By Dr. Marc Schaffer
Greetings, Thompson School District students, parents, staff and community:
Welcome to 2020, and happy new year!
This month, I would like to provide you with some details on our work updating and upgrading our technology infrastructure in TSD.
At this time last year, TSD was anticipating new funding to arrive so that we could begin to invest in many areas of need, including technology. For many years, budget challenges had hindered our progress. From classrooms to district offices, our technology had fallen far behind standards, especially in comparison to other school districts nearby.
What a difference new funding and a year of hard work makes! Now we’ve made progress in many areas to replace equipment, upgrade systems and train staff. Our district’s technology division, Innovative Technology Services (ITS), is modernizing network infrastructure, staff computers, classroom projection, student devices, printer/copier services, technical support, backup systems and cyber security.
TSD’s technology runs on top of its network infrastructure. In addition to the internet, other technology depends upon a robust network such as telecommunications, intercom/bell/clock systems and printers/copiers. ITS has finished phase one of rebuilding the infrastructure for all school networks. We will see the full benefit of this in phase two when we double our bandwidth later this semester. Also part of our infrastructure modernization is the installation of new phones and intercom/bell/clock systems. Modern infrastructure gives us the opportunity to do more with technology in the classroom to improve teaching and learning. This involves staff computers, classroom projection systems and student devices. TSD is now on a five-year standard for staff computer replacement. This means that all staff have a computer that is no older than five years. We have also made progress in classroom projection. ITS is replacing older systems with mirrored TV systems, with more than 275 installed so far. These are large-screen TVs with the ability to wirelessly project up to four computers.
Providing our approximately 16,000 students with access to effective devices is our most challenging technology project. When students have the access they need, they can use technology without rationing, reserving labs or trying to make old malfunctioning devices work. Three types of student devices are available to schools, including two types of Chromebooks and the new iPad 7. By the end of this school year, we will have retired about 2,247 obsolete student devices and will have deployed about 5,730 new ones. Our fleet of devices is becoming more modern overall. We’ve also redeployed thousands of still usable student devices to other schools.
As I hope you can see, we are committed to ensuring that our technology meets the academic and infrastructure needs of our district. As we turn the calendar to a new year, we will continue to move forward in creating systems, infrastructure and technology that will support the demands of our future.
Dr. Marc Schaffer is superintendent of the Thompson School District.
