Greetings Thompson Community:
I hope you’re having a wonderful start to 2021. As we kick off the new year, I wanted to provide you with an update on our efforts to improve technology for our academic programs, as well as the administrative and business work of the district.
In the first quarter of last year, we finalized the technology subsection of our Strive 2025 Strategic Plan. While the pandemic did cause us to alter some of our plans, it also provided impetus and funding to accelerate many other areas to support all students in both remote and in-person learning environments.
We’ve made huge strides in the replacement of obsolete equipment and in the completion of systems upgrades and staff training. Our district’s technology division, Innovative Technology Services (ITS), has concentrated their efforts on upgrading our network and improving access to staff and student devices, as well as making sure that those devices have the software necessary to reach their full potential. In remote learning situations, we are also assisting families in getting connected to the Internet through the option that best fits their circumstances.
Last year, our ITS team finished phase one of rebuilding the infrastructure for all school networks. Now we are seeing the full benefit of this, as we doubled our bandwidth capacity last spring in all schools. Also part of our infrastructure modernization is the installation of new phones and intercoms as well as bell and clock systems. All middle and high schools are now operating with the new systems and we are now focusing on replacing the systems in elementary schools.
Providing all of our students with access to effective devices is our most challenging technology project. When students have the access they need, they can use technology without rationing, reserving labs or trying to make old malfunctioning devices work. Three types of student devices are available to schools, including two types of Chromebooks and the new iPad 7. Thanks to new government stimulus funding, we are on-track to deploy a Chromebook or iPad to every student in the district by the end of the school year.
The main obstacle to our plan is the ability of factories to fulfill our orders while other schools around the world simultaneously order devices. By the end of this month, 22 TSD schools will be designated as “Ubiquitous Technology Access” (UTA) schools, which means that all of their students can access district-provided technology whenever it’s needed. As new orders come in, we are focusing attention on the remaining schools that don’t have one-to-one student devices. When a school becomes a UTA campus, their older technology is collected in a swap for their standardized devices. The old devices are then retired or they are refurbished and redeployed elsewhere.
As you can see, we are deeply committed to ensuring that our technology meets the academic and infrastructure needs of our district. As we begin 2021, we will continue to modernize our infrastructure and improve student access to technology and the Internet.
As always, thank you for your incredible support of our students and staff. I wish you the best as we embark on our new year.
Sincerely,
Dr. Marc Schaffer
Superintendent
Thompson School District