The districts IT budget is about 1.4 million dollars not including labor costs that include temporary workers but does include consulting fees for audits etc. Almost 500,000 is taken up in software licensing but leaves almost 1,000,000 in hardware replacement budget.

The open/empty positions are fully funded in the current budget and there is no excuse for not having them filled.
The district cannot do scheduled maintenance because their current workers pretty much refuse to do any off hours work claiming 'family responsibilities, etc, etc.'

The fiber optic lines that the district 'might upgrade' to were installed and tested by AT&T in November and the district is already paying for them. They just need someone with enough aptitude to configure them, but I think those people are already gone.

So the department of 12 with only 9 employed and only about 5 working continues to struggle? I'm not surprised.

"This is truly unbelieveable and would never be allowed to continue in the business world". You don't work where I work obviously, or any other place I've worked previously.

The simple reality is that these schools buy into the Microsoft mantra about how easy and reliable their products are - they are neither easy nor reliable. The school district would be better off running Linux and outsourcing the rest to Google's slew of free online products. Google has many free and low cost online applications specifically for schools who want to use them. Have you ever heard of Google and its applications not working? And the school would save tens of thousands of dollars using free software and applications.

What I have a problem with is that the grade book on family access is inaccurate. I checked on my daughter and it said she had 3 missing assignments and no grade for tests taken in class, which made it a F. Well I was obviously very upset as she told me that she indeed had turned in her work. I called her teacher and they just said :oh yeah we have been having some problems...don't worry about it she is a good kid and has it all turned in." Well it still says she was missing those assignments when the last report card came out and and it lowered her grade from what should have been a A to a B and the other class a C to what should have been a B. The teacher said they couldn't do anything about it because of the computer program.
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What the heck a kid does her best and gets the wrong grades because of a non working computer program. Go back to writing in a grade book with pen or pencil, at least that way the kids can know what they truly earned for a grade.

Seriously, this sounds like a reasonable problem they're trying to solve proactively. This is a big change from the situation with the virus, where a reactive approach only seemed to make things worse.

I agree that our society has become way too dependent upon computers. What is so time consuming and labor intensive about taking a pen and writing a score down in a grade book? Do the students REALLY need instant online access to what their grade is at any given point and time in a class? Any decent student likely has a fairly accurate idea of how they are doing in a given class. In all seriousness, what is the point of ensuring students can look up grades via computer? Of what true benefit is it?

I'm all for ways to cut down on the work a teacher needs to do outside the classroom. If a computer system allows them to decrease the amount of time it takes to grade papers and enter scores, great! But, it seems to me the system is obviously failing in the Janesville school district. Rather than just throwing money at the problem, maybe the district should look at alternative methods to accomplish the goals. Such as, examine the techniques used for the decades before computer use became widespread.

IT is much more complicated than most people realize and there is no one right or wrong way to set up a system. This is obviously just my opinion and I'm not familiar with the districts current arrangements, but adding a data analyst would help a great deal. This is someone who could analyze what parts of the districts IT system have the heaviest burden. In addition, they can check for peak usage times. Moreover, often times processes can be eliminated to speed up and opptimize the system. Software would be installed to monitor the entire system and data collected and logged for future reference. Unfortunately it's a step many IT departments skip due to lack of funds. Perhaps a clustered server arangement for the whole disctrict may work, as servers could then switch between areas of the district that are taking the heaviest load or come online as needed.

Wow, this was easily avoidable.

just a little bit of humor, but maybe it is frozen due to the weather

Janesville school districts lack of proper prior planning before implementing an IT department strikes again... well Johhny you can't go to college we can't find your transcripts, beautiful.

Comparing IT budgets wouldn't do much good right now, as the Janesville School District's department is getting along with the help of a consulting firm as it seeks to hire an IT manager, network engineer, and, if I'm remembering correctly, a computer technician. A number of improvements to the infrastructure also are in the works. The IT department is definitely in a time of transition. This is not to excuse anyone, just looking at the reality. Those who have followed this story for since last fall will recall that Doug Bunton acknowledged the district has been getting by with a minimalist IT budget. I believe that attitude has now changed, but they're not out of the woods, yet. --Gazette reporter Frank Schultz

jvldude The reality is the paper back up is instant reach into drawer and pull it out. Not so much with IT.

Frank, there's a story for you.. how do the various school districts IT budgets compare in Dane and Rock county?

I'd be curious to know what the district budget is for IT. My guess is it's not nearly enough. If you're not funding it, you can't expect it to work flawlessly.
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One of you asked what the difference between private sector IT and school district IT is.. most of the private sector realizes that IT needs to be funded for business continuation.

lovemycountry- you asked how this IT department differs from one in the business world? In the business world you wouldn't be supporting that many people and machines with a staff that small. You would not have a 7-9 year PC replacement schedule. You also would not have the shareholders telling you that you cannot spend money on anything because you already spend too much money.
In short, you would have the tools and manpower to actually do the job.

StaceyU2 thats what off-site tape storage is for. and why testing and verifying you backups daily is so important. We don't need pencil and paper anymore

While I sympathize with the frustration of the teachers not being able to have functionality of their job, I don’t feel much pain for the students that have missing assignments. It should be a responsibility of the student to make sure they keep up on assignments and work. When I went through school and college we didn’t have anyone holding our hand and making sure we got everything finished. It was an individual’s responsibility if they wanted to pass or excel to be responsible for our own work. That is the problem with all of these nanny programs, responsibility and individual accountability is expected to be handed out by some software and heaven forbid if they have to be self-sufficient it’s the end of the world! With one child in college and one still in school I have never logged into the web nanny. I expect my children to be responsible for their work and their grades will reflect it. So far both have maintained high honor status with out me holding their hand. Go figure.

The district should get rid of Skyward and go with a decent Student Information System like Infinite Campus.

Simon is right - "...This is truly unbelieveable and would never be allowed to continue in the business world...". You have to ask yourself how is this IT department different from a IT department in the private sector ?

Maybe a new software program is in need here.

What they stopped using pencils and paper???
We have become too dependent on Computers..
Before you all start on me.. with all the problems they have been having.. put a little work into your work.. MANUALLY INPUT STUFF ON PAPER (at least you will have a "backed up copy somewhere)

It almost seems like there has been no scheduled maintenance. No once student get their grade it cannot be changed. Unfair to students that wish to have the opportunity to get a few points for missed assignments that cannot. My son is one of them. He asked the teachers if there are any missing assignments, and the teacher said it is just tough, what will be will be..

My daughter had a final exam on the computer and started nearly 30 minutes late because the internet was down AGAIN! This is truly unbelieveable and would never be allowed to continue in the business world. The parents, students, and teachers are so frustrated!

Are you serious? Operator error? Trust me when I say this...you would have to be completely computer illiterate to make a mistake while entering numbers into boxes and clicking on a 'save' button. This is not the only instance. We as a staff have had many of these instances. Staff have stopped sending the issues as it doesn't seem to make a difference. The computers have been a hinderance for the entire year.

The family access has not worked for almost a month. Our children ahve not been able to check their grades since the week before Christmas break.