I can tell you all first hand that the poor state of the computer system has NOTHING to do with ANY IT position below the Manager of IT. Myself and others made numerous attempts over the YEARS to put best practices into place and were rejected at nearly every attempt. We reported inoperable UPS's and batteries, bad backup tape drives and tapes. Very seldom was anything done about these problems with this bad equipment. The previous IT Managers, were WELL aware of our system's shortfalls. I know that their boss was aware of some of these problems, but being a non-computer person, I'm not sure he knew the severity of the situation. I'm also not sure what the IT Mgrs actually told their boss. I'm not sure if the board or previous boards were made aware of the situation. We have undone alot of the goofy things the previous IT Mgrs did, and had us and temporary staff doing. WAY too many changes all at once. Alot of our equipment is outdated. Our phone system is over 10 years old. We have 10mb switches at the elementary schools that were installed in 1996/97. The system is very stable now, but a lot of work still remains. We paid a lot of money to consultants, both in 2005, and now with our current consultants, to tell the district what we've been telling them for years!!! The management at JSD needs to actually listen to and involve senior IT staff (NOT just the manager) with on going issues and planning.

I can tell you all first hand that the poor state of the computer system has NOTHING to do with ANY IT position below the Manager of IT. Myself and others made numerous attempts over the YEARS to put best practices into place and were rejected at nearly every attempt. We reported inoperable UPS's and batteries, bad backup tape drives and tapes. Very seldom was anything done about these problems with this bad equipment. The previous IT Managers, were WELL aware of our system's shortfalls. I know that their boss was aware of some of these problems, but being a non-computer person, I'm not sure he knew the severity of the situation. I'm also not sure what the IT Mgrs actually told their boss. I'm not sure if the board or previous boards were made aware of the situation. We have undone alot of the goofy things the previous IT Mgrs did, and had us and temporary staff doing. WAY too many changes all at once. Alot of our equipment is outdated. Our phone system is over 10 years old. We have 10mb switches at the elementary schools that were installed in 1996/97. The system is very stable now, but a lot of work still remains. We paid a lot of money to consultants, both in 2005, and now with our current consultants, to tell the district what we've been telling them for years!!! The management at JSD needs to actually listen to and involve senior IT staff (NOT just the manager) with on going issues and planning. Just listening to the mgr is part of what got us to this point. /rant off

No UPS? My God, for about a hundred bucks one can get something like an APC XS 900 which will keep a server up for at least a little while and protect it from surges.

No, I'm sorry, this article and the several that have appeared over the past year indicate that it has been nothing short of rank incompetence on the part of the IT staff.

Several comments from a previous article reiterated that there exists quite a bit of talent within the community (GM, EDS, etc.) that actually know IT infrastructure. Glad to see that at least one board member is open to having community volunteers involved.

OPINIONS... too great! I can't stop laughing!
Gotta go wipe my eyes now! Thanks!

The first thing the district needs to do is actually HIRE QUALIFIED people, not just people that SAY they can fix the problems. The system this year has been down as much as it's been up, i know, i deal with it daily! What a joke!The IT people have no clue! Bunton should've known better, but hey, he'll be gone soon, so what does he really care? Evert's gone, same goes.

I'm not sure but i think these are photos of JSD's datacenter http://www.vibrant.com/cable-messes.php

Incidentally, for those of you who are citing the board for not allowing a reasonable IT budget, make sure you're reflecting those views on the referendums when they come around. If you want the best schools, be prepared to pay for them.

Cullen noted that Doug Bunton, director of business services, has admitted that the district had taken a "minimalist" approach to funding the upkeep of the computer system. Cullen questioned whether the school board was ever told about the minimalist approach or the possible consequences.
OR
Was Doug doing what is necessary to be considered a "good" manager and keeping the budget requests down and assuring his place in the grand scheme of things?
Was he rewarded time and time again for "keeping a lid on costs"?
Dogs beat with a stick for barking soon learn to not bark!

And what Technoguy said....

A small amount of money over the past 15 years for upgrades is much easier to justify than 3 million up front like this. If IT did it's job by recommending small upgrades over the years (which they may have), this wouldn't be a problem right now. If it comes down to the money not being approved over the years after IT recommended upgrades, then there's a problem also. Lack of staff? Ok, so hire a batch of over paid, lack luster consultants to tell you that your screwed. The School District has backed itself into a corner and now, about the only option will be to gut the entire system and replace it. You don't want to pay for that? Well, it's a lose/lose no matter which way you look at it. Pay the money now for new infrastructure and say, "Oh man, that was tough to suck up.", or don't do it, look for a big sale at Bob's Computer Salvage, go that route and find yourself in the same situation 2 years from now.

And for god's sakes, hire some talent. Anyone can surf the Internet and become a self-proclaimed IT nerd that networked their mom's home computer. Weed those people out and hire people that genuinely know what their doing in the professional IT world (yes, it might cost a bit more). You really can't go anywhere except up at this point.

IT management and operations are not black magic. There are very well known standards and best practice guidelines proven to work and to constrain cost in a responsible manner. You do not need a team of consultants to tell you how to do IT, you need a management team who is willing to listen to the people who make it their business to design, configure and operate these systems for a living and not second guess the very people they pay salaries to manage their systems and operations.
Quit letting well meaning people who have no idea what any of this IT jargon means be the final decision makers when it comes to what will and will not get funded. There are no easy cheap fixes in IT!
IT people are generally working very hard to make the systems work with what they are given. If they make noises about upgrades, security, infrastructure improvements they are systematically eliminated from any further contact with the people making decisions because they bring all that gibberish to light and "confuse" the issues. Business leaders do what they do very well, why then can they not see that most IT professionals do what they do very well and actually listen to the IT people when they speak? That is the question that should be asked!
How do we find the balance between cost and responsible, secure functionality?
Unless you have well rounded experience in actually working in a MODERN network environment you have no business even commenting on the subject let alone sitting on a committee to select the correct path to follow.
If you were walking over the Rocky Mountains would you want your route plan created by a bunch of business leaders looking at maps, manpower simulations and budget numbers or would you want the mountain man who lived in those mountains everyday leading you on your adventure. I will take the smelly mountain man with all his warts and unpleasantness because I believe he would know how to get it done.

Mr Cullen needs to remember that when a person starts pointing his finger at someone (to blame) there is more fingers pointing back to the person doing the pointing...

What the school board can't multi-task? Fix the system AND fix the blame at the same time!!

The board of education approves each budget, every year. If the IT department has been woefully underfunded, the board has no one to blame but themselves. School administrators have been under pressure for years to cut the admin budget rather than teachers and instruction; this is the result.

It's not that the Board didn't know, they either didn't understand or didn't care. With the way this Board operates all they care about is don't spend money. Cut the IT budget, cut the maintenance budget and then complain and whine when something breaks down. If they want someone to blame look in a mirror.

I have no doubt that Tom Evert knew about this. Its just another example of something that he SHOULD have been telling the school board about, but he didn't because, well, it wouldn't make him look good. And, in his way of thinking it was none of their business anyway.

Look no further than Bunton on up to the school board if you want to blame someone, they are all culpable in ignoring the problems for years until it was out of control.

The current cost needs to be separated into three categories.
1) What needs to be done immediately (UPS units, and upgraded security etc.)items that will stabilize and secure the networks operations.
2)Other hardware and software needs that will bring the network up to date.
3) Update end user equipment for teachers and students use.

Spread it over 2 or three years, hire competent district employees to do the updates and keep the consultants high fees out as much as possible.

And how do I go about removing my children's personal data from the system before it is compromised?

It amazes me that the school board would hire consultants to tell them what they already know, then question the consultants findings because there is a price tag associated with the solution. I've never seen such blatant denial. Also, regarding Cullen's statement "the report was incomplete because it failed to hold anyone accountable for the problems"... there isn't anyone LEFT to hold accountable. It's like hiring 2 chickens to lay 100 eggs a day, then firing them and asking where the hell the eggs went and who can I blame that there's no eggs. Look in the friggin' mirror.

Yeah the problem is you have people in control of approving the upgrade and projects that don't know jack, but on ly can complain when their email is slow or their programs don't run right. God forbid someone delete something. Problems like this I'm sure will draw people in droves to setup shop in our community

rooster:
.
Trying to fix this with a bunch of “taxpaying citizens that understand computers” is a sure-fire way to make the situation worse. The problem isn’t with single computer; it’s with the network and associated software. Very, very few people are qualified to go messing around with networks, and fewer still are qualified to try and configure security software for a LAN. Especially when, unlike most LANs, the school system is susceptible to attack from the inside as well as the outside. I doubt the problem is with the consultant, it’s with the school board who let the problem slide for so long. It’s kinda like a leaky roof. You can fix the problem right away, or let it go for a couple years and end up tearing off your whole roof to repair the rot and water damage. When it comes to networks, “pay me now or pay me later” definitely applies.

The issue is that they are not listening to the recommendations that people are, and have been, making for the last few years. This reports is not 'news' to anyone working in the district! Plenty of very qualified people made recommendations on that network including consultants and outside IT professionals that were just flat out ignored by administration. Putting this issue on display will force the administration to take action, hopefully before it is too late.

I'm speechless. This is the same corporate jargon for lets put this off as long as we can.

Task force, consultants. How about just post a few Job openings I am sure they're are some really qualified IT Professionals looking for a Job. Hire them, listen to them, buy the equipment, put some processes into place. wham problem solved

rooster, you haven't even read the report. I also don't want volunteers working on the school district computer system. Sure, they can advise, but volunteers also have no accountability. Cullen is right to ask who is accountable. How can the board improve the situation if they don't know how the people in charge got us where we are?

After the virus fiasco, if he would have said everything was great, he would have been fired. Not having a working backup power supply isn't just a major issue - it's a sign of worse problems to come. Uninterruptable power supplies are normally the first thing you make sure you have.

did you ever get a pop-up that says it analyzed your computer and found ten million errors. that is what this consultant seems to have done. how could he justify his fees and find everything just great. the more it costs, the better it justifies his consulting fees.(sounds lawyerish huh!) my questions, what holes? what problems has the system had? we need the whole review board made up of taxpaying citizens that understand computers and i bet there are plenty that would be able to do the job and maybe better and with more of a financial interest than the clowns that might get hired whose only interest is collecting consulting fees. we have seen time and time again how expensive those are. the more expensive the consulting fee, the bigger the fix. here is what the whole city of janesville spend-a-holics should do. a one year (maybe two) moratorium of not spending anything we don't need that isn't necessary to keep the city running i.e. police, courts, city services etc. let this crummy economy and the loss of the citys manufacturing base settle in before it spends like there is no tomorrow. because, that is what is going to happen here. a financial CHRISIS where the tomorrow is grim with boarded up houses and empty gyms. lets pull together as a city and try to fix our own problems from within.