teacher2be,
To me, the issue isn't the cost. IT systems will always have to be maintained and upgraded. The question should be why the systems were allowed to deteriorate to the point that an outside consultant has to tell us that the LAN is on the verge of failing, or the districts telephone system battery backup is dead? I know the IT manager was recently fired, but did the business manager really not know the state of the IT systems?

Well, I guess will have to put this on the back burner for now since alot of people are saying how we NEED a Junior Hockey Team.

The JSD is very much political, not always what you know, but WHO you know.

Teacher2b, obviously you are still in college, which could mean you are still idealistic, there are many in the JSD, who should be gone. They do not think “out side of the box” and only worry about their own “self importance” in the district.

Did it occur to any of you who are complaining about the cost of this that quite possibly, because of you same complainers, they tried to "get by" for as long as possible without spending the money? You speak of incompetent staff, outdated equipment, "cobbled together" systems, etc. Then, when they want to spend the money to do it right, you complain about that, too. And then you all wonder about the quality education our children are getting, even though you complain up a storm that the teachers want to be paid fairly. Unbelievable.

And by the way, they were new state of the art computers

At one time I worked for the JSD, at the time because of my husbands job, I learned through a trade magazine that Apple computers were giving schools FREE computers.

^^^^^
The JSD was talking at the time that they needed new computers and were pleading their case, this was around 1994. I brought this to the attention of one of the districts employees and they said "Oh we can't pursue this.

I could not agree more with Weeds and Imsmart2!

How much did these consultants get paid to do the same analysis and make the same recommendations that the last network manager made? Makes me question why Bunton really forced that guy out last Fall...to cover up his neglect and ignorance?

Bunton should be made accountable for his neglect of the network and poor decision-making!

It is evident that he has been less concerned with his job and responsibility to the district, children, teachers and parents than his pending retirement. It is sad that his lack of knowledge and reistance to change has put the district so far behind.

Technology is constantly changing. Who thought it would be a good idea to put someone with no tech expertise and no vision solely in charge of such a critical component of education? It is just irresponsible. I hope that with a new superintendant comes transparency and accountability.

Sarab

A significant portion WAS set for education until the stymulus was negotiated with 3 REPUBLICANS and that portion was CUT SIGNIFICANTLY.

Next time you see a rebulican, thank him/her for being the party of believing money spent on education is simply "pork."

Many of school systems problems and costs could be mitigated by moving to Linux and using Google's school services. Google provides email, calendars, spreadsheets, documents, blogs, web pages and more. The learning curve wouldn't be any higher than it already is for MS products and would be more reliable and stable and therefore cheaper in the long term. However, I would guess that they will spend more money and the problem will reoccur down the road.

dkush, Did you not read the blog? Of the $70 million almost $60 million went to math, science, agriculture, etc. class rooms. The field houses where only a small part of it. And last I heard, obesity was on the rise in America, so shouldn't we have enough space for Phy. Ed classes instead of craming 200 kids into on gym so they have no room to run?

Looks nice on the outside,do'snt work on the inside. If i had a house that was this cobbled together, i would bulldoze it and start over. People are being payed good money to make sure this do'snt happen. Can you say accountability?

This is why we all voted no the the school referendum that passed after the third time. They should have put that money towards education and not sports oriented needs.

Also any Network manger should know. Backups, Anti virus, usage polices (blocked sites and undesirable network traffic) are starters. Which some of us would call preventative measures.

Some other concepts that the school district's IT staff members should learn are: Support contracts, Patch deployment/management, Lifecycling, Disaster recover Planing, Process Documentation, Asset management, Mission critical services, Redundancy, Scheduled maintenance. I am sure I've have missed some

The question about the referendum misunderstands what monies can be spent on capital projects. I believe that broadband wiring (not mentioned here) may be the only thing that would fall under a referendum proposal. Computer replacement and upgrades are equipment expenditures and must come out of the operating budget.

Any I too wonder why a "consultant" would need to tell them that. Hell ust read this blog and save us the money

Weeds hit the nail on the head. I say fire everyone in that consists of the District’s IT staff and start anew. Weeds is right, throwing money at a problem this time won’t solve the consistent issues that they are having. If these tools running the network had half a brain cell they would be in this position anyway. Hire new staff and create a PLAN and SOPs for processes and procedures and enforce them. I could go on and on. I am baffled at the stupidity that I keep reading about within the school district IT Dept

This information is not new to Doug Bunton, all of this was presented to him last year. No backup plan (unless you call 20GB backup drives in every server with 200+GB of data a plan), 10MB switches that according to purchase history were "too old to be located" (estimates put them at 1995), servers that were 10 years old that regularly failed, and an IT department that refuses to work outside regularly scheduled hours and when they do they can't determine the difference between storage and ram when referring to memory! The years of neglect are so obvious now but even when presented with smaller parts of the 3M proposal the administration refused to listen saying (paraphrased) "this system was designed back in 1994 and that is the design we are staying with". Once that report comes out the only surprise will be how that system was kept together this long! The unfortunate part is that with this economy the choice will be between keeping already overworked teachers and giving them the tools they, and the students need, to be successful. I would not want to be part of this financial mess. Thanks Doug Bunton, enjoy your retirement while we all enjoy the fine mess you left for our kids!

One other thing...It's a total joke that they needed 'consultants' to tell them the hardware is outdated. Can't the school districts' IT staff do that? Must be a trust issue there.

It's funny how people take such a small view of IT. No one cares about it and everyone criticizes it until something goes wrong or someone can't access their email for the 'joke of the day'. Then all hell breaks lose and the finger pointing begins.

IT doesn't just consist of Dilbert type nerds sitting at a screen in a locked up room all day. If IT does their job correctly, they make capacity assessments, perform trending and analysis, and promote planning for the future. They propose a budget and a long term plan that will keep the business running without failure. They create well thought out system designs and proposals that justify them.

Any nerd can build a server and hook the internet up to it and call himself IT. I can apply a Barbie bandaid to the paper cut I just got, but that doesn't make me a doctor.

Honestly, you can throw 3 million worth of new equipment at the school district but if the same folks that got them into this jam to begin with (anti-virus and system backups are cheap) are going to also be managing it once again, it'll be a catastrophe. You can't throw cash at incompetence and expect it to be all better.

Will any of the federal stimulus money fit into this category? I know a large portion of the total package is dedicated to education. Also, I want to thank beeferer for his stepping up to the plate. I attended a private school while growing up and much of our upgrading was done by volunteers and it was professional.

The problem with many school district adminsitrators is that they do not listen to their staff. I have experienced this first hand at the district that I work for, and I'm guessing that is what has happened here. Many districts try to push the equipment as far as they can, and that is never a good thing. Unfortunately, they wait until there is a major issue, bring in the consultants, and the consultants usually tell the administration the same thing that their staff told them months, if not years, before.

Ultimately, the students pay the price for this because the equipment ends up being shoddy at best. We need to remember that if we skimp on resources for our children now they will have a much harder time succeeding in the future.

Were any IT upgrades included in the $70 million school upgrades?
Did anyone in the administration try to include IT upgrades in the referendum?
Were IT upgrades suggested but taken out of the referendum?

So, does the buck stop at Doug Bunton? Who is responsible for knowing the state of the IT systems? Why does it take a consultant to tell us this, and not someone from the administration? You can't take a "minimalist approach" if you don't know the state of the systems to begin with.

FIELD HOUSES!!!you must mean black holes. they sucked up the taxpayers money. maybe the school board could recomend the schools rent time at the gyms and recoup cash so the kids that don't do sports, can at least get an education with modern computers. 3 million bucks. you can't make it up except in janesville and their incompetent school board.

Hmm,wouldn't the $ spent on the field houses have been better spent on preventing this before it was a problem. But, as long as the sports teams have nice settings and can keep up with the neighbors, who cares if teachers, parents, and staff are enabled to do their jobs efficiently. At least Janesville Schools look good.

i apologize for making it sound like the referendum was for only sports. I knew some was for building upgrades. But as i remember, wasn't it closer to $100 million?? At that time, i seem to remember everyone pushing for the referendum for sports reasons (wrestling, basketball, baseball, etc.)
Thank you for correcting me though.

Macdaddy, most of the $70 million referendum was for upgrades in heating and ventilation as well as math, science, art and other academic areas at the high schools. But yes, some of that money paid for those big, new gymnasiums -- Gazette reporter Frank Schultz

This is cheap. Believe me, I've been involved in companies with annual $10-25 million IT budgets, and I have also helped non-profits with significant computer investments. There are great benefits to getting new equipment that conforms to a standard, and upgrading on a regular basis. If you buy random inexpensive stuff you end up with support nightmares.
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This isn't just a bunch of computers in a lab like it used to be, this is a multi-site broadband network that requires state-of-the-art security and backup. It supports not just instruction but teacher workflow management and communication. You can do this on the cheap, but you get what you pay for.

Beeferer, your idea could be a good one IF there is a qualified person out there in the community. You are bringing up an idea I have not heard before! As to the consultant, I would seek a professional opinion before repairing or replacing a major item in my home. The computer system certainly fits the category of major!!!! The school district needs a functioning and dependable computer system.

being familiar with computer parts, the hardware is expensive. Especially to the level that is needed for a school or large corporation. Everyone is right though, that the cost at what most computer companies charge (avg. $125/hr) is very expensive and through volunteers that could lessen the expense, but the downside is security. The more people that work on a computer system the more people that know how it is constructed and the passwords to bypass, making it much easier to attack.

If we can spend $70+ million on sports upgrades. $3 million on computers seems like a no-brainer to me. Our students could make more money on average working in the field of computers or jobs requiring computer skills than professional sports.

And, why did we need consultants to tell us this, and how much did they cost the citizens?

I thought they already did this. Where's the money going to come from? Unemployment is thru the roof..Surely no referendum would pass. I guess a federal bailout is needed here.

+My cell was useless during the aftermath of Katrina; too many calls overcame the areas ability to process them. This could be a possiblity here, with no action taken.

More than $3,000,000. I'll bet there are some people that are laid off who possess the know-how and skills to fix it for 1/10 the price. This is the city of parks. Look at what volunteer work accomplished with some of the parks in this city -Camden Playground and Peace Park Playground. We should look into our most precious resource- our citizens, to save BIG BUCKS when it comes to this kind of proposal. Why not organize a committee to see who we have out there to volunteer their services in this city to cover the wide range of problems and concerns we are facing. I'll volunteer to work on the ice arena when the time comes for remodeling and I am sure there are many who would rather work than see an increase in taxes to cover the unnecessary costs. My fee would be a glass of water. Volunteer work is its own reward.