Thursday, June 6, 2013

Tech Cabinet Minutes 6/6/13

6/6/13 Tech Cabinet Minutes

Carlsbad Unified School District Technology Cabinet
District Office, Conference Room, 8:00 - 10:00 am

Attendees: Bryan Brockett, Rick Lewis, Cesar Morales, Rob Nye, Sharon St. Clair, Maggie Stanchi, Richard Tubbs

  • Holding a digital retreat in August after all principals come back
    • Common Core focused
    • Start with Vision - Ted Lai from Apple
      • Michael Ecker
      • Richard Tubbs
      • Chad Lund
      • Margie Giordani
      • Cesar Morales
      • Matt Steitz
      • Rachel Newman
      • Shane Little
      • Jeff Simon
      • CHS?
      • Bryan Brockett
      • Cabinet, Directors, Sharon St. Clair, board member
    • Goals for 2013-2014 school year based on Board Success Indicators
    • Sage Creek High School from 8-12 at 8/15/13
  • Naviance for middle school
    • Rob will investigate further
  • Data Management decision
    • Staying with DataDirector for at least this year
    • Set up webinar for assessment building training preview
  • iPad repair company
    • Phone Phix
  • Technology Advisory Committee
    • Find a parent rep from each site to sit on the committee - start in September
    • email principals - parents not already on PSAC

Tech Cabinet Minutes 5/2/13

Tech Cabinet Standing Items Update/Minutes
for the 5/2/13 meeting

Please add to this document as needed.  Be sure to include any information you have gleaned from all of your interactions around the district for the last month. Issues should be strongly highlighted so we can deal with them.  Please include your name so everyone knows who contributed that piece.

  • Data Management -  A follow up meeting is scheduled with Illluminate on May 7th at Magnolia Elementary 3:15 PM with 15 "power users."
  • Multimedia Integration - Dr. Nye and Rick are working with Cisco to address our hardware and software needs to bring in more multimedia.
  • Standards-Based Software -  It is still a good idea to have a comprehensive standard across the district to save money.  Rob will talk with Sharon more about possible district purchases of common programs that help advance Common Core.
  • School Loop - District site to launch next school year.
  • Naviance -  Dropping middle school option as there aren't enough users to justify the cost.
  • Destiny - Rob will follow up with Sharon and Lacy.  Still moving forward.
  • Infrastructure Items -  Still on schedule for July 2013 upgrade
  • MITI (Fiscal and HR system out of SDCOE) - Still in process.  All districts in the county will participate.  This is an 18 month process.
  • Prop P Update (Sage Creek HS) - Getting closer to sign off on being done with vendors.
  • Communication Items - Social media policy/guideline will be included at the beginning of next year in PD Place.  A report mechanism is needed to provide a list/report of staff members who need to complete required forms.
  • Aeries/ABI Items -  Training on May 9 for trimester master scheduling building.
  • School Messenger Items - Rick will continue to address administrative assistant needs for training.  No specifics have been provided to Rick from Amy Lawton.
  • Common Core Exam Items - Computer laboratory usage requires specific scheduling to accommodation all the grades necessary to test.  This will be a priority for sites to determine.  
  • Exemplary Technology Use Items -
  • Matt Taylor registered the district with Google Apps.  The archiving fee is $8.50 per student account.  We do not recommend a gmail account for each student at this time as we cannot support the volume of students across the district.  SchoolLoop has the function already at a lower cost.  Dr. Nye and Rick Lewis met with Cisco to investigate the requirements to integrate Unity and Google mail.  Students would need a standard user name to follow them throughout their school career.   

Dr. Nye is reviewing online vendors for registration.  Newport-Mesa used the system and provided excellent feedback.  May 9th is the demonstration at 1 PM at the district office.

 Tech cabinet approves the recommended changes to the tech plan regarding the adjustment to the SchoolLoop expectations.  The team agrees the standards are different for primary teachers compared to secondary teachers.  The posting of homework is an important priority as well as 100% of teachers connected to SchoolLoop for parent and student communication.

Tech cabinet endores a repair contract for iPad/iPod devices to save money.  Team will based decision on the pricing points that Sharon determines from visiting iRepair in Solana Beach and A+ Electronics in Encinitas.   Rick Konesky could also research this if further pricing points are needed as he is in the purchasing department.


Lightspeed:  Google Apps does not cover virus protection for desktops and power management.  Malware is still a big challenge as staff open emails that launch malware and infect their computers.  There are other products that provide protection we need and power management.  Lightspeed is not a very good product.   Matt Taylor and Rick Lewis will research additional products that meeting legal requirements and our contract obligations with SDG&E (power management system).

We do not have enough storage space to accommodate our growing digital storing needs district-wide.  Matt and Rick are researching storage systems that are more cost effective, such as Google.   Current email users total 1,350, which would cost $11,475 per year with Google's pricing guide.  An exchange server costs $5000-$10000 with 500 GB of storage.  We currently use about half of this storage.

Challenges:  Transitions need to be managed with easy beginning steps.  Word processing might be better on MS Word.  Training time to introduce new products with staff.