EduTech Steering Committee
October 3, 2006
October 3, 2006
R.I.T. Inn & Conference Center
R.I.T. Inn & Conference Center
Members Present:
Members Present:
Bruce Amey, Avon CSD Mike Glover, GV BOCES
Joe Backer, Letchworth CSD Tom Manko, York CSD
Joan Cole, Elba CSD Jack McCabe, WFL BOCES
Maria Ehresman, Williamson CSD Camille Sorenson, EduTech
Mike Crowley, GV BOCES
Members Absent:
Members Absent:
Bob Leiby, Red Jacket CSD Joe Marinelli, WFL BOCES
Guests:
Guests:
Jeff Decker, EduTech Bob Phillips, EduTech
Jeff Ginsberg, EduTech Lisa Roberts, EduTech
The purpose of this meeting is to update and share information with the committee on what is happening within EduTech.
·
Testing & Reporting Status—Lisa Roberts
Distributed a calendar of important dates
ELA report has been sent; Math to be sent this week
October 26 – Initial school district report card sent to superintendents for corrections
November 2 –Verified data needs to be returned
Weekly refreshes of data on verification reports.
Reason for short turn around time is that state ed needs to move data to warehouse on November 4th.
It will be important for districts to review how reporting cycle worked and what improvements they may need to make.
Tom Manko asked if the stated is also reviewing the process and looking at how it can make improvements.
Mike Glover stated that the RICs are the ‘belts and suspenders of this process’.
Camille shared an example. The Friday before Labor Day EduTech was informed that the reporting cycle would be ending on Tuesday.
The state is not aware of what is going on in schools.
Calendars were also shared that list dates and responsibilities for EduTech and the districts. New info that is required now or in the future:
- Special Education students placed privately by parents but receiving services from home district
- AIS Services
- Summer 2006 enrollment (don’t have regs at this time)
- Summary attendance data 2007-08
- Tracking multi racial students
- Parallel BEDs reporting
- PD14 Spec Ed Accounting
·
School Interoperability Framework (SIF) Status—Jeff Decker
EduTech has been doing R&D on techniques for integrating data between software applications.
Phase I:
Vertical reporting begins at the district level. Information is sent from the Student Information System at the district to a Universal Agent (UA) at the RIC. From here the information can then be sent to the Operation Data Store (ODS) or to a Zone Integration Server (ZIS), which interfaces with all the different software applications and updates any new information. This information is then sent back to the subscribing applications at the district.
Phase II:
During phase II the data in the ODS will be sent to the state data warehouse.
Phase III:
The district would send information from their own zone integrated server to a ZIS housed at the RIC. This information would then be sent to the ODS and from there on to the state data warehouse.
State has asked for 19 fields that are not currently part of SIF. This is where the universal agent comes in.
School districts are currently having their Project Coordinators write up SAAs to get in the queue.
·
Miscellaneous – Camille indicated that, GV BOCES’s need to implement a new Student software system prompted a conversation to share resources on the support of the Student system Infinite Campus. As such, EduTech will now support the system.
This presentation sparked a conversation on how we operate together for technology selection – regional standards. Need to possibly revisit the selection process.
Superintendents would like to know what software other schools are using or looking at.
Joe Backer stated that the committee doesn’t give direction as in the past. Meetings are more informational based.
Bruce Amey mentioned that this would require more of a commitment from the committee, as they would need to meet more.
Agenda item for next meeting – Discussion on technology selection process.
·
2006 EduTech Customer Survey results – Jeff Decker, Bob Phillips
Goal:
- to identify the level of customer satisfaction
- listen to the concerns of the customer
- identify areas for improvement
- work together to implement change
Process:
- on-line survey to technical coordinators
- on-site survey conducted with superintendents
- gather and analyze results
- develop and implement action plan
- present results
Historical Action Plan
- Improve Communication
website, email listserv
on-site visits, meetings, brochures
- Improve Customer Service
response/reaction time
network/email issues
Review Pricing and/or How it is Communicated
2006 Survey Participation
- 95% of superintendents participated; up from 89% in 2002-03
- 80% of technology coordinators participated; up from 32% in 02-03
The Results
- Superintendents
Very Satisfied: 49%; up from 42% in 2003 and 45% in 1998
Satisfied: 47%; up from 39% in 2003 and 36% in 1998
Needs Improvement: 4%; down from 19% in both 2003 and 1998
- Tech Coordinators
Favorable: 97%; up from 69% in 2003
Unfavorable: 3%; down from 31% in 2003
Highest Satisfactory Response
- Does EduTech deliver quality customer service to your district?
67% Very Satisfied and 33% Satisfied – 100% satisfactory rating
Highest Needs Improvement Response
- Do you experience satisfaction with EduTech pricing?
18% needs improvement
16% very satisfied and 66% satisfied
Follow Up Action Items from 2003
- Does EduTech respond in a timely manner?
2006 responses: 58% Very Satisfied; 42% Satisfied; 0% Needs Improvement
- Level of satisfaction with communication
2006 responses: 38% Very Satisfied; 58% Satisfied; 4% Needs Improvement
- Level of satisfaction with Internet and email
2006 responses: 56% Very Satisfied; 33% Satisfied; 12% Needs Improvement
What makes for a quality working relationship with EduTech?
- good communication and support
- being proactive and responsive
- people at EduTech
- visits, survey, face-to-face meeting
- cost effectiveness
- keep doing what we are doing
Action Plan
- Continued focus on Action Plan from 2003
- communication
- customer service
- re-evaluate current policies and procedures
- Provide attention to escalated issues
Follow Up
- conduct survey in 2007-08
Mike Glover commented on the remarkable achievement by EduTech in a short amount of time.
·
Ontario County Fiber Project – Jeff Ginsberg and Jack McCabe
Ontario County is seeking to build a Fiber-Optic ring around the county for Businesses, Towns, Public Services (Police/Fire), Schools, Hospitals and anyone who would like to buy capacity.
What are the Benefits?
- dark fiber connectivity to 6 school districts.
- virtually unlimited bandwidth within Ontario County
- reasonable pricing
What it Does Not Provide
- no services on the fiber (would require purchase of internet, etc.)
- no service outside of Ontario County
- 1-3 years of build time before available
- 10 year commitment
Where are we?
- we currently have fiber in all districts
- services are running on this fiber
- we can expand capacity as needed
- no long term contract
Steering Committee created a policy that all school districts, no matter location, would have same access. Now we have a small area within our region that could have access to something no one else has.
The project is still 2-3 years out and costs have not been determined. Ontario County is asking for a 10-year commitment. EduTech usually only signs a contract for three years maximum.
Will keep the committee informed as this project proceeds.
·
School 2.0 Pilot – Jack McCabe
Integrate tools (blogs, ipods, wikis) into an instructional environment.
EduTech will need to review network policy issues with having to open up to new sites.
Identify a district in each BOCES that is ready to move in this direction.
Next Meeting:
November 8, 2006
RIT Inn and Conference Center
9:00 AM
Preliminary Budget Review
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