School District Shares Tech Support Services

In need of additional tech support staffing but unable to budget for a full-time hire, Fair Lawn School District has contracted with the to provide a part-time technician.

approved the agreement this past Thursday and the technician started on Monday, Superintendent Bruce Watson said.

"[The tech] comes in and works half-a-day with us each day until he finishes a certain project," explained Watson, who said the projects are broken up into 50-hour segments. "That’s huge savings compared to hiring another tech to help us out."

The district has well over 2,000 computers between its schools -- not to mention smart boards, projectors, wiring and infrastructure -- but employs just three people in the technology department.

Prior to 2010, the district employed four technicians, but had to eliminate a position after losing $4 million in state aid.

"We didn’t cut the technology, so we knew we were going to have problems supporting it," Watson said. "And this is one of the answers we came up with [to do that]."

Unlike the full-time tech support staffers who are able to roam between schools and handle technology emergencies, the part-timer won't have that flexibility.

He'll be assigned to a particular school building to perform a set project for a specified amount of time. His first project is to load and test new software on the district's computers -- a task that had been backed up.

When he completes each project, the district can assess whether they want to bring him back to perform additional projects.