Kankakee Times

Manteno Community Unit School District 5 Board of Education Technology Committee met September 13.

Here is the minutes provided by the Board:

In attendance: Brent Zhorne, Kevin Crosby, Rob Meadors, Chris Bohula, Lindsay Fetherling, Matthew Glenn, Roger Schnitzler, Jake Emerson, Rebecca Ganger, Kristi Van Zeyl, Nathan Short, Cara Baldwin, Gale Dodge, Dave Conrad, Stephanie Kaack, Dan Christ, Tom Steele

Meeting was called to order at 3:30pm

1) Annual Content Filter review (public participation and comment is encouraged)

a. Content filtering background

i. Content filtering is required by the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA)

ii. Content filtering is difficult due to many factors such as website design, changes in how data is accessed/used, browser changes/enhancements, security/privacy, etc.

b. We are on our third and final full year with CIPAfilter - Do not foresee changing, but will revisit in the spring

c. Filtering is based on network credentials

d. Tech Department recommends maintaining filtering criteria as currently set.

i. Brent Zhorne made a motion to accept the recommendation.

ii. Kevin Crosby seconded. Motion carried.

2) Tech Dept updates

a. Tech interns are Lucas Beasley, Justin Long and Josh Jackson

i. If we fall behind on tickets, we may look at adding another at the semester break

ii. Interns were trained on repairing Chromebooks (Lenovos) over the summer

1. TRA came in and supplied us with training and spare parts, instead of having to send off to TRA (quicker turn-around time)

b. All of our E-rate funding requests have been approved, including the ES Fiber Project. Camco Construction has begun the engineering work on the ES Fiber Project and we hope to begin construction soon. We still have not heard whether the State of Illinois grant will be funded, but if it is, we are approved.

c. Chrome authentication and student account lockouts have been fixed but underlying problem has not been fully resolved. CIPAfilter will be releasing a new client that bypasses the current authentication process in the next few months.

d. Skyward has installed the October Beta Release. If there are any issues, please report to Tom/Stephanie immediately.

e. We upgraded our Internet bandwidth this year to 400Mbps from 200Mbps. So far this year we have been peaking at about 300Mbps each day.

f. We have been exploring the possibility of switching our fire and burglar alarms to wireless monitoring. We received a proposal from Protection Associates with a couple of options. Both will ultimately save us money in the long run and provide for faster response time from the fire department. 911 and the fire department will be notified immediately once the alarm is triggered.

3) MS Chromebook Chargers

a. We will not be putting spare Chromebook chargers in classrooms this year.

b. Chargers are very expensive and we only have a few spares that will be used to replace those lost or damaged by students.

c. Each classroom has been issued a spare Chromebook that students can use

d. We will re-visit this issue if necessary

4) Promethean ClassFlow

a. Originally Promethean had stated they planned to end support of ActivInspire at the end of this year.

b. In light of this, the Technology Department recommended all teachers begin using ClassFlow, the product that replaced ActivInspire

c. Promethean recently had a change of heart and announced that they will continue supporting ActivInspire for the foreseeable future

d. The Technology Department continues to recommend teachers make the switch to ClassFlow at their convenience, but there is no time limit as to when we will stop supporting ActivInspire.

e. Lindsay Fetherling said that it looks promising, but she was trying to find training documents and didn’t find much

f. Roger said that the math department said there were a lot of issues with the transition. The teachers basically had to re-create everything. No longer can open all classes for the day (can only have one open at a time)

g. Put out a survey to see 1) if any teachers are using Classflow, 2) if they wanted training, 3) if there’s anyone who wants to present the training

5) Speakers

a. We have no more speakers to install in classrooms.

b. All projectors have suitable sound systems to give adequate classroom performance

c. We will begin connecting Promethean computers to the built-in projector sound system rather than use speakers

d. This cuts down on desktop clutter, power strip problems and sound inefficiencies.

6) Building updates

a. Elementary School

i. Additional chromebooks are working well

ii. IPEVO camera issues (blurriness, contrast). Tom will check with support to see if there are any known issues

b. Middle School

i. Some CCTV cameras not working correctly, or the clarity is horrible

1. system was installed in 2009

2. Most exterior cameras were cleaned during the summer. Have been using some headlight restoration kits on some of the domes and it helps (may not be a long-term solution though)

3. Replacement camera domes have been discontinued

4. Not all cameras are physically accessible by the district. Would need to hire electrician with a boom truck.

5. We can either spend a lot of money to try and repair or spend a little more to replace. Looking at options for new devices since it may be cheaper to replace

ii. Electronic signage has been great. Looking at adding more tvs throughout the hallways

iii. Chromebook repairs have been low so far. Biggest issue is the 5th/6th Lenovo Chromebooks’ keys falling off

iv. Becca needs chromebook cart ticket reopened so chargers can be removed

c. High School

i. some Dell chromebooks have lost the touchpad sensitivity. Closing the lid and re-opening resets it

ii. Would like to still discuss 1:1 at the HS

iii. Guardian has been working well (need to look at new tardy pass paper)

iv. HS Facebook page is up and working

v. Stephanie will follow-up with MWOS about toner for L11 HP2055

vi. Roger still getting calls for attendance calls because some search sites show his number for the HS. Tom has checked all the search engines and made sure it has the main line. While testing during the meeting, it appears to be Apple’s SIRI that still gives the wrong number

7) Future items

a. Discuss 1:1 at the HS

8) Other

9) Adjournment

a. Brent Zhorne made a motion to adjourn. Kevin Crosby seconded. Motion carried.

b. Meeting was adjourned at 4:14 pm

http://images.pcmac.org/Uploads/MantenoCUSD/MantenoCUSD/Departments/MeetingSchedule/TAB04-Tech_Minutes.pdf