District 279 Classrooms Get Technology Upgrade

Staff and students in the will see some technology upgrades in when school starts Tuesday, Sept. 6.

District 279 Chief Technology Officer Tim Wilson gave an update of some the technology changes district wide at the Aug. 16 Osseo School District School Board meeting.

The total cost for the updates referenced during the Aug. 16 meeting were about approximately $2.6 million from the District 279 capital budget, according to an email from Wilson. The funds for the projects were financed over three years, “which helps us with our budget by evening out the expense over multiple years instead of dealing with highly variable year-to-year expenses,” he said.

Updates in the school district technology this summer, according to Wilson, includes:

• 3,688 new computers installed in the district, which consists about half of school district’s “computer fleet”. 

• 3,400 flat panel displays installed to replace the CRT “fat” monitors. Wilson stated the new monitors are more energy efficient and brighter.

• 380 existing software applications were tested for compatibility to upgrades.

• 3,505 email mailboxes were upgraded, providing 35 times more space available to employees

• 18 district servers upgraded with the latest software

Along with the technology updates, Wilson told the School Board the district saved

$153,000 consolidating software products and contracted 280 hours from Microsoft premier services to help with the summer technology projects. The Osseo School District technology department also created an internal website to house technical training videos and documents for district employees.