even after 11 years.

What's more, only schools that had received machines through the Global Access program qualified for computer support from the county's limited technicians. This meant schools that had struggled to find computers on their own had to fend for themselves when it came to installation, upkeep, and troubleshooting. Not surprisingly, the schools that had the best support resources were those receiving funds from parent-teacher organizations and foundations in the county's wealthier areas. "Affluent parents were filling the gap by starting foundations and buying labs to compensate," says Porter.

County officials decided something had to be done to level the technological playing field across the county's 190 schools. Their answer: reallocating funds in the county's hefty school budget. Montgomery County is exceptional in that 90 percent of the school budget comes from the county's large taxpayer base. This year the district's operating budget is more than $1 billion. Of that, the technology office gets close to $9 million for its capital fund and more than $23 million for its operating budget.

With the new reallocation, considerably more of the capital budget will go toward buying, upgrading, and replacing computer hardware, and notably more of the operating budget will go toward technology support. The county was able to realign the budget by spending what they already had more effectively. For example, pressure was put on computer companies to offer more competitive pricing, increase the warranties on the machines, and be responsible for their installation and maintenance. This allowed existing support staff to focus their attention on more significant tech problems; it also freed up funds to put toward hiring and retaining tech support staff, known in the county as user support specialists.

The new initiative, called the Technology Modernization Program, already appears to be paying off. A county user support specialist now serves each high school, as well as the elementary and middle schools that feed it. In some cases, the county has even hired user support specialists to serve an individual school full-time. One school benefiting from such an arrangement is Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda. There, support specialist Greg Thomas helped purchase 500 relatively new PCs and connected them to the school district's T-1 line. Because he is on-site, he can integrate all new software on the school's network and troubleshoot hardware problems.

Not all schools are as lucky as Walt Whitman. For example, North Chevy Chase Elementary School-a technology magnet school-still uses outdated Power Macintosh 5200 computers. "It's embarrassing to say we're a magnet school when we have such old computers," says principal Denise Greene. Still, she is hopeful that, through the Technology Modernization Program, her school will have new PCs in a year or two.

Outsourcing the Help Desk and Tapping Teachers

For districts that are smaller and more rural than Montgomery County, employing a full staff of technical support specialists across schools is not typically an option. Certainly, it is impossible in Monongalia County, W.Va., which serves over 10,300 students in its 25 schools, and must stretch a technology budget of just over $1 million across the district.

At the beginning of 2001, the district had installed 2,693 Pentium-level computers in its schools, and there have been more machine updates since then. At the same time, however, the county has a very limited help desk. The state's technology department offers some help, and Monongalia County has provided schools with a network specialist and a technician, but, in general, tech support is lacking.

"Right now we don't have the infrastructure to be able to employ high-level technicians within the county. Our teachers need to be teaching, and they don't have phones, so they can't be sitting in front of their machines walking through problems. We need more support staff in the schools and remotely," says technology coordinator Nancy Napolillo.

Until it can find the funds to make that happen, the district has maximized its resources by calling on the Regional Education Service Agency for technical troubleshooting. The district is outsourcing tech support for its five largest schools to a private company after sifting through bids from local vendors. In addition, Napolillo has recruited teachers to be "technology contacts" across all schools.

In the middle and high schools, the tech contacts carry a reduced teaching load in exchange for the computer support and teacher training they give. In elementary schools, they receive stipends for their tech services. In all schools, tech contacts troubleshoot computer problems and call them into the state, RESA, or outsourced help desk if they can't be solved. Most also recruit students to help them with training, machine upkeep, and user support.

One school that excels at combining these three support elements-an outsourced help desk, tech contacts, and student aides-is University High School in Morgantown. The school has fully wired its 300 Pentium computers to the Internet with the help of its two tech contacts. In addition, 10 student aides help the contacts work out technical glitches and assist teachers and students in the school's computer labs.

The county's move to outsource tech support and repairs has been a big boon, says Nancy Rice, one of University High's tech contacts. However, she believes that the district is under-using potential support from the corporate world. "We're not getting much support from area businesses," she says. "We're hoping to interface with them more."

Partnering with Big Business

Despite the vast resources that businesses can offer schools, most of us don't think of the corporate and education worlds working in tandem. That's not the view of Scott Futrell, executive director of technology at Duval County Public Schools, the nation's 15th largest district, located in Jacksonville, Fla.

When Futrell left Disney to take on the Duval County job three and a half years ago, he was dismayed to find that his district of 154 schools and more than 130,000 students lacked technology standards and centralized coordination. Also, it was running a limited network, for administrators only, on slow-moving 56-kbps lease lines.

Students needed updated computers-and more of them-and they needed high-speed Internet access. Futrell set out to make that happen by making the most of the district's wildly fluctuating capital budget-this year it is $10.5 million, down drastically from last year's $27.5 million. His strategy: move all purchasing decisions to a central office, strike deals with equipment and service providers, and outsource the district's help desk to a local company. "I approached the district as a business enterprise," says Futrell. "When we make computer acquisitions, we need to look at the total cost of ownership versus just buying machines. We need to look at what we are doing to live with the technology and support it."

In the past, principals and teachers were free to order any type of computer or software, but now there are restraints in place. County educators must select from an approved list of hardware and software vendors, with whom Futrell has forged special arrangements. He only deals, for example, with firms like IBM and Compaq that offer bulk pricing, three-year on-site warranties, and local training and support. Through such arrangements, the district's schools now own 40,000 up-to-date computers.

But perhaps Futrell's greatest achievement-the initiative through which he has saved the district the most money on technology-is a partnership arrangement with AT&T Broadband Network. Several years back, as AT&T laid down fiber connections throughout Jacksonville, it needed locations for its electronic hubs. Futrell and the school board stepped in, offering the company 10 locations for its equipment throughout the district. In return, the district asked that the company provide all its schools with free and secure T-1 connections for 10 years. "This is a very rare arrangement that has a value in excess of $13 million. If we were leasing the service for our 40,000 machines, the cost would be huge," says Futrell.

Deals have been struck in other areas as well: the district's two-person help desk staff has been augmented with 24/7 technology support from nine staff members at the Jacksonville Electric Authority. In addition, 118 county technology staff-programmers, network and database analysts, and instructional technology experts-help out in the schools as needed. Each school also has a full- or part-time tech expert, who can be a trained teacher or a tech specialist.

Not only that, but students have been hired to develop Web sites for the district's schools, with the intent that they will eventually learn computer maintenance and programming. Some schools' technology experts have already taken the initiative to train students. For example, Twin Lakes Academy Middle offers an elective class where students learn to diagnose computer problems and make minor repairs.

Several other initiatives are underway as well: through a partnership with Jacksonville Electric Authority, the district is running voice over its fiber-optic lines, and through another partnership with KPMG, Compaq, Microsoft, and PowerSchool, the district is implementing a new electronic grade book and scheduling system.

To be sure, challenges lie ahead: the district's aim of putting four computers in every classroom, adding wireless connectivity to schools, and giving every teacher a laptop will not be easy to achieve. But with the help of its business partners, the district has high hopes that it will meet its goals.

Bridget Murray is senior editor for education at Monitor on Psychology, an American Psychological Association publication.

Read other articles from the November Issue

Send a letter to the Editor in response to this article.