Valerie D. Owens / SWOT Meeting / Tape 1 & 2 SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) it's not important for you to give your (inaudible) but say what you're gonna say upfront; is it a strength, is it a weakness, is it an opportunity, or a threat? And the only reason that that's important is, Andrea's (phonetic) gonna record the strengths and the opportunities, Wanda's (phonetic) gonna record the weaknesses and the threats. So, just when you start say, “strength” and then speak and etcetera. Okay? I'm gonna help. I gave one example what was coming forward from the board members, that I won't repeat, but I'm gonna give you another one from me so we can get started from the March 8 meeting. And remember, nobody's wrong here. It doesn't matter right or wrong, and it doesn't matter about hurting anybody's feelings. This is what we want put out there, because these are issues coming forth. I take one thing from March 8: Strength, very strong plans for technology implementation from ETS, IT and BEACON. Weakness, plans are not necessarily connected to one another and none of them has developed a complete TCO, total cost of ownership. Threat, changes in legislation that are going on right now and declining enrollment could lead to substantially reduced dollars available for technology initiatives, okay. Okay, of course, I'm on my normal Bob Boegli time frame. We're going to do this one up a maximum -- and we're right, actually about 5-minutes ahead of schedule. So this one's gonna go until a little after 9, about 9:05. So, March 8th meeting presentations from the people student data that came forth etcetera. Don't all of you jump in at the same time now. Come on, let's get rolling. SPEAKER 1: I have one, Bob, what I heard for strength was that the teachers want to use technology to (inaudible) to the student. They want to be able to use these programs that are available to them, but on the weakness (inaudible) of that is that they feel like they're not, they're not receiving adequate training on how to develop (inaudible) types of programs, their peers use this but you have to develop the program yourself. And then they're given this equipment to use, to say to buy a projector, but there's no budget to replace that light bulb in that projector when it goes bad. And there isn't a lot of support out there for when a new initiative roles out there's not support for them to call when they have problems on how to use it. So it's like, you roll, you're constantly rolling things out to them, but there's not a training and support mechanism that they feel comfortable to even use (inaudible). I heard that in all (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Okay. All right, well let's try and remember now we're sticking to March 8th. We're gonna go over March 8th, then we're gonna do March 16th the schools, then the departments, and then the areas. So, March 8th meeting -- and you don't have to have a strength and a weakness and an opportunity, it could be, you could one, you can have whatever. Just go ahead. SPEAKER 1: A March 8th weakness that I have from everybody in the room was communication, (inaudible) saying they don't get the information, they're not aware of things -- SPEAKER 1: So are you saying that's a weakness? SPEAKER 1: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Lack of communication. SPEAKER 1: Right. SPEAKER 1: Directly related to that sharing all the best practice among, you know, all the different schools even sometimes at that one school. SPEAKER 1: Weakness. Remember try and remember strength weakness, you decide which one is it, upfront. Yes? SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) and just wanted to add to Angela's communication issue. Is the challenge, the weakness is in communicating it by getting it to the teacher level, who are really, you know, very respected people (inaudible), how do we more effectively communicate with them to give them the knowledge (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: Okay. SPEAKER 1: I have got a threat in my meeting was possible charter school enrollment -- SPEAKER 1: Charter school? SPEAKER 1: Charter school enrollment, possibly taking away from our current enrollment. SPEAKER 1: Very good one. SPEAKER 1: I have a threat which is (inaudible) listing priorities. We have on the one side the excess priority which student do (inaudible) conflict with the (inaudible) digital learning. SPEAKER 1: Weakness. Students progress at a particular level for a number of years and then it just dropped off from that (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Meaning like, it looked like we were making good strides in the elementary and middle levels and in the high school levels they were dropping off? SPEAKER 1: Yes. There was a -- SPEAKER 1: Yeah, that's, that came from that (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: Weakness that I got from our group was that there is, we have duplicate entry of information. There's various different data bases and things we have to use, but they don't link and talk to one another. They're having to multiple input data. SPEAKER 1: Another weakness I thought I heard was a lack of enough staff members, both at the school level and at the development support for the new teachers. SPEAKER 1: Bob, I think I heard opportunity when we heard the BEACON presentation, that there's a lot, we're under-utilizing a lot of what BEACON has to offer and if we could get that out, I think we could maximize and do a lot of things more efficient than we presently are, some of the things that BEACON can offer the schools and the District. SPEAKER 1: Good. Remember we're still on March 8th, March 8th meetings presentations from the research staff. SPEAKER 1: I'm not sure if this is the correct opportunity but they were, the teachers were very interested. They seem to have a problem with the way the text books were coming in and they have to spend a lot of time processing them in school. That they really felt that if the text book companies could process them, evidently they could do that before they send them out and they just get the data base, it would be a lot more efficient and save a lot of time. SPEAKER 1: Okay. SPEAKER 1: Just to clarify, you're saying March 8th when we had the presentations from the (inaudible). When we got our 1st (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: No don't think about your 1st session we (inaudible). March 8th was when we had the presentation (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: With all of us -- SPEAKER 1: Right. It was just us and it was the presentations of the three departments. See you're already forgetting about how far back that was, and the presentation from the research department about student achievement and about where the District was going. We heard about the trend for declining enrollment. We heard that over 63 percent of our students are economically disadvantaged or on free or reduced lunch. Remember those things? SPEAKER 1: Yes. SPEAKER 1: I would say, I would say for me another strength from that session was despite the fact that we have such a large percentage of economically disadvantaged and students that are on free or reduced lunch, our test scores are far in excess of the state average. At the elementary and at the middle level. SPEAKER 1: Another strength was that there are schools doing a lot with technology. Because the new presentation that (inaudible) for get but it ones that I'm doing and that, to go back to best practices some of them I have been in deliver through various zones and typically different area offers that their moving it forth and (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: Okay. SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) is that mechanism for sharing in of best practices. In my (inaudible) see the weakness as it's not as well known among the teaching community and schools today. SPEAKER 1: We have you (inaudible) and then strength and then (inaudible) communicating that (inaudible) and that (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: John Perez, John (inaudible) you want to mention about the county counters? SPEAKER 1: At this point it's the county. SPEAKER 1: Job Perez had mentioned about putting counters on some of our school base sites, such as BEEP and other programs like that that the county does have. To see how much it's actually being used and if it's not being used and if it's not being used to it's full extent, either to see if there needs to be more training on it or if we just need to discontinue the product -- SPEAKER 1: How do you -- what would that be strength, weakness, opportunity -- SPEAKER 1: Opportunity -- SPEAKER 1: Probably opportunity (inaudible) I would say (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: It's an opportunity for us to see what is of value -- SPEAKER 1: Collect more data. SPEAKER 1: And get data from our, not directly from the teachers, but directly from the users and things like that. People who are interested. SPEAKER 1: Okay. Anything more that you got out of -- yes, sir. SPEAKER 1: I think a strength is that this District has probable the largest video conferencing net work, in the United States. And I think an opportunity is that the we can use it to be more efficient and how we operate through training, to reach the students, to get information out. I think that's a major strength that we have. SPEAKER 1: How about a strength, Chris, that we have such a large virtual operations of online classes, both at the secondary and post-secondary levels. Probably the largest in the state -- SPEAKER 1: Strength is that since we became franchise for the virtual school, we've completed over 12,000 enrollments in just about five years. SPEAKER 1: I would say a strength would be our technology staff. SPEAKER 1: Yes. SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) another strength I would say that this District allocates more resources to technology than any other in the state (inaudible) students (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: The only thing I think is another threat is the talk about at that first meeting was about our budget, our budget was going to be cut (inaudible) budget and then (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: Okay. Anymore from the 8th? SPEAKER 1: One thing was bought up that there was the project management team and looking at all the different projects that were out there in the District and putting together a plan -- SPEAKER 1: What is it a weakness a strength -- SPEAKER 1: That would be a strength -- SPEAKER 1: A strength -- SPEAKER 1: But a weakness is it doesn't incapsulate all technology projects across the District, it's just zeroed in on what ETS is doing with their project, but yet there are a lot of technology projects in other department that aren't part of that project management team. SPEAKER 1: I have a question that's not a strength or a weakness, it's a question that -- I understand we're (inaudible) alignment of ETS should we be factoring that into our strength and weaknesses as well? SPEAKER 1: No, because we're not really, we in (inaudible) with what I said and may be you (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: It might be on opportunity but we don't know -- SPEAKER 1: The District has engaged SELT (phonetic) Corporation to work specifically on assisting Mr. Carter, Mr. Greg with the reorganization of ETS -- SPEAKER 1: Okay. SPEAKER 1: And that is a specific project for 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days out and they have begun that project in working with all the direct reports in ETS about that. So that's off our plate. The 2nd one was that, so that you know also, SELT has also going though a team with (inaudible) art of the expenditures and that will become part of what we're going to look at in our next meeting. We'll be able to see some budgetary information from the three major departments as well as what schools have been, schools and departments have been spending on their own, okay. All right, anymore, yes, sir -- SPEAKER 1: Yeah, this might be duck tailing somethings that have already been said, but again, I think there's great technology staff and great technology resources. So that's a plus, but effective implementation plans -- SPEAKER 1: Weakness. SPEAKER 1: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Strength I think is the, I just thought it I wasn't at that meeting, but I feel that the school based people have a wealth of knowledge of what is good for them to teach with and we're not getting that information -- SPEAKER 1: Right -- SPEAKER 1: We're not getting that information from them, from their experiences and I don't know how to gather it -- SPEAKER 1: So a weakness would be we're still not getting communication both ways? SPEAKER 1: Correct. SPEAKER 1: Okay, we can always go back to the 8th. The 8th was the one that we had the big overview picture and remember we wanted to make sure the focus was on teaching and learning, not bells and whistles. That's what we should (inaudible) that we're on teaching and learning. Okay, let's move on then to the one we -- this should take some time and it's no problem if we duplicate, because in the end we're going to relate and see patterns where these strengths and weaknesses and opportunities and threats go. This is a meeting where we broke up into subcommittees. You individually were working on the interviews with the different school levels and the levels were elementary, middle, high, ESC disciplinary, and adult vocational community. So now, let's think about those sub interviews. They should be pretty specific kinds of things that you picked up on, that was on the 16th of March, and again, I'll throw out three broad areas that might be things that you picked up on that I got through the transcripts. One was the issue of schools don't have the same, they're not the same, I don't know why because there's been strength has been the refresh plan and all that, but yet it came across to me loud and clear that there's a big difference in the different schools, not just in stuff but in training and leadership and commitment, those things so, think about those kind of statements that came forth. Second, thing was the rollouts. We're rolling out all this stuff and it came up a little bit, but now think about the specifics. We got these roll outs, but you'd think somewhere along the line we would have created some sort of in depth check list for a roll out, because we have great examples of good ones, and remember that Janine (phonetic) talked about learning from the one to one that the one to one wasn't so good but we picked up on the mobile carts. Remember that, and that came forth but at the same time we got some really negative examples of roll outs and you'd think we would have learned along the way to have some sort of a check list or a detailed procedure, and it doesn't seem that we have it. And there's a third thing that I got from reading those transcripts was training. Training is like, unbelievable, it's like all over the place. So with those -- and then you got more. So now let's start hammering on March the 16th and the issues that came forth from the schools, from the actual school people. And remember to say, strength, weakness opportunity, threat. Gladys (phonetic) -- SPEAKER 1: I would say a weakness I -- would be with the middle school group, and in equity (inaudible) that we're in equity (inaudible) that some schools have lots of technology and use it an others have very little and the balance is so far apart. SPEAKER 1: And adding on to that, was that I heard was that some of the teachers aren't planning lessons that use the lap top cards, because there's 16 teachers that share a card so, therefore, they can't depend on it so they're not using that way to teach in schools. SPEAKER 1: Go ahead, Dee(phonetic). SPEAKER 1: Weakness, one size does not fit all. What works well for one group of students may not work so well for another. Centers particularly have different needs. SPEAKER 1: Go ahead. Everybody just go ahead and then we -- SPEAKER 1: I think another weakness is that we found at the middle school group is that there's a disparity in the level of expertise between the TLC's at the schools. Some schools have these great people that know a lot, other schools have a person who can't know allot because that person's (inaudible). So there's no consistency of the role of TLC or micro tech -- SPEAKER 1: Or school based technical support -- SPEAKER 1: Right, right. SPEAKER 1: I would look at that as both a strength and a weakness, because schools that have it appear to have an extremely comprehensive internal support system as well as (inaudible) programs. Conversely, schools that did not have it, were the schools that were having to most the problems. SPEAKER 1: What level were you in that middle school -- SPEAKER 1: Okay, Nancy? SPEAKER 1: Strength is that the whole (inaudible) staff seems to be generally helpful and well versed, but weakness is that they're not trained in everything it's just a few of them. SPEAKER 1: Okay. SPEAKER 1: Threat, leadership. We don't have leadership that looks to advance technology and it poses a threat to staff and the students are not moving forward -- SPEAKER 1: Okay -- SPEAKER 1: And not (inaudible) training that that school needs. SPEAKER 1: Strength from the elementary folks. I think the reason (inaudible) presently used (inaudible) useful presently there were some teachers who do they're taking the ball and running with it and setting the example and sharing that expertise with one another. And obviously a weakness, which we heard over and over again, was on site support. District support is one of the issues, but on site support they really need somebody -- some of the folks that had a tech person full-time at (inaudible) spend all their time, you know, trying to repair equipment and putting out fires and they can't do the translation of how do we use technology to integrate and deliver instructions, so and then a lot of schools don't even have that. So the on site support as well as the District support as a weakness. SPEAKER 1: From the high school level a strength (inaudible) a strength of the school was creativity was our topic and the teachers felt that (inaudible) creative the strength felt was that they ran with something and took ownership and got it moving throughout the school. The threat to them was they owned it, and got no help with it and that all of a sudden they were pulled in every which direction that they were creative enough to bring something forward, they were stuck with it as ownership and then they felt that they were not holding back to those (inaudible) I felt that was a threat and the weakness. SPEAKER 1: That was a high school? SPEAKER 1: Yeah, high school. SPEAKER 1: In line with that, I heard that many of the teachers that went to VEGA are very enthusiastic then they went back to their school, and they were told that they have to stay within the FCAT framework and that was a priority. So they felt that they couldn't put into action the training that they were getting from the (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: So strength to you was that the DEETA program seems to be very successful, but weakness is there's not necessarily relationship between the DEETA training for instructional staff and the leadership at the school level? SPEAKER 1: Right. SPEAKER 1: Okay. SPEAKER 1: A weakness in the training area is the timing of the training. It doesn't always occur at the right time as when you need it and also there need to be more mechanical (inaudible) in other words, how to get the program (inaudible) how you might use the program in the high school. SPEAKER 1: Excellent. SPEAKER 1: Strength is that the (inaudible) programs work well, such as United Streaming, but the converse side is, the weakness is that not all programs are like that. SPEAKER 1: A major weakness that I saw was the roll outs. The various roll outs during the year not being done in a planned manner, that they just happened and by just happening there was a negative effect at the school sites, many times with the budget which leaves us to the total cost of ownership fees, and of course the training piece was not a comprehensive piece to involve the Help Desk the training at the school site, the teachers, the follow up support for when the equipment broke down, which became a major problem, because once the equipment broke, it was sometimes weeks and months before the equipment got repaired, which caused the program that they were implementing to just slip. SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) roll out a weakness that I heard was that there was just, we are so busy rolling out that there was never a chance for people to really get into it and get their hands wet and really develop an understanding of the things that were being rolled out. As soon as they started to learn it a new thing was being rolled out (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Too many roll outs, too many initiatives (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: You never really get a chance to (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Did that come across (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Yeah (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: The lifecycle, the lifecycle of the products that go out. They're not standing on stability. You've got to have a lifecycle that's (inaudible) has to get out there and implement it working and have a stable life period where it's used people get accustomed to it, they get comfortable with it, they buy into it, and then if they do buy into it they'll buy into the new roll out much easier than if you rolled it out and never learned the last one. SPEAKER 1: But another weakness and also it could be an opportunity is the fact that we have some tried and true programs out there that are in essence older programs, but we're not utilizing them appropriately. The opportunity would be better utilization of programs that we already have with further enhanced training, obviously the weakness is that we're not using them to their full potential. SPEAKER 1: And that and that in the high school to United Streaming is a good example. The strength was United Streaming, the weakness was they didn't know how to use it. SPEAKER 1: And, the one we heard repeatedly in the centers area was FileMaker for data analysis and you know (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: One of the strengths I believe is we have a District full of resources and half the time we don't use and we are closing the gap on (inaudible) as a District, but a weakness would be I don't believe we have an action plan as it relates to academics to make sure that all schools are closing on the District in (inaudible) and you see a great disparity because there's no action plan to make sure that each school is utilizing those resources appropriately and after while you'll see the gap increasing. SPEAKER 1: At the elementary level in regards to instructional the staff development in the curriculum integration training whether they want tow classed aligned with DEETA was a good thing, but the lack of support when they got back to their sites. One either because they couldn't do it because of FCAT pressure or two, there was no one on site that could assist them when they had problems, not so much the technical problems, but how do you use it back in the classroom and how do you really integrate that piece and then also at the elementary level we had some very vocal folks about the business application. Addressing specifically the two that were rolled out this year at the same time with STAR and KRONOS and a lack of the plan and the problems that they had and the lack of support whether -- they were talking about the vendor support and all the money that was spent with the vendors and not having their support, but especially the training piece with that those two programs. SPEAKER 1: And another weakness would be the training that is enacted. A lot of the vendors offer web (inaudible) type of things and if you're not strong in technology, you're not going to train in the web (inaudible) situation. You need somebody in front of you, you know, showing you practically spoon feeding it to you, if you're not a technology digital native. SPEAKER 1: And learning does not equate with fluency in technology. SPEAKER 1: Right. SPEAKER 1: A weakness, and interesting from the high school group, was they posed the question, what are the objectives and goals of the District in putting technology in the classrooms. They really don't see that it's being clear to them. And mainly they were saying that (inaudible) was again the training is that they felt that when you're, they changed the incentive base now, you used to get paid for going and taking classes, now they get points. You don't get the points until you've come back and implemented what you've learned, and they go and take the classes they don't also have the equipment at the schools to implement, so they're not getting the points, the time is waisted they don't feel like they can give up that time. SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) very interesting. That's good (inaudible). That takes us to the next level of the training problem. SPEAKER 1: Another weakness, well I guess I'll (inaudible) it both ways, a strength would be in some of the programs that we have in the (inaudible) that are successful. A weakness would be a fragmentation of those programs and the lack of an effective evaluation process to determine the effectiveness of the programs so that other schools can share in the use of those programs. SPEAKER 1: No effective assessment system in the District for software packages. SPEAKER 1: A weakness to me (inaudible) teachers because communication we ask them (inaudible) and even not one person even right (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Right -- SPEAKER 1: Not one (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Right. In our group too (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: And that was (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: What's happening, you know, because of protocol, we're supposed to send it to a higher level -- SPEAKER 1: Right, but it's not going down. SPEAKER 1: It's not going down anywhere after that (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Even though we say please do this (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Oh, right (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: We have that same issue with BEACON programming as well part of, you know, it's being constantly challenged. I don't get this information into the hands to the teachers. So I think from an overall, whether it's technology or anything else, it's being able to communicate to the teachers (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) the biggest thing from the teachers is that they don't know what is going on until it's in their rooms -- SPEAKER 1: Well, I take it a step further, we were talking about it before the session started, by biggest problem in this project has been leadership people not reading their e-mails, just flat out not reading their e-mails if there was a meeting and then the second part was when may did read the e-mail they didn't really read it, they scanned it. How many people went to McFatter? The entire, the entire facilities and construction division which asked us to change their meeting, they went to Sheridan, because their first meeting that they asked us to change was at Sheridan. Since everyone of them didn't go to McFatter for the meeting, they all drove to Sheridan then they were mad when they got to McFatter, I had thought it was my fault. I thought that I made a mistake and so I went back and checked, no, it was clear cut that they said McFatter. So, I think we're all saying the same thing, a weakness is low tech, low tech. How do you get people to read or take serious their issues? SPEAKER 1: Well, I think an opportunity to the streamline e-mails. I think that's the problem (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Could be. SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) too much is going out but nothing's important anymore. SPEAKER 1: Right (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Should be some rules on the utilization of e-mail, right? SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) protocol (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: And another one I want to mention that no one touched on was the support word. The strength was from the high school people that anything in warranty you could get repaired and returned back infinitely anything out of warrantee which is the District, the weaknesses is, you could never see it again (inaudible) the District, the internal District is fixing something it's gone for life, if it was external in warranty the vendors did it, you got it back. That was the strength and weakness. The opportunity was their recommendations to do more an inhouse sort of repair and get student certified and have them and that's on opportunity to run with what they were recommending that they felt they could do and that was directly from the technical support people. SPEAKER 1: Student piece is a major opportunity (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) because student are so cable at handling and understanding technology that we could use that intellectual resource to assist schools in repair and training (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: A strength in that is that at Fort Lauderdale High School we have a PC support class where the kids are signed up, they're assigned to a teacher, but they work directly with me. I show them how to like trouble shoot problems, repair problems and they actually go out into the classrooms for me. I get e-mails sent to me from certain teachers, I give them the e-mails they go to the class if they can't fix it they report it back to me, I send it to the vendor, the vendor comes out, and then I actually have the kids go with the vendors to see what the vendor did so they can learn, not only from me, but they can also learn from the cool based vendor as to what to do, if the problem comes up again. SPEAKER 1: And the opportunity is if we are a certified center of that vendor, the District will be getting money back from that vendor. SPEAKER 1: Exactly. SPEAKER 1: Okay, I want to use this that just came up as an example of what you need to be thinking about between now and May 10th. I can see in my head now based on what a number of you just said that maybe you bring forth a goal that says, I'm just saying it now and I'll stop and we'll get back to this, but that says utilize (inaudible) high school students to assist in school based technical support at every level -- SPEAKER 1: Mr. Boegli say student because (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: Okay, I'm sorry, (inaudible) but the point would be what would that lead to what would have to be done. One the school system right now allows for student workers. The student workers is a job class, it's minimum wage, may be we should have a job description done and it be a little more than minimum wage, who they report to. In other words, you could take that and turn that idea into a goal that ultimately would save the District lots and lots of money and accomplish what we're talking about. So enough of that, but that's what you've got to do between now and the 10th when we come back. Okay? All right let's keep going, we're still at the school one -- SPEAKER 1: I saw a weakness that was mentioned and I see it permits the strength too. The first weakness was, and I heard this at all the meeting with the high schools, too many log ins for all the different things that we use and then, for example, and I, I don't think this came up a lot, but was the one example was BEEP when is was rolled out was supposed to be that, but it's not. You still can't get to your Pinnacle, your CAB and your -- it's, it's becoming that but, I think maybe, I kinda heard some rumblings that teachers kinda don't use it as much, because it's not the portal to all had things, it's the portal to some things. So I think BEEP is a strength or becoming stronger is what I heard, but the weakness is still is to money log ins or too many you got to be here or there (inaudible) yeah too many pass words, you gotta go to Virtual Counsel for this, I've got to go to Pinnacle for this, I've got to go to Terms for this and (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: And just to piggy back on that, they also said it takes a long time for new people to get their log ins and have access and that was really a barrier in training and getting them starting. SPEAKER 1: And to add they also, some also felt that BEEP wasn't as necessarily as user friendly as it could be. Which was prohibiting them from taking advantage of it. SPEAKER 1: To add on to the too many log ins, I know that with my teachers they also complain that every 45 days their password changes. And there are so many things that their password changes on that they can't remember what happen or what changed. I have teachers that have a piece of paper like this big literally an 8 and a half by 14 sheet of paper with all their log ins and their passwords and they wrote down what day they changed it so that they make sure that they remember on that day do go and change their password. I mean the security in some places is over kill. SPEAKER 1: But it's not security because you write it down (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) I just wanted to make sure it was contract and the example used for the high school people were Great Plain that we contracted with the vendor and they could get no support no training, no nothing, there's no one to call, no one and answers the phone, so they felt that a real weakness there was you can contract with people and then it's just dropped off. That the people aren't accountable after the contract (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: And the District systems. SPEAKER 1: The what? SPEAKER 1: The District systems that the information doesn't feed into one with the STAR, with the KRONOS, with the Great Plain, but there's all these these systems that don't speak to each other and in one case they identified the fact that it added, and I think it was the STAR system, that it added more work to them rather than take work away. So that if the people in the front office using the program it adds more work to their day then it is if they just had some other system of checking in volunteers or people that were coming to the schools and things like that -- SPEAKER 1: To add, to add into that like what you were saying, there's no centralized data all these parallel programs and no ability to customize the data. SPEAKER 1: Virtual Counselor was given great accolades, but the ability to manipulate the data and to bring in (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Well, we should put that up. So a strength was Virtual Counselor, right? Weakness can't manipulate the data that (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: And it's not up to date -- SPEAKER 1: Or bring data in from other sources. SPEAKER 1: Okay. SPEAKER 1: To go back to the issue regarding vendor support and accountability; I mean, that ties directly into the need to develop more service level agreements on our contract. SPEAKER 1: As an opportunity -- SPEAKER 1: Opportunity? More service level agreements. SPEAKER 1: Yes. SPEAKER 1: One weakness that came up from the community schools was the fact that we do a lot of work at night with the servers and that, and that was really a barrier to them cause their having night classing and the servers at a lot of times access was down for them -- (END OF SIDE A TAPE 1) SPEAKER 1: Because of the hours in that, that they're often left out of that loop. SPEAKER 1: And another weakness was that they're somewhat different then the case law people (inaudible) we always think of them as different -- SPEAKER 1: Boy am I glad, I can't wait to say Chuck Stanley said that. I love that (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Can you say no names? SPEAKER 1: But I'll remember (inaudible). Okay, more on the schools remember we're on the schools. SPEAKER 1: A strength was the implementation of the multifunction printer and then mini bench marks that were create to scan. A weakness was the fact that the test only have three or four questions, so the schools have to utilize a lot of paper. An opportunity would be putting it online so that mini bench mark testing is done online. SPEAKER 1: Okay. SPEAKER 1: I got the feeling that they felt if more effective pilots were done, especially for new initiatives, technology initiatives, it would minimize support issues and frustrations and time and setups. SPEAKER 1: So that would be an opportunity, I guess? SPEAKER 1: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Okay, would be more pilots -- SPEAKER 1: Effective pilots. SPEAKER 1: I think one of the things I heard, I don't know where to categorize it, but you can take an application like KRONOS (inaudible), but they're people who love it and people that hate it, and STAR is saying wait some people like it and some people hate it, CAB is saying -- I mean we have some, some packages that some schools just love to death. Some people love Pinnacle, and if you happen to be a Mac school, you hated it and so how do we, how do we get out the good word, cause we often hear only the bad words, we only hear from the people that are not happy with it. We don't tend to focus on the people that are happy with it (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: I think that's a weakness -- SPEAKER 1: I think part of that would involve the, the pre-assessment rolling out a program and during that pre-assessment process we need to look at the equipment, the compatibility of this equipment which may be a problem right now with Macs and PCs, especially related Pinnacle. To see what would be the potential problems in the roll out and how it's going to side effect the schools by grade level and by equipment type. That's a major, major issue, because if you don't plan well on the front side, it's clearly going to lead to a problem on the post implementation -- SPEAKER 1: Right. SPEAKER 1: And that (inaudible) and a roll out process -- SPEAKER 1: The check, the check list I call it a check list but a detailed -- SPEAKER 1: And an add on to that was if you do the work in the pre-assessment piece, then you can purchase, get a better buy for your money by purchasing a 3-year subscription instead of a one year, because you can't implement any program in a district this large in one year and be successful, I mean there's too many stakeholders for you to touch and then the rollover of teachers themselves. So, you know, it's nice that we make a contract with a vendor and say, okay, we're going to purchase this program for one year, but then everybody wonders, okay, will it be around the following year, should I invest my time in it or not I heard several school people they that, you know, why get trained on it, you know, we only purchased it for a year we may not have it next year. So -- SPEAKER 1: In part of that, Maria, is they also felt they weren't consulted in any of those decisions, the school all things they were working well and then all of a sudden here comes something else that we're rolling out -- SPEAKER 1: Right. SPEAKER 1: Especially in the curriculum decisions at high school it came out one example they bought out was Read On, and those issues with the hardware and the compatibility in that, they wanted to be involved in that. So I guess really that's a weakness. SPEAKER 1: What I'm seeing is that a threat that maybe goes back to our first meeting, that it's apparent or we should make it apparent that we are so big as a District, we're huge, and there are all these departments that have and schools that have priorities and all the priorities come and center around the schools and so there's so much going on for that school to handle so it's a threat to all of us, because it's a huge coordination issue to get everybody's priorities, the state's priorities the (inaudible) priorities in a coherent way where it's not overwhelming (inaudible) I'm feeling overwhelmed by just listening. SPEAKER 1: Threat meaning that we maybe too big? SPEAKER 1: Threat is that we are so big that that that's an opportunity, because it gives us a lot of resources, but at the same time it's also part of our situation and our problem, and I think we need to be aware of that. SPEAKER 1: Okay. Couple more, a couple more minutes on the schools, okay -- SPEAKER 1: I just an opportunity in listening to the, you know, our discussion here as well as the school's input is that one of the things we're working on in parallel is restructuring the technology advisory committee to make it more of a strategic functioning committee and so with the representation having school based people on that committee, where they can provide input up front before the (inaudible) is an opportunity for us to number one involve them in the process and also hopefully improve communications. SPEAKER 1: Strength, many of the schools have very good trainers, such as their media specialist who are technology specialist on new applications, however, the weakness is that unfortunately those positions are not full time positions as trainers so, therefore, when teachers or staff members hit on obstacle during the day, if they can't get help they tend to just put it away and never touch it again, so if they're, you know, sitting there with their class and they got the whole technology thing set up and they're stuck and they try to call and media specialist in the class, tech specialist in the class, they don't know what to do, and they just put it away and it never gets used again. So that was a strength and weakness of that. SPEAKER 1: A recommendation on that are you in high school or (inaudible) SPEAKER 1: Elementary. SPEAKER 1: Our recommendation in high school is a good opportunity was pay teachers for the extra hours to do just those people, so that you have one every hour and then you have an inhouse teacher trained and the opportunity is maybe to build a program off that that helps that issue on the instructional side not about (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: To add on to that we train our department heads where -- like when we did CAB, we trained our department heads how to use CAB, just the basics how to log in and how to check e-mail and then they went and they trained their actually department themselves at their department meeting. So that took some pressure off the tech people because they could say okay I'll just call my department head or there's always stronger and weaker teachers within a department so they can either call their department head or they can call another teacher and say how do I do this, because I forgot, or I didn't really remember very well from the training. SPEAKER 1: I think a strength that we found in the middle school was that, the schools who are effectively using technology have strategies in mind they met with a committee they meet together to discuss things, like Fort Lauderdale High does that as well. There are many schools that do things right in technology. I think the opportunity is to pair the schools who might be struggling with those problem schools and say how do you guys go about (inaudible) internally what is your strategy and model those practices. SPEAKER 1: At Stranahan High School I wrote down that their weakness was that training wasn't mandatory, therefore, all people don't have to participate and the teachers that do don't understand why the teachers that don't are allowed not to -- SPEAKER 1: Just to piggy back that, just listening to teachers talk about what actually happens in the classroom and how technology and actual conventional classroom instruction interact, it might be a good idea to find out from teachers how they feel technology would assist them in the classroom and in what category it would best assist them in the classroom so that there's a natural flow between the instruction -- the typical instructional process and the incorporation of technology. Cause it appears that, from a District perspective, we impose technology on the teachers without regard for how it's actually going to impact the instructional process in the classroom. So I think we should kind of consider reversing the process to say, how can we take technology and incorporate that to better assist you in your classroom instruction. And I think you would not only give them what they need, but you would get a better buy-in from the teachers in terms of the expanded use of technology. SPEAKER 1: And a weakness from the elementary group was the lack of instructional strategy on how to use some of the resources that they have whether it be software, whether it be hardware, was the instructional strategy piece. SPEAKER 1: That goes back to, you know, in sharing best practices would be helpful in that situation -- SPEAKER 1: I have to believe and there again just from, from speaking to teachers and hearing what goes on in classroom, I gotta believe that we are putting a ton of dollars into the classroom that aren't effective, that's not giving us the return on our investment and we're alienating teachers as a result of that because we're telling them that they have to use it, and they're saying that it's not working, it's not going to do what I need it to do. SPEAKER 1: And so you desensitize them and once you loose them, getting them back is almost impossible. SPEAKER 1: Forgive me if I appear to be passionate about it, but I think we gotta come to grips with how we do it, it's the way to go, clearly it's the way to go, but I think we gotta get a better corporation from our teachers in terms of how we roll out. SPEAKER 1: Too often you'll hear teachers using it because they were told to, not because it's a system they recommend -- SPEAKER 1: Right, right. SPEAKER 1: Yes, sir. SPEAKER 1: Under strength the District seems to have a plan and have research and (inaudible) search programs and (inaudible) I think (inaudible) often times does (inaudible) school level (inaudible) we don't use that technology for the purpose of (inaudible) District plan of purchase. SPEAKER 1: All right, one more. SPEAKER 1: I just wanted expand (inaudible) because it came out so clearly in the high school group that exactly what he's saying that there is so such technology being given to classrooms, but is it the appropriate technology? They're getting things that they're expected to use so the things that they need to have for instance, (inaudible), LTV projectors, printers, ribbons, and such to be able to do with from, their comment was they don't have enough money to buy paper. They can't buy anything else to support the full usage of the technology they're given. SPEAKER 1: That's true because paperless only means that somebody else prints it out (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: Just one more point to go back to (inaudible) said I don't think we have a mechanism in place, and this is a weakness, to measure the return on investment. I don't think that there's something (inaudible) out there that we need to set up (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: Take it a step further, I don't think we established goals going in terms of what we expect out of the technology that we put in the classrooms, so that as a result how do we measure it, what are you measuring against, what are your bench marks? SPEAKER 1: Okay, let's shift gears now, let's shift gears now. Okay, so just grab a cup of coffee get ready we're going to take those down and then we're going to move into the areas of the departments and while you're doing that here's another moment where listening to what you said, I'm on this issue here's what I'm thinking about the goals (inaudible) -- . SPEAKER 1: A real thorough prototype. Then the second thing would be, we create teams of people to go visit all the schools taking the prototypes and looking to see from not paper pencil compliance surveys like the STAR thing or the thing that we make you fill out every year and I just give somebody -- SPEAKER 1: I make you fill out. SPEAKER1: But I'm talking about real teams of people that go out and visit the schools and do an analysis against the prototype with what's there, interviews with the staff, interviews with the principal really nitty gritty and then they develop what would be a gap analysis. This is a gap of this school against the prototype and then from the gap analysis put forth the plan for the expenditure of funds in every one of those aspects over the three or four year period to bring that school and that principal and that staff up to the prototype. Okay. That, of course, what I just said is a massive project. It would take years to do but it addresses lots and lots of what you guys said were issues that came forth from the schools. Everything from the role of the TAC, to hardware software, the refresh to training, all of those areas are incorporated and that's the idea when we come back on the 10th that's the idea of the kinds of goal that we're looking at, big picture, ones that we can't do ourselves in 30 days but at least then the board and the superintendant would see a plan and when they get a board item that says this board item is for, I don't know help me out here, training of Boulevard Heights Elementary faculty to bridge the gap that's been established from the technology audits, they would know and relate it right back and that's been their biggest complaint they can't figure out some of the stuff, and that's just from the schools now so just think about that kind of concept for the goals. The other one would be, the goal that we all have heard here, we need to have some sort of a detailed plan before roll out's done. I mean that's got to be something that comes up in a couple weeks. I mean everybody's talking about there's problems with roll out, the multiple -- I'll tell you one that hit me the other day. Mellisa's group BRITE is doing a great job of their roll out. They're really listening to everybody about their roll out on the SAP training, so they have been talking to the tech centers about being able to do the training of the non-instructional staff in dept for SAP, for the SAP roll out. Well at the same time that Mellisa's group's been talking to me about doing the roll out training for SAP, I find out that HR, no HR, not HRD, HR is rewriting the job description for all the non-instructional employees in the District. Anybody know that? SPEAKER 1: No. SPEAKER 1: And the job descriptions are totally different then what the job descriptions are now. So that's number two, and number 3, and then the 3rd thing that happened was the budget department is putting out a directive for the same people to go to training for FPE's in Terms and number 4, then there is HRD is coming out with a number of different initiatives and changes and the same people on all four of these initiatives are going to be asked to go to training at the same time, so I said, I was wearing two hats at the meeting, one of my hats was as principal of Sheridan, I said I know what you guys are nuts, if you think I'm sending by bookkeeper to every one of these different trainings, at the same time, you know, and then worry about the fact that the job descriptions are being changed for them, and it doesn't seem to appear that anybody has been looking at the additional burdens from the SAP, you know, we had even talked about maybe those people should get a raise, well now they're looking at totally different job descriptions that don't even relate that stuff to it. So, long story short, as we now move to the next part which were meetings with departments, it seemed like to me in my review of the departments these were the key big picture things that I heard about, communication. Communication was like oh, my goodness, the ETS people were being criticized all the time about they didn't do this and they didn't do that, and at the same time nobody even told them about some of the initiative that they were told now to take care of. Initiatives, who, who starts them? Who, who starts these initiatives it is somebody just sitting over in a room somewhere that just made a decision that they want to do this. The board members have asked me, who starts these initiatives, the superintendant has asked me who came up with this initiative? There is a huge, huge problem of determining in some cases initiatives that are out there, some big, some small, not so much the big ones that people know about. There's lots, 104 projects in the blue print, 104 projects. When I was, last time I looked at there was 94, how did we add 8, who added? So that's the other one and the 3rd thing was costs. Nobody is talking about how much something cost. They're talking about how much it cost to start, but they're not talking about how much it cost down the road a little bit. And then for a little bit more tidbit story, I was there right now, like this training issue, which I'm sure glad I'm not, you know, I mean that's a big issue, Luis you'll remember that right, it's gonna be a big issue, cause there are four or five different major -- so one, this side of the director or chair of this I said may be I should just ask to have a meeting with all the key people and say what's going on and then -- but the other one is, Black Board. Black Board is getting to be a big deal, lots and lots, and lots of teachers are interested in Black Board training and want to know about it and get involved in it, use it, it's coming, everybody wants it. Black Board has one lady, one little person, Laurie Jones, right, in charge of Black Board, and that's it. There is nobody else so what we're getting now is that may be there needs to be a little looksy (phonetic) within the departments like ETS as to well there's a shift going on. Remember that little thing I sent you about shift happens? There's a shift happening. You now have large numbers that we were talking about interested creative teachers who want to learn a new technology and yet there has hot been any comparable shift at the District yet to take care of, you know, may be there should be two or three people taking care of the Black Board and I'm just throwing that out, because it's coming up and apparently Laurie was out for a week or something like that and then it became like chaos, because nobody could talk to anybody about Black Board training. Does anybody know about the Black Board, Black Board training? SPEAKER 1: The online course delivery system that Broward Virtual University uses to hold their professional development courses in that -- SPEAKER 1: And lots of teachers in the classroom now on their own creatively are wanting to take Black Board training to do blended classes of their own -- SPEAKER 1: Right and I think what they want, I mean, I think this is an issue that needs to be discussed, because they're really looking for something like teacher web pages and that that's a vehicle that can be used for that, but consistently I heard teacher web pages coming up -- SPEAKER 1: Oh, wait, I spoke too much. Let's go on to the next one. SPEAKER 1: Okay. SPEAKER 1: Okay. All right. SPEAKER 1: I think the Black Board issue is indicative of some things. This is a project that sort of got started in the back room somewhere and all of a sudden it became this huge thing, and then it got expanded out to the community and got expanded out and it got expanded out before anybody had a real chance at what it would cost to do that -- SPEAKER 1: Right. SPEAKER 1: Or how if would be supported (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: How did this initiative start and it seems like nobody can put their finger on this stuff. SPEAKER 1: And those such weaknesses and no such centralized way to monitor, you know, or have an approval process in this initiatives -- SPEAKER 1: There you go. Okay, so -- Phyllis. SPEAKER 1: I just wanted comment on in going back to what you were talking about the (inaudible) goals and the prototype for technology and visiting schools, is it okay to comment on that? SPEAKER 1: Sure. SPEAKER 1: Okay. So in everything I've been hearing and, you know, even with working very closely with the task restructuring and listening to teachers, there isn't gonna be -- I like to idea of a prototype and visiting the schools and the gap analysis but I also think we need to be sensitive to that there's not a one size fits all and that we, we need to have the schools tell us where there are and where they want to go and our goal is to support them in that. I think if we come up with a prototype, measure it, measure that against that say, you know, here's what you need to do, we're gonna get that same push back when they said, this is a District telling us what we need to do. And if you take a look at maybe -- if we can group the schools, you know, like I'm thinking of the old reading groups (inaudible) in first grade, like the blue birds, the buzzards and the (inaudible), you know, and the buzzards for the (inaudible). You know, maybe we take the schools that are really out there, you know, and they test the prototype, you know, they're the ones that are really -- they're taking initiative, they're doing somethings, maybe it's not all structured. Then we take the mid-group, which is they have capacity but they really need some help getting over the hurdles, and then we take the group of schools where they don't really have the leadership and those teachers shouldn't be at a loss because they don't have the leadership and part of our role as a District is to come together and enable all of that and that's where we focus a lot of our energy, because there's not gonna, there's not gonna be a fix overnight, and there's never gonna be a perfect -- we're never gonna live in a perfect word where we're able to roll everything out and this Black Board things not gonna happen, someone discover's it and it's used for one purpose and then everyone else wants it and then it starts to creep. But I like there idea of somehow figuring out -- and I know in the schools (inaudible) they even have technology in there, but I think we need to work with the schools more individually and have them tell us how we can help them gets to the next level, whatever that next level may be for that particular school it may be a bigger of it goal then we can accomplish, you know, with the resources we have now, but again what I'm concerned with is us making decisions creating this perfect -- SPEAKER 1: I wasn't talking about us doing, I was talked about the schools doing -- SPEAKER 1: Never mind. SPEAKER 1: No wait -- let's go, we got to move on. We have -- that's next session. All right, let's go, departments. And I know that you guys got a lot of stuff from the departments. Ready -- SPEAKER 1: What I heard from the departments is that there's not a lot of cross-training in like the ETS area that's only one person that could answer that question, you know, and when that person's not there you have to wait (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: That was (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Curriculum side (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Yeah, the curriculum side -- SPEAKER 1: And the weakness was that there's only one or two people to contact, because there weren't anymore people. The resources weren't there, therefore, there wasn't enough to go around (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: That was (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Not enough people power (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: And they all had to keep their private phone numbers of the person who they could contact because they knew they'd get a answer from that person even though it may not be in relationship to what the real question is. SPEAKER 1: What I heard from ETS was that, where all these initiatives come from, they said a lot of the things came down from the State with no moneys or budget to back up, to support (inaudible) not saying that you have to do it, but no support or budget. SPEAKER 1: Weakness in regards to too many hardware platforms ESS, Benefits, all of that stuff whether you're on a Mac or a PC, XP, 98, 95, OSX, 9, different browsers that you see things differently, you can take a training from one place and that person uses a Mac and then you go back to your school that's all PC's and you're saying, wait a minute I don't understand this screen. That was a big, a big weakness that they had found. SPEAKER 1: On the curriculum side too I thought was very interesting, they said a strength was people have great ideas, a weakness was that they have no place to take them, and the threat was that if you took them on your on your were met with such a battle that you went home, back home and you never wanted to take to anybody ever again. That was very -- SPEAKER 1: So those are (inaudible) now those are very very significant things. So the strength was -- SPEAKER 1: That people (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: A lot of people have creative ideas, the weakness was there was no place to take it (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: No process (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: No process (inaudible) and the threat was -- SPEAKER 1: If you did bring them on your own you were met with a fight all the way through to the point where people felt even humiliated (inaudible) battles going (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: Right. Okay -- SPEAKER 1: Our group a weaknesses brought up issues around CAB and CAB being down. CAB is how they communicate and that was an issue, that they really thought that they needed a better working system that when it's down they need some help and it's down frequently. SPEAKER 1: A weakness that I got from the board members was CAB doesn't, help me hear, (inaudible) no it doesn't relate to they are Black Berry -- SPEAKER 1: Well that when they say it's tough to communicate in the outside word of -- it was government relations that brought the concern up in our group, dealing with the capital Legislature and that (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Okay, you guys all -- you talked lots of departments, now what came up? SPEAKER 1: A weakness in operations as was they were complaining there was no unification between data amongst the departments. Like someone from safety can't get a work order number from someone from facilities, because it has to go from one program be reentered into another program then be reprocessed and then a lot of times data gets lost. SPEAKER 1: More communication is lacking. SPEAKER 1: Yes -- SPEAKER 1: Sharing -- SPEAKER 1: Another weakness was due to the system up grades not being mandatory and schools being allowed to keep the old system that we had which lead to the subsequent problems as we (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Another one -- SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) the Black Board upgrade did not want it, was not told about it and there's problems with it, and why they have to use it -- SPEAKER 1: Interesting (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: Yeah, that's very strong (inaudible) SPEAKER 1: From ETS the one young lady was from, worked on the help desk and she made it loud and clear that the help desk people are not trained properly on all of the different initiatives out there, so when they receive a call they can't really help the teachers, because there are not properly on it -- SPEAKER 1: And when schools buy something on their own -- SPEAKER 1: Right. SPEAKER 1: It's possible nobody helps them -- SPEAKER 1: Nobody, right. SPEAKER 1: I will tell you one thing that I believe is an opportunity, our group knew about BRITE and they knew, they were hopeful that it was going to be the solution, to bring a lot of applications, a lot of systems together in their departments from registration to e-applications and e-recruiting and so they were really very hopeful that with this system rolled out properly it would really be a value to them. SPEAKER 1: Weakness about grant was that, we often times get grants for technology projects that never a consideration for the ongoing cost of the technology so the subsequent (inaudible) as it relates to help desk there was concern that there were too many help desk. That nobody really -- (END OF SIDE B TAPE 1 / BEGIN SIDE A TAPE 2). SPEAKER 1: Process, actually, I think they called it a think tank, you know, a think tank of people to bring forward ideas (inaudible) formalize a thank tank, an evaluation group that would bring to surface, research, evaluation, data, pilots that would close that issue of where do you bring an initiative and how does it get started and they feel that there's nothing in place today that does that. SPEAKER 1: What they were saying on that is that not everyone has had experience you know on the new technology all the things that you should look at so why not have this experienced group that, you know, has done this multiple that can be in place to go over these new initiatives. SPEAKER 1: Our group brought out that their support group and they're not given the opportunity to initiate new technology that would make them more efficient in helping support, cause the technology's going to the school based products and not to the management product -- SPEAKER 1: Not the District department -- SPEAKER 1: Yes, I'm talking (inaudible) the maintenance people -- SPEAKER 1: A weakness from there curriculum group was that they didn't feel that there was really, a group of kinda you know not necessarily getting initiatives but dealing with priorities they had school based things that they need to take care of and there was nobody that could really take them on and say you know this is your priority was everybody as priorities in the District, so there was no way of evaluating and determining which priorities were really the priority. But that turned into the since of strength for them because they created on ad hoc curriculum instructional committee and they were able to get two people from ETS to serve on that with them, so they had a first hand ear, you know, a couple of ears to hear what their priorities were and they were able to move ahead. SPEAKER 1: What about some of the -- go ahead (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: One of the things I heard was not here and I'm not sure -- maybe a threat is the new restructuring of the District with the technology. The maintenance people were very concerned because they said they've seen this before when they put of facilities in maintenance and the disconnect between the two. They're extremely concerned that their group, which are already alienated which we've already identified as a weakness are going to become further alienated now with lack of, with a disconnect between the District. SPEAKER 1: That brings me to the -- in terms of facilities when they say they get more work done from the informal network than from the formal network, so it was about who you knew, rather than who was assigned to do the work (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: Yes -- SPEAKER 1: So would you say that's a strength or a weakness? So informal organizational chart is used more then the formal organizational chart -- SPEAKER 1: Those who have the chart (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: An opportunity would be the just give them the budget and let them then out source or develop inhouse what they really need. That was stated a couple of times also. SPEAKER 1: And I think an opportunity there is to work -- examining with project teams interdepartmental project teams and how they can be responsible from project implementation that rather than the department -- SPEAKER 1: Weakness was that schools don't also know what's coming down the road and what's being planned, but the opportunity is that, if there's a systematic way to do that, they're not going to seek something on their own that's already in process. SPEAKER 1: I'm with the ETS group and they seem to realize the fragmentation of the system and often times and this is really (inaudible) people unleash on them they want to help them, they really do so is opportunity is and I felt it from the whole group, that they want to see a plan in place so that they can implement it and strategize and get the schools what they need -- SPEAKER 1: And they saw it as -- SPEAKER 1: And they also saw this, they see this as a real opportunity. SPEAKER 1: And they said they saw a miniature weakness was a fact that we are on two platforms their suggestion was make up your mind Mac or PC -- SPEAKER 1: Right. SPEAKER 1: Pick one and then you can offer twice as much support for half the amount of cost because we're focussed on one, product -- SPEAKER 1: System -- SPEAKER 1: And more staff. They said that one person is doing three different jobs, also trying to frame and all that, there's just not enough staff members. SPEAKER 1: Coming from a school based perspective and I met with ETS, I think a strength is they were totally aware that we're all about student learning and I wasn't expecting that I thought that was really wonderful -- SPEAKER 1: It is -- SPEAKER 1: That they're focused, whether it is the daily part of their job or the bigger picture is student learning. SPEAKER 1: That's important to get out -- SPEAKER 1: Yeah, we haven't asked them at some point what should -- SPEAKER 1: That was one of the questions -- SPEAKER 1: Ask them which is more important and they said they're both equally important which really shocked me that they felt, but yeah, they said they both were equally important so that is, she's right that is an opportunity for us to build on that because as the flip side to that is the weakness is they're so overwhelmed -- SPEAKER 1: Oh, yeah (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: As much as everyone else is in this District that they still see that bright spot that opportunity -- SPEAKER 1: It's all about the kids. SPEAKER 1: Yeah -- SPEAKER 1: Yeah, that's what they said that ETS was stretched too thin. That because of the way the system is set up you can not clear own your reports you have to put in a written request for them and they don't come back in a timely manner. And another area was that when you get state mandates hand handed down to you ETS doesn't have enough time to react in changing some of the programs, which caused additional burdens at some of the schools and, like attendance (inaudible), those people are spending more time then they should doing what they do, if the system did what it's supposed to do, it'd have them doing less work on that and reporting the information that the State requiring in a more timely manner. SPEAKER 1: What about some of the smaller departments that were out there that you talked with, the audit, the research department (inaudible), any of those things come up from those groups? SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) instruction clearly that they felt a lot of their data issues could be resolved if they had a group (inaudible) asset management system and that was something that came up over and over again. SPEAKER 1: And that will come from SAP right, that's wave two -- SPEAKER 1: That's the inventory system -- SPEAKER 1: Right (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) that's construction, that's everything (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Yeah, data issues were strong comments made in our group also. SPEAKER 1: Data issue meaning what (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: The (inaudible) data from (inaudible) departments. SPEAKER 1: All right anymore from the departments. I thought there would have been more. SPEAKER 1: Just to add on to what (inaudible) and (inaudible) said when I expressed that they didn't feel that were getting attention, they're to use their budget to develop their software, but they feel that it should be ETS or the technology side that gives them the standard so that their products are interchangeable because okay, if I go out and hire somebody and develop a product and it work for me and it doesn't share with maintenance, it doesn't share with the out people, and then I -- and so they say, okay, if I went to you and you did it, it would be standard, if I do it just give me so way that I can make it standard and we can share it -- SPEAKER 1: Right in audit and research that was the biggest issue was compatibility of the programs -- SPEAKER 1: Right. SPEAKER 1: That, you know, you can't have one system talking to another one and, you know, and budgetary items and finance it's like, you know, but all are not links together. How to you not have programs that share? SPEAKER 1: ETS also thought there was on opportunity to really look at the implications of lease versus purchasing the hardware, because of the computers are an issue and so perhaps the lease would help with the repair of them and then when they're obsolete, to bring in newer models, that might be more cost effective for a District of the this size. SPEAKER 1: We actually well, can I answer that answer? We actually have a lease program in place and we do, we do a combination of leasing and purchasing; however, on a fixed asset system (inaudible) talk about that we're not (inaudible) this is in there but with the new system and joint project, we'll be able to account for assets (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: Another thing that came out of curriculum which I thought was very interesting is that they felt that there was too much control by the vendors in selling the product to the persons in, whoever they were meeting with to sell it and they did not get the input from ETS so there's been some difficulty the EZIVP was one of the things that was really spoken but in dept that it was really just a joint venture between the ETS person and the vendor -- I'm sorry the ESE person and the vendor and ETS did not get the commitment to what we really needed it to really fully implement it (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: And to piggy back on that -- SPEAKER 1: But is that -- SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) what's difficult for the curriculum was that how does that drive the decision making (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Should we, we should just put that as a threat (inaudible) that's a threat. Remember threats are outside forces and political is a big one -- SPEAKER 1: And one of the weaknesses to piggy back on what Barbera said, they mentioned vendor accountability that we spend all this money with the vendors and then they are not accountable for the training and the equipment and all the stuff that needs, yeah (inaudible), the support -- SPEAKER 1: You know, one other thing I just wanted to say that the person who said (inaudible) I don't know what it was, but their comment was that the issue, that the reason the technology has problems is because the ETS department changes every two years or so, the org structure and, therefore, those people feel undervalued because we always complain about them and then we go back to our original mission statement was (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) saying that the top position changes so often that sometimes the person doesn't have adequate time to (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: It sets the system up for failure is what, and those were their exact words (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Interesting, and that comes from the curriculum side, right. All right, anymore we're closing in now, it's 10 after 10 we got one more group. Doctor -- SPEAKER 1: Again, as I mentions as I said before there was general feeling that there's not a good process in place for their needs to be heard and then follow up on that in terms of an action plan or -- SPEAKER 1: From the department -- SPEAKER 1: Yeah. So that process, some kind of process in place to deal with their needs (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Okay, any -- SPEAKER 1: From executive management one comment weakness was that access to information, some information is still only available on the intranet and not the internet as well so it can't be accessed from home or outside the locations and internal communications, a weakness because there is no -- the departments can sent out information HR, benefits to go to teachers but since there's no standard for teachers or staff, you know, you must check your e-mail daily, morning after whatever something, there are a lot of people that are not getting communication and since they have done away with print fliers, memos, and things like that the communications a very strong weakness. SPEAKER 1: Okay. All right, anymore on the departments? Yes, sir -- SPEAKER 1: I think an important one is the fact that the ETS brought up was the unfunded mandate there's no (inaudible) or federal (inaudible) that require us to stop an a dime and put in a system whether it be web based or data based and there seems to be no funding associated with this. So what happens is the project manager has to stop what they're doing implement a new system roll it out go back to what they were doing before (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: All right. We're gonna switch now and go to our final one wrap up, we've got 20 minutes and we'll spend about 15 minutes on this one and then we'll just wrap up and talk about what we need to do for the 10th. So this was the meeting with the areas. Unfortunately probably the least attended. I think that having it the day we came back was not good. But we didn't really have much of a choice, because there's such a limitation on rooms available. So when the areas and the principals that where out there, when I looked through the reviews of those transcripts, the thing that caught my attention was that from the principals and from the area staff, too many competing initiatives, just absolutely flat out too many initiatives going on that are inundating the school base people with more and more things to do and that's what I got out of it. Now what did you guys get out of your session. So a weakness was too many, too many initiatives, just flat out too many initiatives, and that I don't mean just technology, across the board. Example, like the one I gave about the training, that's gonna be another one that's gonna come up. Okay, what did you guys hear in your -- SPEAKER 1: South Central's big issue was having a tech in the schools but that should be funded should be mandated, that was heavy in our discussion that we had them (inaudible) -- right where it's there two to three people (inaudible) student population, teacher population that, that is number one (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: They were saying the small schools were even some of them were even sharing the person between schools, so some schools had two or three people some schools had one some schools (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Right. SPEAKER 1: Let's say I have got this person on Tuesday at 2 (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: I think John you're one of those, aren't you? SPEAKER 1: I actually I work at Bennett Elementary on Tuesday and Thursday in the afternoon (inaudible) -- Harbordale shares a technician with Bay View elementary. William Barber (phonetic) goes Monday and Tuesday to Bay View and every other Wednesday he switches between Bay View and Harbordale but -- SPEAKER 1: So getting back to some of the comments earlier with the teachers right in the middle of their presentations something goes bad on Thursday they're in trouble (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Right. SPEAKER 1: And a lot of time, a lot of time, (inaudible) that's what happens they literally they just they just stop what they're doing and they wait till he's back on Monday and then he's overwhelmed because he's got two days worth of work to catch up on (inaudible) I think technically a standard for schools should be at least -- a high school should have at least two to three techs, a middle school should have at least two, and elementary should have at least one. Technology is our driving force for our future for our kids. If we can't support it why do we have it? SPEAKER 1: That's what I heard earlier I heard that, your know, we're rolling out these initiatives without the training and support mechanism to sustained them, so why do it, you know, and for the BRITE project (inaudible) why do you need my training, you know, why do you need this and people don't understand. SPEAKER 1: One of the strengths that they bought up at South Central Region was that for example lap tops, they really liked that and they seemed to be doing pretty well, but then there was the hidden cost of now that we have the cards or now that we have the printers we have to provide the paper the ink, the light bulks for the LCD's maintaining, the maintenance cost and guess was a weakness, the strength was they liked all the stuff that was coming down a lot of it. The problem was there really wasn't a budget item, you know, there was no money in the budget to maintain it properly. SPEAKER 1: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: (Inaudible) say the same thing. SPEAKER 1: And a weakness (inaudible) was again -- SPEAKER 1: What was that, let's get it down? SPEAKER 1: The weakness is the premise gets old they said we like it, but the time we get it and keep it now it's getting old how to we keep it going. That was the weakness, it's getting old we have no process in place to support it. SPEAKER 1: One thing Angela alluded to earlier once the equipment feel outside the warranty period and there was no support for the equipment, it's like in a limbo situation in terms of whether or not you get support whether or not you keep it or whether or not you go with the newest equipment. If you're using it for a (inaudible) program, there was no guarantee that you were going to continue to get support to continue the use of it and consequently your program suffered by virtue of having that equipment without support and not being able to get new equipment or replacement equipment -- SPEAKER 1: One of the things bought up was that, in our meeting was that someone was saying was saying that the district is going away from (inaudible) no longer supporting it, well (inaudible) we didn't know that we didn't have that (inaudible) that we used, again this is the communication (inaudible) technology issue to deal with. SPEAKER 1: Going, I think LCD's are going to be replaced. LCD's are effective it does what teachers want it to do, the problem is the training and how to use it. There's no, no effective program to train teachers on how to use it -- SPEAKER 1: Right that was one of the other issue training was big cross the board whether it was equipment whether it was new initiatives whether it was this curriculum, training was the big issue and I mean I've been hearing this for 10 years now, so it's like you think we would have solved that problem a little bit -- but it's like that is still number one also access to the program from at home evidently there's a problem with access to it. Another component was identifying the programs in simpler terms, because if they're looking at different types of programs it's like, okay, you go back a couple of days later, where do I find that program or how did I get to, it's like, you know, when you have different names, it doesn't identify the distinctive users or -- it, you know, okay, business curriculum something, KRONOS, NEXUS (phonetic) this you know like the where did I did that from, where did -- you know, I retrieve it and, you know, that's a problem that they have with that. Not enough time to learn the programs and initiatives that are going on was also a major concern. SPEAKER 1: I think the threat to me from the principals that I heard was that there was an initiative is done to us not with us -- SPEAKER 1: Right, right. SPEAKER 1: Buy-in was a big issue, because it's like you said before, they feel shoved down their throats they have no input whatsoever into anything that's going on. There's no communication as to what's going on so they feel threatened. SPEAKER 1: And just to go back to something I said that were, one of the issues they bought up (inaudible) is the fact that (inaudible) meeting people training, the weakness from them was even the people in the schools doing this support aren't trained properly so; therefore, there's still (inaudible) in that as a District we need take the position more seriously that anybody can have the position and then therefore it doesn't matter if they have people or not they don't know what they're doing. SPEAKER 1: Right some people are give the (inaudible) of a tech position (inaudible) technician pay rays but they don't have the skills. SPEAKER 1: Right. SPEAKER 1: But they don't have the skills (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: But the other thing is that they (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Another weakness is slash threat was the unplanned roll out to the schools that requires schools budgetary support without the projects being fully funded from the District and as a result that creates hardship on the schools, number one if they didn't have budgets number two that they had the create some mechanism to try and raise money to support the roll out that has been imposed on them without there be any comprehensive roll out plan, so the budgetary piece of it was the problem and the equity financial (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: One of the weaknesses also was the director had mentioned is access I think it was the school's psychologist that said that there was a program that they had to use that they couldn't get to it if they're travelling all their different schools in their area they would have to come back to the office and use maybe two or three computers, at best they'd have to wait to use it or schedule time to come in input or get their (inaudible) then go back out to schools. There's a lot of waist of time on the road back and forth (inaudible) they didn't have enough money to get side license or PCs or more lap tops or whatever they needed. SPEAKER 1: That was the (inaudible) department they're very, very vocal about that they voice (inaudible) reports generating the reports they need (inaudible) reports the way is works, but it's on opportunity to -- (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: Right for additional responsibility by the time the State or the Federal Government say something they have additional responsibility but they don't have the support for (inaudible) right -- SPEAKER 1: Nobody hears them -- SPEAKER 1: One other thing -- SPEAKER 1: Okay. A couple more things and then we'll wrap up, cause I'm getting you out of here at 10:30. SPEAKER 1: One was the cultural change the principals identified for the teachers the cultural change that needed to take place, going back to again the integration piece and they, some grades of technology and again find out that they're going to have to spend a lot of time planning their lessons, working to use the programs properly and that that was a whole mind set where the teachers in changing them, that could be a threat, could be an opportunity. SPEAKER 1: Okay. Anymore from the areas and the principals that came out. SPEAKER 1: Maybe this is a weakness (inaudible) was there is no direct measure between technology and how it could effect (inaudible) and when we roll things out we don't explain that -- SPEAKER 1: Or maybe we don't know it (inaudible) -- Okay I, yes Dianne (phonetic). SPEAKER 1: Our area had a lot in regards to your nontraditional schools. A lot of it's in the minutes as far as taking an expeditor to get things done that need to be done for community schools for centers for again the nontraditional schools that we seem to focus on that K to 12 and then we see a small population and think that a lot doesn't effect the schools that are aren't K to 12, whether it be BEACON access internet out to the sites, they just see a lot of barriers they feel they need a kind of an expeditor to get things done. They also felt that there wasn't a lot of support even though we have a district license for FileMaker to use FileMaker that really wasn't supported, that EFS didn't really want the schools using FileMaker they wanted everything to come out of Virtual Counsel but the schools, you know, really like using FileMaker and see that is works they can manipulate the data, that they feel there needs to be more support there -- SPEAKER 1: And they also said that there's no mechanism to bring any creativity forward. That they thought that they were (inaudible) level, and again, you know, you do bring something forward you've got some ownership of it and (inaudible) is there to take it over and there's no funding behind it. One of the other areas was communication (inaudible) recourse but if you have got teachers coming in and out mid-year a lot of new teachers don't know about the programs and there's no way to communicate that out to them so they find that, you know -- SPEAKER 1: One of our weaknesses in our group was the fact they wanted to have basic training for all new hires. Whether it's a teacher or, you know, so they didn't care who it was (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: That's the ETS group, right? SPEAKER 1: No, no, no South Area Principals they said, south area -- SPEAKER 1: Basic training for -- SPEAKER 1: Basic training for all new hires regardless or what they're doing -- SPEAKER 1: Did they happen to mention anything about the level of training that teachers were coming out of universities with? Did that come up at all? SPEAKER 1: No -- SPEAKER 1: We did have a brief conversation on that the newer teachers tend to be more creative with technology, but it's not moving across the board. SPEAKER 1: Okay. Wait one more. Okay Phyllis, you're last (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: Okay. I read through the transcript (inaudible) one of the groups about the charter schools and I think there's still a lot of confusion, because it is for us, of what services are we supposed to provide, that they know there's a policy and I know there is interpretations of the policy, but they're feeling they're not getting services and still we have a better definition that's communicated not only to us but to the schools, the expectations that we're going to be providing things that we don't or can't will be there and so, you know, I think a better definition of what charter schools are supposed to be receiving and how we service them. SPEAKER 1: Okay. All right so we've accomplished quite a bit. What we're gonna do now is take this all back and then we're gonna get it back out to you quickly; the strengths, the weaknesses, the opportunities, the treats, the idea is -- I will try myself, and you should also taking strength and matching them up with opportunities and weaknesses and matching them up with threats and then looking at that in summary and coming forward next time with some -- we're gonna talk about our goals and objectives. It'll be focused again. We threw out a couple of ways -- I, from this session I always trying to stick with the high level obviously to me if I had to say what was the number one thing going on, it had to do with training. Training seems to be a threat; communication cross the board leadership is coming out and when I look at it overall, we really don't spend much time too much, we didn't get over burdened with money. A lot of the stuff we talked about today and what we're bringing forward has to do with what I'd say are the soft skills, you know, those are the kind of things that were coming out loud and clear (inaudible). SPEAKER 1: Money technology -- SPEAKER 1: Oh, yes, yes (inaudible) but we didn't spend to much in order -- amount of time talking about whether or not we should have this item or that item. It think it really was a much bigger picture type thing. SPEAKER 1: I think that all stakeholders the over all feeling was that let's just stop with new initiatives right now (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: Figure out, figure out what would have, how to improve it (inaudible) -- SPEAKER 1: And you know what else (inaudible) because that might very well be what the superintendent board might want to say. There was a freeze on initiatives related to technology roll outs and remember those are the kinds of things that next time you come, I want you to get your creative juices -- That's what we really need to start looking at happen is what with are the big picture things that need to be done from the overall, overall umbrella of this technology plan and then there will be detailed work after us to go through the implementation. Okay. So we're back here May 10th in this room. Thanks again Phyllis and Crystal providing it I'll make sure we have some -- any special request I think that's why they picked me for this job, not because I know anything, is that I'm out of school and can bring food. So enjoy yourself, read the notes and come back with some real solid ideas for our goals. Oh, and our tape just ran out. (END SIDE A TAPE 2)