I want to correct my last post after check the numbers. I overstated the percentages. The Janesville School website shows expenditures of $9941 per student with 10429 students. It shows $6161 in instructional costs and $571 in administrative expenses. Most charts like that are self serving as shown by the gap between 9941 and the sum of 6161 and 571 which is 6732. Checking averages at the US Census Department it appears the missing expenditure from the website is the category of "pupil support". I have no idea what that includes but it is seperate from instruction (aka teaching kids). Bottom Line calculates to the Janesville School system spends $3781 per pupil on non instruction or a total of almost 40 million dollars per year. How do I reconcile that fact with Mr Bunton's and the School Board member Stottler's stamements that they don't have enough money to insure computer security?

Did jsd_employe say they guy was making 6 digits? I was completely put off by Mr Bunton stating that the problem was not enough funding. What a typical response from a government employee. It is no wonder that administrative costs in Wisconsin schools are double that in Iowa and 25% higher than Minnesota. The problem is not a revenue problem - It is a spending problem.

elle72

Make excuses all you want for Brandon, but I don't recall the District having a problem like this when Lowell was here. The District is better off without Brandon and his arrogant, demeaning, god-like attitude. Besides if he was as good as he told everybody that he was he should have been able to get the system upgraded in no time. Or at a minimum communicate the deficiencies of the system to his supervisor and what was needed to correct the deficiencies.

Keirns inherited a network and dept. that was WAAAY behind the times, so how can he be blamed? This virus and issues associated with it are no reflection of Keirns, but rather years of neglect that Bunton and the entire staff have been party to and Lowell and Bunton not knowing how to keep up to speed with the demands of the district and technology!

Technology changed TREMENDOUSLY over the time Lowell was in the position and he did not stay up to speed. Bunton being even less technologically educated was not equipped to oversee the dept. let alone try to guide Lowell and the staff to get them up to speed. Also, what is Mr. Bunton best known for???? SAVING money. I hope that did not translate to the IT dept. missing upgrades and being unable to get new equipment, but I suspect it did. How is the new manager to get an entire network up to speed in such a short time?

Regardless of what you think of Keirns and his people skills, or lack there of, he is taking the fall for Lowell and Bunton and the IT Staff that is still in place because almost of them have been here for years. Someone should check and see if they have received training in new technologies under Lowell or more recently. Also, what was done with the IT budget over the past few years?

Isn't it interesting that the two new members of the dept.(and those proven to be the two most skilled, btw) are both gone, but all the people that have been in IT for years and provide the least amount of service to all of us district employees are still here? I sense that change is not welcome in our IT dept.

IT IS TOO BAD BRANDON RESIGNED..LIKE MANY OF US HE WAS PROBABLY DOING THE BEST JOB HE COULD WITH WHAT HE HAD TO WORK WITH.

Excellent point, coach. We are getting frequent updates now, but initially nothing was being shared. Not until Colleen's communication did we actually get some sort of communication from administration about what the heck was going on.

What is also being missed here is that the district and Mr. Bunton failed completely at communicating with the teaching staff. Until Colleen Neumann had the courage to call the Gazetter, teachers had basically ZERO information about what was going on. We could not plan classes because we had no idea what would work each day, or when or if it would work. Again there was no communication from anyone at the ESC and we as educators where left trying to pick up the pieces with rumors flying everywhere. The Studer Groups pillar of communication certainly has lots of cracks in it.

Obviously this guy was not up to the job. I am curious if he was hired from a group of qualified applicants or if he was transferred to the position from another administrative position. Does anyone know?

It's about time. Not only does he have no people skills and I really mean NO PEOPLE SKILLS. Brandon watched the virus when it first came and didn't take care of it and look what happened. I feel he is the one who cost the district not only a lot of money but the start of a smooth school year and transition for some children. You people defending him do not know the whole story behind this and probably won't. Brandon leaving the school district saved a lot of people from trying to find some other job. Good Bye Brandon!!!:)

yet one more (sorry)
It sounded like I was saying that Brandon was in charge of managing the people in their respective departments. I meant that Mr. Bunton is in charge of the department heads (not Brandon) within his role as Director of Business Services. That includes Brandon, who has been the one in charge of the IT department. Brandon was top dog of IT, while Mr. Bunton's role is completely different. He's Brandon's boss, but he doesn't specifically deal with IT. Now I'm probably just getting more confusing so I'll just leave it at that.

One more thing:
I've heard that Brandon's salary is six digits, but that's second-hand. The person who questioned whether the district pays a sufficient salary in order to find someone with the necessary skills, I assure you he was making more than the $60K to $80K you quoted as being the norm. The 3rd party's tech report identifying a need to invest more heavily in the IT department was referring, I believe, to manpower (in numbers) and cost of equipment.

OMG, YESSS!
Some comments are very interesting, and could use some clarification. First, to the person who called Brandon's release a "knee jerk reaction", are you kidding? This has been a long time coming, and it's not all about the virus and how it was handled. As Brandon quoted to the Gazette, his people-skills are incredibly poor. He's probably a decent guy (trying to be nice), but in his work he is very arrogant and sort of mean-spirited. In his job, he needs to not only know how to get along with people, he needs to know how to manage people.
To the person or people who are wondering if Mr. Bunton is passing the buck or finding some scape goat, you should understand that Brandon is the head of the IT Department. He was in charge of making sure our network is functioning properly. He manages the people that are in charge of their respective departments, with Brandon's being the IT Dept., as I said. There's no way Mr. Bunton should be held responsible for the computer problems, except perhaps for not recognizing Brandon's incompetence sooner, especially since our computer problems pretty much started the month Brandon first came on board with the district mid-year last year. His (Mr. Bunton's) only fault that I can see is not getting rid of Brandon sooner.

unidentified..Bounton isn't leaving,Keirns is.I understand we all make mistakes,even those that rip on others!Watch that armchair !

EPIC FAIL!

Regardless of Bunton's culpability or non-culpability in the actual meltdown, his handling of the fallout was atrocious.
And for that he should be held accountable.

Maybe Keirns just didn't want to be here anymore like Tom Evert had said for his reason on retirement !!! Sounds to me as alot of downtowners are trying their best to cover their butts.My guess would be that Doug Bounton will take retirement soon also.I have a very good idea what to do with their salaries......Don't hire anyone to replace them,hire MORE teachers !!!!

JasonTh: I love the all knowing, all powerful, and end all commentary. As if somehow anyone who isn't you is an armchair administrator. Seems a bit condescending. Moreover, the point of a blog is discussion. In the grand scheme of things, I could care less, because I don't even have kids. Nonetheless, for sake of discussion and a very mildly interesting topic people post a variety of opinions. With your line of thought most of these blogs would remain post-less. It has been stated by people who have dealt with JSD that this program is underfunded. Granted, that doesn't necessarily excuse Bunton, but it does leave problems even after his departure should that hold true. That said, it is possible after further review, that we'll find the JSD system is adequate and Bunton was the problem. It's unlikely this can all be attributed to one person. That will be another story for another day, which will have a whole new set of blog post. Maybe you can then apply for the Non Armchair Administrator IT job opening at JSD.

Before this is over with...Bunton will get a raise and the tax payers will buy all new equipment.

Does Bunton ever tell the truth? Says something is news to him yet sends an email to the School Board the night before. Are we ever going to get straight answers out of that department?

The board should hire an outside company to do the audit not Bunton. His people will support his agenda because without it they would be gone. Another district used a company called Tushaus to do their audit.

Lets just get some change in there so this never happens again and our kids can learn.

"passing the blame"? "fall guy"?
As the Dir of IT, a computer virus is his area of RESPONSIBILITY. If this was the private sector, he would have been fired or demoted weeks ago.
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Regardless of who he is, he needs to move on to something that fits his skillset and experience level. He will be able to make a positive contribution in a different job.

Doug Bunton sounds like he's trying to save his own tail by pointing fingers and dropping the axe before an audit is performed.

Why not wait until we have more details on how the situation unfolded from a 3rd party observer instead of the typcial knee-jerk reaction such as this?

Armchair administrators - don't bother replying if you didn't work for JSD. You have no idea what they had for budget, support contracts, or infrastructure. Without knowing that - you can't make a determination if it was the fault of the department or if they were set to fail by lack of support from the school district.

1-2 comments were made regarding sufficient money being available to provide good security. It should be noted there are several applications out there known as "open source" apps - this means they are free to users and are built by a group of programming nerds who refuse to be ripped off by big software companies (microsoft, mcafee, norton, etc). While some people question the quality and support of these apps, they are free, and they actually do quite a good job @ what they are built for. While I'm not suggesting the district go this route, i'm simply stating good security is a matter of being well educated and up to date, and putting these things into practice. i would bet the security and preventative measures at the network level were poor, and no one can feel sorry for them when something like this happens. Too bad he didn't get administrative leave - he could have used the time off to get his security+ certification...

Interesting. Looks like the school needed to pass blame. I'd love to look at this system and the funding available for it. I'm guessing it's out dated and the funding provided for it is inadequate, which would prove difficult for most IT professionals to overcome. However, it's also possible this guy didn't know his stuff or a combination of all three problems existed. As a result, and if blame was rightly placed, this resignation will only solve one of those three problems. An IT professional assigned to manage a system like this would typically make about $60-80,000 a year, which I highly doubt was the case here. In technology people get what they pay for. Seeing how technology is such a crucial part of the learning process in today's world, I think more priority needs to be placed there.

yep-that's exactly why thngs "didn't get done". Because he is a relative of a district employee. Please, people give me a break. Do you realize how many district employess are related to each other? That has nothing to do with this.

My understanding is that Keirns was a fairly new grad, but is the son of a middle school principal ? When will the public demand some transparency in hiring and decision making processes in public schools and city government ?

Hallelujah! Brandon's incompetence and arrogance is what led to this whole fiasco! He treated his workers like crap and he deserves it right back at him. When the district hires his replacement, I hope they go beyond family members!

Ummmm, MrScott, not so much. Knowing how you network is set up would be key in dealing with how to stop the spread. The main goal of any "IT Pro" is to keep a properly patched and clean system and know exactly how the network is structured. The ball was dropped and someone must take ownership of the problem. A blind, deaf, mute could sense this train coming down the tracks.

I doubt any IT person from any school district would have been able to deal with this any better. Most IT "pros" that work for school districts are trained to deal with this sort of issue. Setting up and maintaining networks is a whole different ball of wax than trying to troubleshoot and fix a network which has been infected with a major virus.

So letting him go will help move things along? Tell me how that makes any sense, because I am confused.

I wouldn't consider him a 'fall guy'. He was totally in over his head from the beginning. This went on WAY too long!

I guess the school district has found it's "fall guy".

All I can say is the situation became utterly unacceptable, and he was probably out of his depth in both preventing and responding to it.