the system is vulnerable all right, vulnerable to the school board squandering 3 mill on something that should have been implemented instead of extra gymnasiums. i got a call before the referendum vote from a student that the school board had calling prospective voters to wine about how bad things were. it made me ill. they made the bed yet the taxpayer gets to sleep in it with all the lumps thrown in. this is the history of our school board, get the stuff we don't need first, then when we really need stuff, stick it to us in all its chrisis forms.

The board of education approves each budget, every year. If the IT department has been woefully underfunded, the board has no one to blame but themselves. School administrators have been under pressure for years to cut the admin budget rather than teachers and instruction; this is the result.

Hear hear, oldtimer!!!!!!!!!!

It's not that the Administration didn't listen, it always comes down to money. Just last year I believe the Board cut $50,000.00 from the IT budget and that wasn't the first time.

There is nothing in this article suggesting that they are buying any particular operating system. In fact most large business networks are mixed, with PCs, Macs, and Linux/Unix as well as specialized systems such as AS/400s or whatnot. The point of the network is to support the business requirements, and that may vary. For example, creative arts will almost always still be Mac-based, while business software will be PC-based. Enterprise software such as the classwork management system is going to be server-client based and probably web-accessible from inside or outside the network, so hardware and software are irrelevant -- you just need a connection and a modern browser.
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I think Elert is advising the board of what has been neglected and from what I read proposing fixes that are in line with professionally managed IT setups of this size. In other words, mistakes have been made, but we already know that, and they're now trying to fix it.

Good point imsmart2. It is my understanding that the $3 million price tag does not include additional, or more qualified (higher paid) support staff. Since the IT manager has been fired, and the director of business services is retiring, maybe the district can hire managers that are proactive instead of reactive.

This discussion should not be focused on the hardware it should be focused on the people. The old IT manager for never upgrading the network infrastructure, the tech employees who can't fix anything, and the administration for not listening to the recommendations of the IT manager they fired when the recommendations were for security, backups, and legit licensing. Instead they fired the guy for showing them how inept the staff was and how old the equipment was and how ill prepared for a disaster they were. I guess we see that it was many years of incompetence that he took the fall for. Who in the world would want to take that open job now knowing that the network is 3M behind even being adequate!

Todays Macs are basically PC's with a fancy operating system. There is no justification to paying that much for what is essentially the same thing as a PC. Back in the day Macs were actually a different type of computer, with the PowePC architecture, Apple made all the hardware, etc. Now it is the same exact hardware inside as a PC. I mean you can even run OSX on a newer Intel PC... I have nothing against OSX, just the Macintosh hardware. If anything, the school district should go Linux.

At my business we do use Macs we have a rather large network. In the seven years that I have been here we have never had a virus problem. They are easy to upgrade to a new OS. Go MACS!!

To the school board, you have some EDS (Electroic Data Systems) design people right here in Janesville that worked at GM and are now retired, these people were/are great design engineers, you dont need a three million dollar consultant, how do you know how reliable they are??

the board spend-a holics don't need much justification to spend OUR tax money. first it makes the gazette enabling news a few times to soften the blow so that we know about the CHRISIS and then a TASK FORCE is formed, a task force being a buzz term for a group of people that will rubber stamp the boards wishes. it all sounds so efficient, yet, in reality, quite trite.
i read some posts that offered some interesting ideas. i wonder if the TASK FORCE would have the independence and i.q. to look into any of them. put it on a ballot. see what the taxpayers think about out of control board spending.

This isn't really a Mac versus PC discussion, because workstations are just the tip of the IT iceburg. We're talking about a complete network including security, mass storage, a backup system, intrusion prevention and the list goes on. Sure, the district could buy Mac when appropriate, but Apple is not in the business of providing complete hardware packages for large networks.

You do not want to repair it, start over from scratch, keep everyone in the loop. you have some great minds right here in Janesville. So start over with a great design, flow chart it first.

Has anyone ever looked into the cost of leasing a state of the art system that would include updates/upgrades and IT support with warranty? Even if it was $5,000.00 per month that would be 600 months or 50 years of service being upgraded as needed along the way AND FOR ONCE SOMETHING BUDGETED FOR even if it was $10,000 per month we wold not have to worry about it for 25 years **disclaimer** numbers were used as an example to make a point. I cannot justify spending 3 mil to fix a dead horse.

>MacDaddy< I agree whole-heartedly!!! They will not have the any of the same problems with Mac as they do with PC's.. I made the switch a year ago last winter,, I WILL NEVER GO BACK... I was a Online Tech Support for PC (with AT&T( for almost 3 years) Certified in Hardware, Software, office suite, and networking,, I never seen so many problems with PC based network even back then ..(that was mid 90's).. So many viruses, hardware failures and network crashes.. I now live in a MAC world and guess what.... NONE of those issues exist in the MAC world (or at least I have not had any ).. the main problem PC's is that they are dependent on so many programs that run in the back ground that they are vulnerable to Attacks (Viruses) and system failures due to the antiquated system processes they run... For all of you PC believers out there.. just look at you task mgr (control-alt-del)and look under the process tab ... I will bet that you have a FEW processes running-between 15 and 60 !!!) hence the reason it take so long for your machine to BOOT up.. MY mac will take (from power button to desktop) about 15 sec to boot,, including my printer to warm up.. and it took the better part of 2 minutes for the PC to do the same.... And now most programs you run are "Universal"Platform (meaning that they will run on both PC and MAC !!.. and Like "MACDADDY" said " they last much longer than a pc too. if you see a mac that is 2 years old it still can compete with a brand new one. Pcs that is a whole different thing. There is a reason why macs have become the computer of choice among college students and are the most prevalent of any computer on most college campuses".... also ..
"JOEFLINT" hit right on the head..."Buy Macs. Dump the PCs. Dump any woefully ill-prepared staff members and increase the budget -- if you want computers in the schools, "man up" and pay for it...
it is an investment that the schools should look into.. besides they network together SOOO much easier with better security built in with their Wi-Fi and hardwired network... People are learning this mush faster and easier than I did with it was just PC world

Schools don't use Macs that much anymore because businesses don't use them for some reason. Linux is actually the best because it is stable, reliable and free.

The new Mac's have Intel chipsets in them so they can run their own OS as well as Windows. In reality you get a much better machine that can run both OS's.

I really don't care what type of computer they put in. It sounds like the servers, software and their knowledge base are the real concern.

Why is Severson looking for community members to look at the report. They hired a consultant right? Why not trust what you paid them for? It's not as if they will be selling us the new equipment. If knowledgeable people are good enough to look over the report why didn't you save the money in the first place and ask for their help?

Not taking immediate action could cost the district more in the longrun if something happens again. Do it now, there is plenty of money in the rainy day fund that you aren't going to be giving back to the teachers.

i went mac, hence the name, and will never go back. i was a pc only guy and made fun of mac people, but macs have come a long way and really are everything they say and then some. The biggest thing i love about my mac, is that they last much longer than a pc too. if you see a mac that is 2 years old it still can compete with a brand new one. Pcs that is a whole different thing. There is a reason why macs have become the computer of choice among college students and are the most prevalent of any computer on most college campuses.

I thought they were Apple?

Joeflint, Macs are great and all, but the business sector still overwhelmingly uses PC's. Should we follow the Apple II fiasco with another one that leaves teachers and students unprepared for life after school? Schools should reflect reality and not attempt to define it. When Macs become mainstream, THEN they should switch over.

Buy Macs. Dump the PCs. Dump any woefully ill-prepared staff members and increase the budget -- if you want computers in the schools, "man up" and pay for it.

Macs run on top of BSD UNIX; PCs /still/ run on top of an antiquated DOS core and apparently will for some time as even Windows 7 has a very similar kernel to Vista; Macs support multi-user environments much better than all variants of Windows (though Vista to its credit has significantly closed that gap); Macs are bundled with more software and utilities (one of several reasons for the higher initial investment, yet Macs have a similar TCO as compared with PCs); go to a scientific conference or to a computer science department and one will find that most people in these fields have switched from PCs to Macs for non-trivial reasons; one could go on...

Re: the disaster that has been Janesville schools' computers this entire academic year...: Macs can easily be configured to allow only "approved" software to be run; one can easily configure different user accounts to have differing levels of permissions and access rights; programs like LanDesk are easily installed to monitor what software is run and how often; Macs have almost no virus issues as contrasted with PCs; ...

No matter what happens: for the love of all that is good and holy, hire competent people.

I'm still shocked that a school system the size of Janesville's doesn't seem to have a good IT manager. I know the last IT manager was recently fired, but how did the IT systems deteriorate so far without a plan for upgrades? If Doug Bunton was in a private sector job, he would be fired too.