1. · Medicaid Review
  2. Over the past three years EduTech has procured nearly $40,000,000 in hardware and services. We continue to

EduTech Steering Committee, November 5, 2010, RIT Inn & Conference Center
 

Members Present:
Bruce Amey, Avon            Jim McNeil, WFL BOCES      
Maria Ehresman, Williamson          Camille Sorenson, EduTech  
Bob Leiby, Manchester-Shortsville              
Members Absent:
Tim Hayes, Geneseo            Terry MacNabb, Waterloo
Joe Backer, Letchworth          Joe Marinelli, WFL BOCES     
Mike Glover, GV Educational Partnership      Greg Macaluso, GV Educational Partnership
Guest:
Chris Saxby, EduTech
                             

1. Regional Information Centers – Camille Sorenson
EduTech is one of 12 Technology Centers supporting the 700 plus school districts in New York State. As a group the Centers operate together participating on bids, sharing resources, and working jointly with vendors to achieve economies of scale in our operations.
EduTech is buying with the power of 47 districts, but what really happens is that the 12 Centers collaborate and are often pulling in the volume of 700 plus school districts. There is a joint bid for internet services with all 12 Centers which allows us to get pricing on the volume. We collaborate with CNY RIC on an equipment bid and WNY RIC for instructional software. The difference between what we do and the state contract is that all 12 RICs have the same mission they are focused on schools.
The 12 RICs work together to try and be as cost effective as we can and to pool our resources. Do the same on contracts with vendors. The 12 Centers were doing Data Warehouse before the state thought of doing it. We share R&D, training, and legal issues.
Maria Ehresman inquired if EduTech would consider supporting MAPS instead of having to cross-contract with Monroe I BOCES. Camille asked what the level of support would be. At this time Maria thinks that NWEA does all the training and support. Camille will look into the number of districts using MAPS
2. Year in Review – Camille Sorenson
New Service Items
·
· Medicaid Review
· E-Rate Review
· QueCentre Facilities Management
· Regents Scanning
· Timepiece – Finance Manager Time Clock
· M86 Content Filter
· Groupwise 8
· Network Traffic Shaping
· Email Archiving

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Over the past three years EduTech has procured nearly $40,000,000 in hardware and services. We continue to
keep within the benchmark of service delivery.
 
Camille thanked the committee for helping to manage district expectations.
 
Availability of LAKENet and email higher than last year.
 
We are beginning to host more district servers at EduTech. This is a service that we can offer in the future.
More and more districts are relying on EduTech services as a cost efficiency measure.
   
There was a discussion on Mobile Learning Devices as offered by Verizon as well as other handheld items.
 
 
3. 2011-2012 Budget – Camille Sorenson
Camille passed out the proposed budget for 2011-12.
 
Taking into consideration comments from the last Steering Committee, the environment, and getting a sense of
where we are, we settled on a budget with an increase of 0.58%. Contracted salary increases, ERS/TRS, and
health insurance are what affects the increase.
 
Went through every category to see where we could reduce. Looked at a variety of things; buy in
services, miscellaneous revenue, what we can add and what we could do. Camille presented proposed EduTech
pricing of 0.0 % increase across all our services except shared staff. Shared technical staff is at a 3.50% increase.
 
Camille shared with the committee members their individual district pricing. Today’s pricing is based on
the old RWADA figures as we do not have the new figures yet. The updated RWADA figures should be
available next month.
 
Bruce Amey made a comment regarding the reduction of $30,000 in training when you look to be cutting
edge. There was concern that you cannot keep presenting a 0% increase. Camille said we looked at
providing training locally and offers of free vendor training. We have not replaced staff that has left.
Whenever staff leaves we look at what we can do for that area. For example, test scoring used to be spread
over a six month period and is now into one month. We now bring in temporary help for the one month.
Student systems skill set for web based system is different than client server based. Now most systems
are web based. This allows us to be wise in replacing staff.
 
Bob Leiby asked if all program surpluses were pooled together and distributed back to districts. If only a
few districts are involved in programs then only those districts get surplus money. EduTech surplus is distributed
over all districts that participate in the EduTech core fees.
 
Camille doesn’t see EduTech bringing a different budget back in December. We are cutting a little of the
muscle and into the bone.
 
Jim McNeil reiterated cross contracts with other BOCES, often provides the product and not the service. Recently
a district walked away from EduTech and dealt directly with the vendor. Unfortunately when they had a problem,
the vendor didn’t help. EduTech did help the district.
 
Bruce Amey agreed with Jim. Quality of service is amazing. Having sat where Camille sits he understands
how difficult the job is and is amazed at the service provided.
 
4. Follow Up

  
· Regents scanning: 37 of 47 have told us what they are doing
· Email archiving: one time start up cost $11-12,000; annual fee $5,000 is in year 6 when storing the most. Based on number of mailboxes and storage you allow.
Next Meeting:
December 7, 2010 9:00 – 11:00 a.m. Budget/Pricing
April 8, 2011 8:30 – 11:00 a.m.

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