CCA Tech Committee

CCA Technology Committee
May 3, 2011

Attendees: Jon Brown, Nurline Lawrence, Lynnette Wrigglesworth, Wayne Schultz, Gail Conschafter, Guest – Chris from Accessium. Excused: Lynn Husvar, Dave Stehlin, Chad Crofford.

Jon opened in prayer.
Wayne will look into alternatives for conference calls.

Old Business:
Wireless Internet Action Point: Chris and Wayne have surveyed the situation. A couple of areas (health office and cafeteria) are a concern. The two remote corners and third floor are weak. Also looking at the gymnasium also. We have 16 laptops in 201, which need help along with 203. Industrial rated access points – Engenius – out of California is the best suggested. The issue of wireless is the structure itself. Wiring is labor intensive. The other issue is the possibility of asbestos. Installers are limited to where there is already access – heating vents, ect. The wireless is older technology and difficult to match. There are two ways to approach this concern. The easy way is to use the current wire and replace only the access points. They also looked at pulling a wire from 103 to 203 then into 203 and then into 201. This would make the laptop a wired lab. An estimate to do this would be approximately $70/hour, but if they are on site for the entire day, a discount would be given to CCA. The health office is a fairly easy fix to hardwire – to come from 204. 312 and 314 would be helped with the Engenius product. That would need to be wired, as there are not wires up on the third floor. Chris will get a quote to us for this. He will break down each “job” individually for quotes. (DBI Telecommunications – been there since 1990). Don’t charge full rate for a second man if one is needed for the job. Chris recommended pulling Value point and exchanging them for Engenius. He feels this would be a more feasible approach. This would be an upgrade and most likely be to our advantage. Lynnette said that there are about 20 users using the time capsule wirelessly. It is wired, and only needs to be hardwired from the router. Chris still would entertain wiring 201. Look at Lynnette’s as well. Chris will quote all aspects – this building and across the street as well.
Quoting 8 access points, health office, across the street, and the cafeteria office. The system will be “not N” so it will work with the wireless cards currently in the teacher computers. Chris will come Thursday at 9:30 AM to see what is needed in the brick building. He will get the quote to Wayne and it will be given to us. Wayne will research the N Technology and see if it will better serve us.

Projector Situation:
Chad quoted from e mail “My update for the projector mounting in the auditorium: Mark and I met to discuss possibilities. We intend to get the projector mounted and all cables
run over the summer. There will be a significant amount of work being done
in the summer in the auditorium and this will fit right in during this time.
We will need to spend money from the budget in order to run the cables that
are needed to operate the projector from the stage and from the sound booth.
I do not have an estimate, but it shouldn't be more than a few hundred
Dollars”
The committee approved $400 for this project. Anything above that will have to be presented back to the committee prior to spending.

Server Rack:
Wayne did not make any progress on this. There really is not a need to move this room just to use it. Maint. Would like this moved out of the basement of the blue house. We will continue to monitor the server room situation. The rack is too big for the size of the rack. Wayne to take care of this…. Gail will send Picts to Wayne and then share ideas about pricing to be put on Craigslist

IRS Computers to be donated:
Gail reported she has been in touch with my IRS contact. His last email reads:
Our staff was recently cut and the gal who used to do the Inventory Control exclusively is now about 80% assigned to other duties... The machines are stored and you are scheduled to receive them as soon as she can get to the paperwork... Sorry, that's all I can say at this point...(Received March 4)
Most are HP 5100, but a few are HP 5000 like the ones you already received... Sorry, but there are currently no more monitors available for refreshment/excess... I'm not sure if there will be any more in the near future, but I'll keep you in mind if some become available... (Received March 5)

Rosetta Stone:
Gail reported that Mr. Rick Ryan has been a tremendous help in setting things up with Rosetta. We had a power outage in January that blew out both servers that we had previously set up for Rosetta. Rick has worked very hard to secure to “higher power” computers to be used as servers. He is employed by Verizon, and they were generous enough to offer us two computers. As of Easter break, he is planning on coming in and setting them up (again) so we can get up and running. Beth’s room (Room 109) has been set up with 8 computers that are hardwired to the “server” in the room. Suzanne’s room (room 309) has also been set up with 8 computers that are wireless. There is a server in each room. I purchased two battery back up units for each server once they are set up. He came in last Friday, and set up both rooms. Both are up and running, ready for student names to be entered by the teachers. There was some discussion between Suzanne, Beth and myself on also installing Rosetta on the school server so students could access it from my room as well for enrichment. This we need to discuss. We have enough access codes, but I do not know what the status is with our server is as far as space and how we would handle this. We have a server license and enough access codes.
Suzanne Allen is not returning next year, so Beth Ziegler needs to become proficient with Rosetta before the start of next school year.

Nurline will look into a formal thank you for Rick.
Lynnette will look into a battery back up for her room.

Turn it In:
Gail reported that this software (web based) has been requested and received. We had a training session with all high school teachers, and it is up and running. It is plagiarism software to benefit the students. They submit their papers online and the software lets them know what percentage of their paper is NOT plagiarized. Plagiarized portions are highlighted and then the source of plagiarism is noted. The student then has the opportunity to change portions of the paper and re-submit it again for a grade. The teachers then have the ability to make noted (similar to Word) and then send it back to the students. All students e mail addresses and Turn it In passwords have been recorded in a google doc in the event they forget. The licenses are counted by the number of e mail addresses logged in. So, for instance, if a student misplaces his/her password and uses another e mail address, we have now used two licenses for that one student; hence the reason for documenting their passwords. We have paid for 200 students (which is the minimum we could purchase), and there are 225 students from grades 6-12. Currently, only high school students are using this. Once this years’ seniors graduate, we delete their e mail addresses from the list, and add the upcoming freshmen to the list, so the licenses roll over.
If we pre-purchase the same software for next year prior to Jan 1, 2012, we receive it at the same cost; avoiding the 15% increase in price. The subscription would not kick in until our 365 days expire – on March 15.
Purchase software prior to Jan 1, 2012 to be paid from first half of district money.
Broken: Document camera – Gail will get a quote to fix it and we will decide what to do. After discussion – turn the broken one back to the district. Gail will call Jennifer and tell her she can have it back.

Rubric: Lynnette distributed a sample rubric draft. The next step is to give to a few people and see if it is effective. There were a few things added to the form after discussion. Needs analysis: Lynnette, Gail and Dave will meet soon. Lynnette reported that there is a Joint Venture for Apple IT work. It is about $500 cost. They come in and do training, and if there is an issue. The company is local and for 5 computers. It would cover printers, airport. Lynnette will continue to look into it. Wayne’s professional opinion is that it is just like insurance. Jeanie Conklin is an IT person. Check with Jeanie Conklin to see if she can help us out. She has some time available to help us. She has permission to work more hours. Can Wayne make some sort of assessment to see if Jeannie is “qualified” to work on computers. Any requests for Accessium and/or Jeannie would be filtered through Lynn Husvar. Wayne suggested a WHEN somewhere in the rubric.

Websense: Wayne reported it was too expensive. The hardware solution might be better. It works on a per user account and it get expensive. A sonic wall would be a better solution. It is programmable and we can keep current. The cost will be quoted by Wayne. It may be about $1200. It is a fixed price. Wayne will have a quote within the next few days. Wayne and Chad will talk about it. Wayne was the one that installed Websense and feels he knows more about it.

Gail reported that we received the estimated amount from the district for the 2011 2012 school year. She requested that the majority of the hardware money be used for a new laser printer for her room and projectors for more classrooms. The committee seemed to be in agreement with her request. Wayne seemed to think the cost of a good quality "work horse" printer would be approximately $300 or so.

Next Meeting: Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 4 PM.

CCA Tech Committee

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

May 2011 Minutes

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Minutes from Feb 2011 Meeting