×

New tech coming to local schools

Marshalltown School Board moves toward phone and firewall improvements

T-R FILE PHOTO With plans for an upgraded phone system, Marshalltown Schools teachers may have better connectivity with fellow staff, parents and the community. District Director of Technology Josh Wesley said the current phone system is out-of-date, and this week the school board approved a closer look at an upgrade.

Telephones are a key part of life in any office, and Marshalltown Schools is looking at upgrading its phone system to better connect with parents, staff, emergency responders and others.

“Our current phone system is very, very old; it’s difficult for us to find replacement parts for it right now,” said district director of technology Josh Wesley of the 13-year-old system. “It really needs to be replaced for those communications to be reliable.”

The Marshalltown School Board moved closer to replacing that system after a unanimous vote to investigate a bid by Heartland Business Systems, which came in at $193,792.25.

“The next step for us to work with Heartland is to go to that discovery phase; we haven’t paid any money, we haven’t committed to pay any money,” Wesley said. “There are still some details that need to be ironed out, as far as the number of phones, the number of lines, what kind of licensing capabilities we want for the phones.”

He said he is in strong support of going with Heartland to provide the upgrade and added there are a number of features which would benefit parents, students and staff. One possible example would be connecting staff members’ mobile phones to their desk phone number for increased mobility.

How urgent calls are handled is another area of focus.

“There’s a lot of emergency management functionality that could benefit staff and students with the implementation of a new phone system,” Wesley said. “So, if a classroom dials 911, administrators (and) local police departments can be alerted immediately and have an exact location of that 911 call coming from that classroom.”

The new system could also increase convenience when parents call district employees.

“Right now, when you try to call me, you have to call into the secretary and get forwarded, you can’t directly dial me,” he said. “With the new phone system, we’re hoping to have some more direct-dial or dial-by-extension capabilities; so, if a parent needs to get ahold of the nurse, they can be greeted with an auto attendant and then dial the nurse’s extension, or even dial the nurse directly.”

No final decision has been made on which special features the district will include, but Wesley said the Heartland bid is “in the ballpark” of what he expects to spend on the upgrade.

The school board also approved the purchase of a new firewall to go with the faster internet system coming this summer. Wesley had previously applied to have federal E-Rate funds to help pay for the firewall upgrade, which comes in at $55,276.58.

“We file to the federal government saying ‘Hey, will you reimburse us for these purchases?'” he said. “Right now, the firewall purchase is under review; it hasn’t been approved or denied.”

Despite this, Wesley pushed for purchasing the firewall ahead of possible approval for E-Rate funding because the matter is urgent. The new internet service, set to be installed on July 1, is much faster than the current system, and the new firewall has to keep up.

“A firewall basically … protects you from malicious attacks,” he said. “The reason that this (purchase) is required is our old firewall only supports 1-gigabit per second speeds, the new one will definitely go to the 5-gigabit speed.”

Wesley said his department’s budget will cover the cost of the new firewall, and he expects the E-Rate funding to be approved and to help repay the district for the expense with a kind of rebate.

The third tech-related item OK’d by the school board was the purchase of Destiny Resource Manager in the amount of $24,955.

“The Destiny Resource Manager is a more robust inventorying software,” Wesley said. “The 25-grand cost, part of that is the renewal of our current library management system, Follet, that we use for all the kids to check in and out their books.”

Another portion of the cost will go toward software to take inventory of books, chromebooks and other educational items. Wesley said the potential for the program goes beyond the school library.

“It could be used for anything from soccer balls to kitchen equipment; whatever we need to inventory,” he said.

The money spent, or planned to be spent, on the tech upgrades is worth it, Wesley said.

“I think we’re doing a good job moving some of this technology stuff forward and integrating it into the class, it’s good times right now,” he said.

——

Contact Adam Sodders at

(641) 753-6611 or asodders@timesrepublican.com

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today