During my work in school district technology planning, I have noticed that the role of the primary school district technology resource has rapidly evolved from a “fix-it” computer technician (or “Tech”) to a Chief Information Officer (or “CIO”), one of the most strategic assets in the district office. Unfortunately, district staffing has not always kept pace with the increased demands of this position, and as a consequence, some districts find themselves unable to make the technological advances required of modern school districts. They are stuck in a Tech mindset with a CIO set of responsibilities and expectations.
Technology is critical to just about everything a district does these days, including:
- Instruction in the Classroom (1:1 programs, wireless, smartboards, mobile, and fixed devices)
- Instruction out of the Classroom (Blended Learning, E-Learning, Identity Management for supplemental content providers)
- Formative, Summative, State, National, and Benchmark Assessments and Assessment planning
- Data consolidation, aggregation, and analysis
- Identity Management (Usernames and passwords to local and cloud-based applications)
- Student Information System (SIS) for school administration, report cards, transcripts, discipline, attendance, scheduling
- Financial Information System (FIS) for budgetary, payroll, human resources
- Network infrastructure, capacity planning, on-premise, and cloud-based application lifecycle planning
- Information security, privacy, regulatory compliance
- Transportation (Bus routing software, integration with SIS, GPS)
- Food Service (Point Of Sale systems, integration with FIS and SIS)
- Telecommunications (Phone System, all-call systems, crisis dialers, intercoms, paging)
- Board-level Action (BoardDocs, e-mail for Board members)
- Online Fee Payment (athletics, food service, school fees, integration with Finance and SIS)
- Parent Interaction (All-Call systems, Web-based Parent Portals)
- State Data Reporting
- Security (cameras and management)
- Special Education (IEP software management and training)
- Public outreach (public records requests, guest wireless access)
- E-rate planning and program compliance
- And last but not least, standard file/print/PC repair and configuration
As can be seen, technology is not just fixing PCs and printers anymore. Gone are the days when the computer technician was able to draw a nice, neat line around their responsibilities. “Keeping the lights green” was a pretty simple job description in the past, with the “lights” being what you see on computers, printers, servers, and switches….the thought being that as long as the lights were green (and not amber or red), that the Tech was doing her/his job. Today, however, keeping the lights green doesn’t even begin to cover what a district needs in the way of technology resources.
Depending on the size of the district, the Tech in the district was most likely a single full-time position, and (gasp!) it may even have been part-time. While these types of resources are still very much needed, they are nowhere adequate enough to meet the technology challenges even a small district has on a daily basis. The district needs a senior-level CIO with a very different skill set than that of the Tech. Similarly, in the past, the computer technician in a district needed only be tech-savvy, as they rarely interacted directly with anyone other than the secretaries and other central office or district staff. Now, however, the technology staff members are required to interact directly with Teachers, Boards of Education, Unions, Press, Parents, Taxpayers, State Agencies, etc., all the while as senior representatives of the district. As the integration of technology reaches higher and higher into the upper administration of the district, so will the need to have a CIO-level position charged with technology integration.
We constantly see districts struggle with technology where advances in job function, role, compensation, and staffing level have not kept pace with the demands of the positions or needs of the district. We strongly recommend districts analyze carefully their technology staffing as it relates to their technology initiatives. If you have struggled recently with some of the more complex technology initiatives, such as 1:1 programs, administrative system integrations (SIS, FIS, Online Payments, Transportation), Identity Management, or Data Warehousing, you might first review your technology resources and the level of staffing. Make sure your staffing, both in the number of resources and skill level of resources, is properly matched to the district’s technology goals. My guess is that the struggles you faced were due to a mismatch between the two.
Properly aligned resources to goals is a beautiful thing.