District+Challenges

The district lacks the personnel necessary to implement and maintain a quality educational technology program: The various data systems in Hyde Park are not integrated in any way. There is a tremendous amount of time and energy consumed used each year re-keying and moving data from one system into another around the district.
 * Technical support personnel is limited in comparison with the quantity of computer workstations in the district (average is 449 computers per technician assuming two full time technicians, one part time Dutchess Boces technician (3 days per week), and an inventory of approximately 1100 computers). CoSN (Consortium for School Networking) estimates that in the business world the ratio is 1 technician for every 50-75 computers. In the Hyde Park Central School District, a realistic goal is 1 technician for every 300 computers. This ratio still stretches district resources and the goal of a two day turn around time because the district is composed of a variety of operating systems, hardware, and software. This is quite different from business world where conditions are more standardized and can be more homogeneous.
 * The district lacks the instructional technology personnel necessary to efficiently coordinate outside training agencies and provide even localized basic computer skills training for teachers, staff, and administrators.
 * The district lacks basic support personnel in each building called SYSOPS (system operators) who are responsible for general troubleshooting and equipment maintenance. These positions are critical because the SYSOPS are first responders, handling smaller, simpler issues and allowing the district network technicians to focus on larger, more complex problems.
 * Business, Food Service, Special Education, Library and Transportation all maintain separate external databases that do not communicate with the district student management system or with one another.
 * District staff spend large amounts of time creating and maintaining new external databases to fill gaps caused by the inadequacies of the student management system.
 * There is a need for a data management specialist whose sole responsibility is to oversee the various data resources around the district and design better ways for information to be communicated between these systems. A data management specialist would also be responsible for handling requests for specific data and working to ensure data sent to the NYS data repository is as accurate as possible.