Thanks to technologically savvy Silver School personnel and donated computers, the schools now meet more than mandated minimum standards, which they didn't two years ago.

By Margaret Hopper

Are the improvements and upgrades Silver District has undertaken in the past two years
really necessary? Are they cost effective? There is a lot to be considered here. Many changes have been made recently, in many areas, but the technology department is a
major example of these changes. Silver Schools needed computer upgrades.

The district knew it would be facing critical deadlines, with the major one being having enough computers and the bandwidth to meet the PARCC (Partnership for Assessing the Readiness of College Careers) testing period in March 2015. Former sources of funding for equipment from the federal and state governments had either been cut or were not available due to the district's demographics.

When Ben Potts, hired as Director of Technology in June of 2013 arrived, he said the district had deficiencies in some areas. The appropriate staff was gathered to look for solutions. The firewall was outdated, wide open to outside intruders; software and computers were aging. Needed improvements were being out-sourced and were therefore expensive; repairs took hours or days; servers, bandwidth and other infrastructure were inadequate; storage space and archives needed for records and retrievals couldn't make the grade. The district was not meeting some state and federal requirements.

Further, more of the schools' daily operating equipment now depended on dependable computer connectivity, and office records, emails, business and financial records, phone services, long distance calls, so many other facets of general activity depended on computer controls that were growing more outdated with each school year.

So, what would happen if the district simply did nothing? The inconvenience and expenses were increasing. The stakes were high. The technology staff was over-tasked. The department was due for restructuring. It would take new ideas to make this work.

Streib said he knew he needed someone with some additional experience to complement the present technology staff. Potts was a teacher, as well as a creative innovator. He knew how teachers thought and he could "make-do" on a shoestring budget. These extras were important factors.

Other needs were to accelerate the necessary upgrades cheaply, as the money simply wasn't there. Streib said the district was more than rewarded in Ben Potts. He had a large number of the skills Streib thought the district needed to help the technology department through the period of implementing the necessary changes, plus, he had excellent contacts in the business and tech communities that Streib never expected of him.

The PARCC mandate has a minimum requirement of one computer for every two students, with the largest class in the school setting the number of computers. For example, La Plata has 215 7th graders, so it had to have at least 108 computers for that class, ready to go by test time. Actually, after all the work was done, 140 computers were made available for La Plata.

Meanwhile, the rest of the classrooms continued to use computers as they usually do. All the additional computers required extra bandwidth. Computers were already slowed down. The Internet was running slow and with all the uses the district had for its computers, bandwidth had to be increased, and the sooner, the better.

In the summer of 2013, Potts worked with CenturyLink and WNM Communications. Bandwidth for Cliff, Sixth Street, Jose Barrios and Harrison Schmidt was quadrupled, and Internet speed was more than doubled. Potts said the bandwidth could be increased more, if really needed, but it is good now for most present needs.

The best part of the bandwidth upgrade, he said, was that by negotiating, it didn't cost any more than before. In some places, costs were less, but over all, it was probably "a wash," but an excellent upgrade for the same money. With the improved connectivity, the technology staff quickly determined that the outdated firewall was absolutely critical. It was replaced in November 2013, at a cost of $30,000 with three years of support.

The technology staff of five, Potts and four others, worked steadily to improve the existing computers. The computers were a diverse lot; much of the past purchasing was not standardized and this required more support time. Central purchasing removed that problem. 80 percent of the computers were using XP and it was no longer supported. Microsoft would no longer fix problems that might happen or viruses that came in.

They couldn't buy much new as they didn't have the budget, but the district did buy Microsoft licensing and server licensing, and about $100,000 of software, including Power School, Tyler Infinite Visions, Renaissance Learning, School Messenger, Odysseyware and more. Some of this was to better inform parents on short notice, but most was to improve student work or upgrade finance and record keeping.

Potts says many of the improvements didn't cost a lot more than had already been budgeted in previous years, but he eliminated a lot of overlap, and in some instances, saved good money. In moving from Rediker to Power School, there was a $45,000 reduction. Also, they had to make the move in one month, not the three usually expected, or they would have had to pay for another year of Rediker, $62,000, as the timing was very close.

Another $8000 went into professional development for district teachers and staff; they also bought 15 projectors, 2 printers and six document cameras. A meager $16,000 went into supplies: memory, hard drives, bulbs, cases, cables, adapters and battery backups. The techs upgraded existing computers and kept them running. Soon the down time on computers was no longer hours or days; some problems could be fixed remotely.

Utilization was improved, even on the older equipment. The technology department implemented a number of existing free programs in the repair department. The old work order system was inefficient and cost $1000. Now, the request is direct to the tech department, free, and repairs are much faster. It is change, but the money and the time saved justify the difference.

In May 2014, the donations started coming in. Potts had contacts and they paid off for the district. Sandia Labs gifted Silver with a total of 599 newer desktops and laptops in its K-12 Computer Roundup, along with 200 new-in-the-box keyboards and lots of binders.
The local district attorney's office donated another 32 computers and 19 printers. Hobbs School sent 100 17" flat screen monitors. (Potts used to teach at Hobbs)

With the usable donations, some purchased parts and human ingenuity; the techs were ready to make important changes in the computer department.

The major changes to the District's Technology Department came over the summer of 2014. In May, when the donations came from Sandia Labs, the Grant County District Attorney's office and other places, the work went from hard and long, to frantic. Potts says the combined experience of his group adds up to 53 years in K-through-12 computer technology. They worked to exhaustion to get ready for the new 2014-2015 school year in August.

There was no outsourcing; they couldn't afford that. With their 2014-2015 budget, they bought another $23,000 in memory, hard drives, cables, adapters; the school put $3000 into professional development for all staff; they bought another 17 documentary cameras, 33 projectors and another printer. Then they had to upgrade the whole district to Windows 7.

Some of the 599 Sandia computers were very pricy, and the techs turned them into servers or special-needs computers. The lesser servers were moved to the elementary schools where they could improve the servers they presently had. Better computers replaced six of the district's computer labs. Estimates are that the Sandia computers alone saved the district about $300,000.

Every student computer was checked out, cleaned up and improved before sending it back to the labs. The obsolete computers could be retired after the techs stripped them of any usable parts. The saved parts were put on the computers they were upgrading. They squeezed the last possible value out of the old ones before disposing of them. They worked long hours to get the work finished, working around summer schools and before school started.

The first culling removed 500 obsolete devices. Since July they pulled out another 240. But the district now has 2000 computers that can do the jobs where they are placed. The PARCC mandate can now be met more than minimally, and, in time, the district will be able to meet the recommended standards. They had done impossible upgrades in about 16 months. The total cleanup may take another year or two, but at this stage, the district is functional and more than meeting minimum standards.

The dip into reserves to bring the computer and other problems into compliance should be a temporary one, the administration says. In a couple of years the transitions should be over and all these things should be worked into budget expectations. There will soon be no surprises, and the schools should be functioning at a much higher level.

With the excellent help being given by so many departments, even the computers and all their equipment should be on a five-year replacement cycle, so technology upgrades can be depended on as a normal thing.

Potts said it is possible that the State would reimburse some of the funds the district spent to get into a safe position; regardless, the upgrade had to be done. Those who know just how hard a job that was agree that the worst is over. They have ended the mad rush of the past year or two. He admits that the first PARCC test will likely have problems as the state and schools shift to online testing. Everyone expects to work out the glitches.

But at this point, the district can more than meet minimum mandates in all its schools. It looked to be an impossible task at first, but for the technology department, it now appears to be a smaller one. Ben Potts and his men may be very tired, but they know they have done a good job for the district. Streib and others agree. The techs have saved the district a ton of money and they have done the impossible in a very short time.