School Committee Passes Revised IT Policy

The School Committee unanimously approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to the school department’s Information Technology (IT) policy at Tuesday night’s meeting, hoping to correct shortcomings that became evident after a with IT services among school department staff.

Final Details
At Tuesday's meeting, some committee members raised concerns over the latest version of the MOU, which focused on the division of authority between the town administrator and superintendent Joan Landers.

The wording of the MOU was adjusted to clarify that both the superintendent and town administrator will need to approve the hiring of a district-wide education technology administrator. Hiring decisions for positions based in specific schools will be made by the superintendent and building principal.

Vice Chairman Markham provided a visual description of the relationship school-based personnel would share with the superintendent and the IT director, saying that in an organizational flowchart, the education technology administrator would connected to the IT director by a dotted line and to the superintendent by a solid line.

“We want to take advantage of the competencies and the technical abilities and skills of the town wide system, including a very competent IT director,” Markham said, adding that school-based IT personnel “needs to be able to talk the talk in the educational world and talk the talk in technological world.”

Payment Concerns
There was also concern over how school-based IT personnel would be paid. School committee members wanted to ensure that employees who answer to both the superintendent and town administrator would not be wasting school department funds on general town business.

“The ultimate authority, when it comes to making budget decisions and spending decisions, still resides with the school committee and the school department,” Markham said.  

In addition to providing clarity to the division of authority over school-based IT personnel, a preamble was added to the MOU, declaring that all decisions regarding IT policy in schools would be made with the best interest of students in mind.

Before voting, Superintendent Landers was asked for her input and approval.

“I think it’s a strong MOU, I think it will benefit the students, and I really do feel comfortable with it,” Landers said. “I feel comfortable moving forward.”

Background
In December 2010, the School Committee to place the school department's electronic resources under the purview of the town IT department. But the collaborative effort between the town and school department to provide adequate IT services to the schools has caused frustration from teachers and administrators.

Wakefield IT Director David Knox to the School Committee in June, which showed that 70% of staff surveyed were unhappy with the IT services being provided. The main complaint was that IT professionals took too long to respond to technological support requests.

Since being presented with the report, School Committee Vice Chairman Tom Markham has spearheaded the School Committee’s efforts to create a revised policy in collaboration with Knox and Town Administrator Stephen Maio.

The to the School Committee included adding school-based IT support personnel and streamlining the process for reporting technological difficulties.