Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later: a resident would send an anonymous note telling me of his/her displeasure with something the Board had done. This one is particulary sad, however, as the author's level of understanding is not able to be lifted since I don't know who to address.
Here's what I received: someone had printed an April 11, 2008 editorial from the online version of Business Week. The gist of it was basically an "Apple vs. Microsoft" thing. It was an op-ed piece - not a news article. The anonymous sender included a 'personal note' on the second page that reads, "Maybe you and your administrators should have done your homework before you spent $500,000 of the taxpayers money ! ! !"
*sigh*
Let's get the facts straight, shall we?
First of all, we did our homework - a LOT of homework. The process actually began last year, and included a December 2007 visit to VARtek's corporate office in Dayton, along with an on-site to Fairmont Kettering High School by a select group of administrators, teaching staff, and support staff. VARtek provides educational technology solutions exclusively to the K-12 education market, and they use both Apple and Microsoft systems. They have been in business for over 19 years, and have worked with over 200 public and parochial schools in Ohio and Indiana. Those visits last December, along with some additional phone calls etc. to clients is what initiated our January request and contract with them to provide a technology integration analysis for our district, including a report on what improvements would be recommended with a long-term managed solution.
Then we went to our staff. Ask any teacher or administrator from any of our 4 schools about the detailed survey they were asked to complete (on which a huge majority obliged). The vast majority of those who took the survey were more than a little disappointed with our current situation. They were angry! They were frustrated! They were also excited to think that the Board was actually going to DO something about a failing system they were forced to wrestle with daily.
Our network is down several times each week, and when it IS operational it is terribly slow. The data cabling infrastructure is at least 10 years old in all of our buildings except the high school. We have no automated back-up and recovery system. (Are you corporate people turning pale yet, from reading this?) Virtually ALL of the workstations/laptops at the high school and Park Elementary are beyond their useful life. Getting our older units to work with newer units is also causing many problems. Common sense would dictate that older units are eliminated - but we have not done so.
We are running multiple operating systems and many different application software versions throughout the district. Our teaching staff has had little training - and they are asking for more. Our expenditures have been slightly higher than our peer schools - yet we have aged equipment, limited curricular software, inappropriate support skill sets, and limited training which results in a less than desirable technology environment to positively impact our students.
So, Yes, Virginia - we did our homework.
Next, the cost issue. One interesting discovery for me as a newbie on the Board was that the district had been spending an average of $323,000 per year on our technology (around $231 per student annually) - and it wasn't working! The system was abysmally slow - when it worked at all - and people in every building had difficulty getting things to print. There is no defined budget, inconsistent home access, limited technology labor skills, limited network engineering and maintenance skills, and no plan for the future. We are limping along, with severely limited functionality, and paying $323K annually for the pleasure. NOT a good thing.
With the proposed technology solution from VARtek, we will spend between $314K to $392K annually and with that we have performance guarantees. We will be spending essentially the same amount, but getting guaranteed results.
Now - that takes care of the 'homework' issue and the 'spending of taxpayer money' issue.
As to that editorial, it's too bad the sender didn't take the time to also read the 30+ pages of comments to get a clear picture of the issues at hand. By itself, the article might be reason to purchase Apple stock for speculative purposes, if you believe Business Week knows what its talking about in an opinion piece, and if you are willing to put your money where their mouth is. But there was nothing written that should have upset John Q. Public about our contract with VARtek, even if s/he had gotten the facts straight about the transaction itself.
Showing posts with label VARtek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label VARtek. Show all posts
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Monday, March 31, 2008
March Board Mtg Update
Greetings! The Swanton School Board had a very interesting meeting on the third Tuesday in March.
Many people were in attendance, and special guests included members of Village Council as well as the Village Administrator and representatives from Park & Rec. A few folks left immediately after the issue of the disciplinary action taken on two school custodians was finished. When the public was given a chance to speak, a gentleman whose son attends our high school asked what legal rights students had to their private cell phones. We had recently received an update from our attorneys on that very issue, so Ass't Principal Steve Gfell was able to speak with authority and accuracy in his response. The parent had a few more questions and comments to make, and then we went into the meat of our meeting.
A protracted discussion between Village Council and the School Board took place on the subject of the Park & Rec situation. Jeff Michael shared the information he had obtained from Anthony Wayne's recreation board president. Dennis Heban and Mona Dyke weighed in on the discussion, as well as several members of Council. Treasurer Cheryl Swisher was able to share financial pieces of the equation for all to consider. Cheryl also mentioned the positive strides that Park & Rec had taken thus far, in setting policies, etc. I spoke up about the fact that our situation is unique in the state of Ohio - and not in a good way! Although the actual programs are very good, the funding situation needs attention.
After a lengthy discourse, Pres. Dennis Heban stated for the record that the school district would NOT be placing Park & Rec on the November ballot. This was no surprise to anyone in attendance, after hearing all of the evidence at hand. The current levy will provide money to Park & Rec through December 2008 for operating expenses.
Mention was made of the possibility of the school district merely handing over some undeterminate amount of money to Park & Rec for a year, to assist in their weaning off taxpayer dollars. No promise was made beyond that of exploring the ramifications of such an action.
Members of the current Park & Rec board are concerned that their fees to play will have to be increased beyond what folks can pay. However, no one was able to state what profit was made last year in concessions, nor were they able to provide how many participants were enrolled last year. P&R Board President, Howard Schnabel, indicated his willingness to meet with his Anthony Wayne equivalent to learn their methodology. No need to re-invent the wheel here.
Village Council will now decide whether they are interested in adding a Park & Rec levy under their taxing authority umbrella - or not. Remember: Anthony Wayne receives NO TAX DOLLARS for operating their programs, and neither does many other recreation entities in the state of Ohio. The Swanton Park & Rec receives tax money from both the Village and the Swanton Local School District. The Village maintains the parks already - this would not change, regardless of what P&R does or does not do. The big concern seems to be that fees would have to increase more than double in order to offset losing the $60,000 received from the school district levy. However, without a clear understanding as to exactly where the money is going right now, it is a bit premature to speculate on future fee levels, although an increase is likely.
One woman was pointed in her question as to whether the school board was willing to face the "backlash" sure to come if the school did not support P&R financially. She hinted that regular school operating levies would fail if we did not cough up money for P&R. The Board was not intimidated, however. The bottom line was that we were all voted into office for the purpose of keeping the school district's best interests at heart. Giving away $60K of badly needed money is not being fiscally responsible and is not in the best interests of our kids nor our district residents.
Next we had a presentation by VarTek on their proposal to handle our technology issues. It is no secret that our current situation is a mess - we are spending over $250,000 annually and over half the time the machines are non-functioning. VarTek was hired initially to do a thorough survey and inventory of our existing technology systems. Their proposal would not cost us any more money - BUT we would have equipment that worked, a planned back-up system in place, a rotating system for purchasing and retiring machines, and upgrading and standardizing equipment and curriculum.
An interesting result of the survey was the desire of the majority of our teachers and staff to switch from a Mac platform to a PC platform. This will be done in a progressive, phase-out program over 5 years. A few Macs will still remain at the high school level for specific needs there, but eventually our district will be on a PC platform. This means that our kids will graduate with a solid knowledge and experience on the operating system used in the vast majority of business in the "real world". I am excited for them! This will give them a definite advantage upon their graduation from high school.
Also that night, we approved the school calendar for 2008-2009, and the list of graduating seniors, along with the proposed curriculum for next year. It was a very busy meeting that night!
Superintendent Search
Our search for a new superintendent got underway last week. The Board interviewed 4 candidates for the position, and will interview 2 more tomorrow night (Tuesday). After the first round interviews are complete, we will determine who to bring back for a second look. We are eager to find a quality individual to help lead our team into the future, and will make our decision before the end of this school year. It is gratifying to have so many qualified men and women apply for this important position at Swanton. It's the "good news - bad news" situation: the good news is that we have so many top notch folks applying for the position! The bad news is that we have so many top notch folks applying for the position! You can be sure our next Superintendent will be a good fit for our community.
Tonight, the Board has a meeting with two school finance specialists to help clarify some school funding issues. Your school board is doing all they can to make the best use of your tax dollars for the benefit of our kids. With Gov. Ted Strickland taking away school funding pieces from Ohio schools, and energy costs threatening to go through the roof, we need all the help we can get.
Many people were in attendance, and special guests included members of Village Council as well as the Village Administrator and representatives from Park & Rec. A few folks left immediately after the issue of the disciplinary action taken on two school custodians was finished. When the public was given a chance to speak, a gentleman whose son attends our high school asked what legal rights students had to their private cell phones. We had recently received an update from our attorneys on that very issue, so Ass't Principal Steve Gfell was able to speak with authority and accuracy in his response. The parent had a few more questions and comments to make, and then we went into the meat of our meeting.
A protracted discussion between Village Council and the School Board took place on the subject of the Park & Rec situation. Jeff Michael shared the information he had obtained from Anthony Wayne's recreation board president. Dennis Heban and Mona Dyke weighed in on the discussion, as well as several members of Council. Treasurer Cheryl Swisher was able to share financial pieces of the equation for all to consider. Cheryl also mentioned the positive strides that Park & Rec had taken thus far, in setting policies, etc. I spoke up about the fact that our situation is unique in the state of Ohio - and not in a good way! Although the actual programs are very good, the funding situation needs attention.
After a lengthy discourse, Pres. Dennis Heban stated for the record that the school district would NOT be placing Park & Rec on the November ballot. This was no surprise to anyone in attendance, after hearing all of the evidence at hand. The current levy will provide money to Park & Rec through December 2008 for operating expenses.
Mention was made of the possibility of the school district merely handing over some undeterminate amount of money to Park & Rec for a year, to assist in their weaning off taxpayer dollars. No promise was made beyond that of exploring the ramifications of such an action.
Members of the current Park & Rec board are concerned that their fees to play will have to be increased beyond what folks can pay. However, no one was able to state what profit was made last year in concessions, nor were they able to provide how many participants were enrolled last year. P&R Board President, Howard Schnabel, indicated his willingness to meet with his Anthony Wayne equivalent to learn their methodology. No need to re-invent the wheel here.
Village Council will now decide whether they are interested in adding a Park & Rec levy under their taxing authority umbrella - or not. Remember: Anthony Wayne receives NO TAX DOLLARS for operating their programs, and neither does many other recreation entities in the state of Ohio. The Swanton Park & Rec receives tax money from both the Village and the Swanton Local School District. The Village maintains the parks already - this would not change, regardless of what P&R does or does not do. The big concern seems to be that fees would have to increase more than double in order to offset losing the $60,000 received from the school district levy. However, without a clear understanding as to exactly where the money is going right now, it is a bit premature to speculate on future fee levels, although an increase is likely.
One woman was pointed in her question as to whether the school board was willing to face the "backlash" sure to come if the school did not support P&R financially. She hinted that regular school operating levies would fail if we did not cough up money for P&R. The Board was not intimidated, however. The bottom line was that we were all voted into office for the purpose of keeping the school district's best interests at heart. Giving away $60K of badly needed money is not being fiscally responsible and is not in the best interests of our kids nor our district residents.
Next we had a presentation by VarTek on their proposal to handle our technology issues. It is no secret that our current situation is a mess - we are spending over $250,000 annually and over half the time the machines are non-functioning. VarTek was hired initially to do a thorough survey and inventory of our existing technology systems. Their proposal would not cost us any more money - BUT we would have equipment that worked, a planned back-up system in place, a rotating system for purchasing and retiring machines, and upgrading and standardizing equipment and curriculum.
An interesting result of the survey was the desire of the majority of our teachers and staff to switch from a Mac platform to a PC platform. This will be done in a progressive, phase-out program over 5 years. A few Macs will still remain at the high school level for specific needs there, but eventually our district will be on a PC platform. This means that our kids will graduate with a solid knowledge and experience on the operating system used in the vast majority of business in the "real world". I am excited for them! This will give them a definite advantage upon their graduation from high school.
Also that night, we approved the school calendar for 2008-2009, and the list of graduating seniors, along with the proposed curriculum for next year. It was a very busy meeting that night!
Superintendent Search
Our search for a new superintendent got underway last week. The Board interviewed 4 candidates for the position, and will interview 2 more tomorrow night (Tuesday). After the first round interviews are complete, we will determine who to bring back for a second look. We are eager to find a quality individual to help lead our team into the future, and will make our decision before the end of this school year. It is gratifying to have so many qualified men and women apply for this important position at Swanton. It's the "good news - bad news" situation: the good news is that we have so many top notch folks applying for the position! The bad news is that we have so many top notch folks applying for the position! You can be sure our next Superintendent will be a good fit for our community.
Tonight, the Board has a meeting with two school finance specialists to help clarify some school funding issues. Your school board is doing all they can to make the best use of your tax dollars for the benefit of our kids. With Gov. Ted Strickland taking away school funding pieces from Ohio schools, and energy costs threatening to go through the roof, we need all the help we can get.
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