Memorandum
To: Board of EducationCC: Laura Myrah
From: Maria Kucharski and Shawn Yde Date: June 4, 2015
Re: Technology Restructuring Update
Background
In October 2014, our district lost the employment of our network administrator. As with other positions within our school district, we utilize resignations as an opportunity to review the needs of the position. Throughout the past several years, we have continued to add devices to our district without significantly increasing technology support personnel.
During the past several months, the administrative team and technology committee has reviewed our overall technology department and support needs. In order to address the needs identified in our assessment, it led us to a complete technology department restructuring plan. The restructuring plan eliminated some current district employee positions and replaced them with new positions, along with using an outside vendor to manage many of our higher level networking responsibilities. In order to update our network infrastructure and management, we will be utilizing the summer to migrate away from Novell to Microsoft.
Update
An update on the restructuring in both personnel and infrastructure will be shared with the Board.
July Site-by-site workstation / notebook reimaging. Watch the website for additional downtime announcements.
Network Upgrade Announcement
Whitefish Bay School District – Summer 2015
--This announcement affects all district staff --
This following document provides district staff with
important information regarding several network upgrades planned for June and July – 2015.
Key Dates
June Email conversion to Gmail.
Email will be unavailable June 26th -28th
June Starting June 29th Email is
Gmail.
July Conversion to Microsoft Server 2012. Network
(Including drives) offline July 15th – 19th.
Changes are coming! What
do we need to know?
Our district network needs many significant updates. During this summer, we will be rebuilding our system to establish a stable platform fully capable of supporting 21st Century teaching
initiatives. This will require some adjustments on everyone’s part, but sincere efforts are being made to minimize adjustments as much as possible.
Key changes include:
District Email and Calendar to Conversion from Groupwise
to Gmail
Workstation, Lab and Notebook Re-imaging Google Apps for Education Domain Consolidation
Password and Log-in Consolidation
August Network Infrastructure design improvements. Watch the website for downtime announcements.
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Network Upgrade FAQ
1. What will happen to my current saved data?
All of your saved “H-drive” data on the current network will be migrated to the new Windows server
platform. Any data existing on the H drive, as well as your Shared drives (G and W drives) will be transferred to the replacement servers. Your H drive and Shared drives will be reinstated on the new server platform.
Note: you should make personal backups of any files or data saved to your notebook or classroom PC’s
local drive and NOT also saved to your H-drive by June 30th.
2. We’re changing to Gmail - how do I use it?
If you currently have a personal Gmail account, your new Email services will look identical to your personal Gmail account. We will Email all staff a Gmail user pamphlet in PDF format on June 12th including
screenshots and what to expect starting June 29th. It short, you will NOT:
Lose your existing Emails.
Lose your Email contacts.
3. How will I access my Email (now Gmail) starting June 29th?
Links for your new Gmail page will be added to the www.wfbschool.com District’s Staff Homepage Website. Your existing email address will remain the same, and your existing login credentials will work with your new Gmail account.
4. What should I do before leaving for summer break on my computer and “H” drive?
We encourage all staff members to keep a personal copy of their critical data. As mentioned before, we WILL be migrating all of your H-drive data for you, and none of it will be missing upon your return. However, files stored on your local drives will not. It’s simply best practice to keep a secondary copy of your critical data on a USB drive. Therefore, it’s recommended and encouraged.
If there is old, or no longer used data on your H drive, please delete by June 30th. Taking the time to get rid of old, outdated information will allow us to migrate data faster, ensuring the migration happens as quickly as possible.
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5. What should I do with my Groupwise Email before leaving for summer break?
Help yourself make the switch to Google Apps by organizing your GroupWise email, calendar events and contacts prior to the switch. Here is an overview of recommended preparations for the switch.
Start deleting unnecessary Email, Appointments and Contacts now
Delete email that you do not need migrated to Gmail. Go through Archives, Sent Items and keep your Trash folder empty
Delete any old or unimportant calendars and appointments that you do not need migrated to Google Calendar
Delete old contacts and clean-up or delete contacts in your Frequent Contacts address book
Save attachments to large emails
Prepare for the migration by identifying email messages over 25MB and saving them locally on your computer.
Unarchive the messages in your GroupWise Archive you wish to Migrate to Gmail and Place non-foldered email in your GroupWise archive into folders and Place non-non-foldered email in your Groupwise archive into folders
Place any/all loose GroupWise Archive emails in a uniquely named folder they'll be easy to find once you migrate.
Organize your contacts
Avoid being inundated with old contacts by organizing and deleting old, unneeded contacts in GroupWise.
Disable contact sharing
If you share your contacts with another account, disable the sharing.
6. Will I be able to work at school this summer?
We understand that for some, summer is the perfect opportunity to complete work and prepare for next year. We are publishing a calendar of what is happening, when, for technology-specific upgrades. During the times of these upgrades (such as server migrations) your data will be unavailable until the migration completes. For sure, July 15th – 19th, with additional dates throughout the summer. Be aware that we will
try to keep Internet connectivity up as much as possible. Having the backup of your H drive on a USB drive would come in handy for these times, since you can make changes to your files and save them to the USB drive. Then once your file access is restored to the new server, you can always overwrite the older files with the newer ones that you have been working on. Assistance can be provided if needed.
Please watch the District’s Staff Homepage website for up-to-date upgrading and accessing information. This will help you avoid the disappointment of coming in to school or working from home and finding out your building’s network is down.
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7. Will my desktop look significantly different when I return?
YES and NO! This summer we will be reimaging all of the computers to update critical files and eliminate
unnecessary programs, settings, and unused data. The operating system you are using will stay the same, though you won’t see the Novell Application Launcher (NAL) window anymore.
The NAL window will be replaced by desktop folders that house the applications, making them accessible without having to make too many clicks to access your information. Please see the District’s Staff Homepage
website for up-to-date information regarding potential changes to login and passwords, along with a
document that will contain the screencast changes.
8. Can I take my computer home this summer?
In order to reimage all of the devices and inventory the equipment, we will be requiring that all district devices except iPads get turned in prior to staff members leaving. Because of the significant amount of changes taking place this year, we need to ensure that items are properly inventoried and have the latest computer and network changes implemented so they are ready in August for the 2015-16 school year. Only If you currently have a district laptop or Chromebook and this is an inconvenience, you may sign out a Chromebook on June 12th. Please let your library / Media Specialist know by June 10th if you are interested.
Note: It is very important that you make a backup of any files you stored on your notebook or classroom PC hard drive and did NOT create a copy saved on your H-Drive!
9. My computer has a “unique” application for my course / grade. What should I do to ensure it is still on my computer?
To insure that the software you use as a teacher on your classroom computer and to guarantee the software you use with your students in the computer lab of your school, the District needs to know the software delivered by ZENworks or installed by the District that you use that is NOT on the list underlined below.
There will be a link sent to you by Kent so you can share your individual software needs besides this software.
A classroom computer will have: Microsoft Office 2013, Adobe Reader, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, SMART Notebook, Windows Media Player, VLC Media Player, QuickTime, iTunes, and AverVision Sphere.
An elementary computer lab will have everything listed on a classroom computer plus Type to Learn, Type to Learn Junior, and the SOLO suite.
A secondary computer lab will have everything listed on a classroom computer plus LAN School and the SOLO suite.
10. How will this affect our students?
The district is currently finalizing our communication to students and families regarding the changes. Most likely students will have a change with log-ins and passwords in fall, have established GAFE accounts that may be new to allow consistent district usernames (4K-12), and that they need to save any items currently on their “H-Drive” to a USB as they will not be migrated to the new platform.
