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California Educational Data Processing Association
The DataBus - Vol. 37, No. 4
June-July, 1997

President’s Corner

Greg Lindner, Yolo County Superintendent of Schools

A lot of things are happening with K-12 Technology. Primarily, a number of new bills have been introduced to help fund Technology in K-12 Education. CEDPA is actively reviewing these bills and will keep you updated on their progress. Most of them boil down to a facilities bond that would go on the ballot. Out of the bond, approximately $200 million would be for Technology.

CASH

CEDPA has also been meeting with members of CASH, the Coalition for Affordable School Housing, working on an alliance to improve Technology in Education. Responses we have received from our membership have been quite positive about this alliance. The fact that most of the facilities bills being proposed contain a Technology component only adds to the significance of this alliance. What we are looking at is working together more to help each other achieve the goals of our organization.

I recently received the following comments from Doug Calvin, the Director of Facility Modernization at the Oak Grove School District.

"The CEDPA/CASH relationship should prove beneficial. Last year I joined Oak Grove School District (San Jose) to manage a $75 million, ten-year facility modernization program. Besides having a facilities career, I also have an IS Management career which has also been put to use.

"So now I manage the facilities modernization and the growing IS department. I'm also an adjunct professor at UCSC conducting IS Management courses.

"The facility modernization and IS work goes very well together. There is a close project relationship between the two activities with the type of project I'm currently doing.

"The Oak Grove district went from zero networks to having all twenty school sites and the DO on a frame relay WAN within nine months....this was accomplished by having, in my opinion, facility and technology working together... also, as we install CSR portables, we lay in extra conduit and plan for sufficient power for technology, the same goes for upgrading existing buildings.

"CASH could be a powerful ally in working with CEDPA....integrating technology can be a facilities nightmare and is expensive not only for modernization or using one time money....but the key is to keep the ongoing general fund costs to a minimum....in many cases the ongoing IS department support costs can be more than the initial up front costs. Getting to the right folks to keep telecommunications cost in line for schools would be of great benefit. Working with CASH could leverage lobbying to have tag along legislation for technology. Technology integration no longer is something new; it is a more normal way of delivering the education project to students. The more normal we can make the idea of installing technology along with new or modernization facility projects the better off the students are."

Telecommunications

Recently I met with PUC Commissioner Knight along with Jeff Bowser of BAENET who requested the meeting. We talked about how the recent telecommunications discounts are affecting K12 Education. Surprisingly very few applications have been received from schools. The money is going to be distributed on a first come first served basis so get busy and get your applications in! Jeff representing CCSESA’s Telecommunications Task Force, and I, representing CEDPA, rose issues that are paramount to K-12 Education. The advice we received back was to ask for what you need from the carriers. That is.... the PUC wants to help but the carriers have to bring the requests to the PUC. One thing we hope to do (CEDPA) is to analyze the impact of the PUC Discounts and present that to the PUC. If you have had any difficulties or successes dealing with the carriers let me know via email. We will add that as background material to our report.

Software

San Diego County Office of Education has been working for some time on developing a Microsoft Select Agreement for K-12. They have put together an agreement with CTAP (the Califorinia Technology Assistance Program) which all K-12 may take advantage of.

A Select Agreement is basically a group-volume purchase agreement that makes available all Microsoft software products at the lowest prices possible. The Select Agreement allows the components of a software package--software license, media, and documentation--to be purchased separately. For example, a classroom purchase might include twenty seat licenses, ten documentation sets, and two media sets.

This program is intended for institutional use only and is restricted to all California K-12 Public School Districts, County Offices of Education, and Community Colleges. No staff purchasing or private use is available through these programs.

The program is administered through VALCOM Computer Center, 17518 Von Karman Avenue, Irvine, Ca. 92614-6208, and is effective through March 1, 1999. Additional information and program registration can be found at the SDCOE’s website at http://ca-soft.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/msselect.htm.

That’s all for now... I just got back from vacation so I’ll need time to catch up.

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