Dear Editor:
I wish to respond to your editorial of March 26 regarding Gilroy
Unified School District technology.
Dear Editor:
I wish to respond to your editorial of March 26 regarding Gilroy Unified School District technology.
I concur with most of your analysis, especially your statements that “installation and configuration do not guarantee usage” and “the need to become more realistic about the true cost of information ownership.” I want to emphasize that the major obstacles to the “reliability” of our district technology are NOT hardware and software issues, but are precisely the ones you highlighted: training and support.
I disagree with your suggestion of “fundamental flaws and misconceptions in the district’s overall technology goals.” Close reading of our Master Plan clearly identifies our priorities, strategies and timeline in setting standards for technology staff development and providing systematic training for all staff.
While I appreciate the hard work that Mr. Van Herk has contributed to improving our Web site, I would hardly characterize the prior state of that site as “derelict” or “obsolete.”
District Network Engineer Leo Oliver made some dramatic improvements to the Web site in the short time he was responsible for it (although he was only able to devote 10 percent of his time to that task). Prior to that, we were fortunate to have the volunteer efforts of Mr. Jan Froom to assist us in maintaining the district Web page as well as mentor the school site Web masters. He did the best he could with the limited influx of information that was forwarded to him. Mr. Van Herk continues to face the same problem of adequate input of information to post, especially at the level of schools and classrooms.
Finally, I would like to cast my vote for the two people I would most hope would avoid being “hit by a bus:” District Network Engineer Leo Oliver and our Desktop Support Specialist Mr. Jim Fletcher.
These two are responsible for maintaining – and expanding – our data and telecommunications network as well as responding to support requests from over 1000 staff members and servicing nearly 2000 computer workstations.
David Pribyl , Gilroy
Submitted Thursday, March 27 to ed****@ga****.com
