District 228 Steps Up Its Technology Game

As technology evolves around the world, is doing its best to keep up.

Over the last seven years, the district has made improvements in all four of its schools and plans to continue advancements were on display at the District's Board of Education meeting Tuesday, July 19, at Bremen High School.

According to Curtiss Strietelmeier, Director of Educational Technology for the district, 228 has upgraded its entire network, upgraded the phone system, replaced every computer in the district at least once, instituted server visualization, and completed a total upgrade on the operating system used by every district computer.

All while cutting one million dollars from the budget over the same time period.

“When I started there were some really big projects that had to be done,” Strietelmeier said, “So what you've seen is over the last five to seven years, we've gotten through those projects.

“Another thing we've done is we used to buy brand new hardware, now we're buying refurbed [refurbished] hardware. So basically the machines are a year old already, but I'm getting a five-year warranty on them so I'm still getting a great lifespan out of them, but I'm saving $400, $500 a machine because they're referbs.”

Plans for the 2011-2012 school year include:

• 20 new, interactive white boards
• replacement of all non-warranty computers in the Instructional Media Centers and computer labs throughout the district
• integration of iPads for staff members
• updates to the security systems, the wireless network at all four schools and another update to the operating system used within the district.

The initial iPad experiment, which will see 60 units distributed to district Pupil Personnel Services staff, is intended to ease both student interaction with deans and guidance counselors and to make records more accessible to staff outside of their offices.

“The idea is that, say [a student] can't always come in to a dean or a counselor, they're going to take their iPad with all the information on it and sit down in the lunchroom or somewhere that's more comfortable,” Strietelmeir said.

He added that thanks to grants secured by the district office, the iPads were of little initial cost to the district and that should the experiment not work out for whatever reason, little money will be lost.

“So far, not many district funds are invested in these, other than grant funds,” he said. “So if it doesn't fly, no real loss. But, if it goes great, at least we have some pilot out there and people who will be comfortable with them.”

After the presentation, the board heard from Dave Corbin, Director of Educational Support Services, who spoke of the current building upgrades happening within the district. Among them, a new roof for , parking lot maintenance throughout the district and pipe replacement at .

Afterwards, the board unanimously approved every item on the agenda before adjourning. The next District 228 Board of Education meeting is scheduled for Tinley Park High School on Tuesday, Aug. 16, at 7 p.m.