There I was in March 2012, trying to defend my job. After fifteen years of coordinating technology for a school district, there was a "budget crisis" The school board asked me to come in to explain just what I did. The superintendent has already proposed cutting 65% of my job.
"After all," one of the school board members told me, "everything runs smoothly, so what are you needed for?"
I brought only one piece of paper with me to the meeting. It was this diagram:
I explained all the different "hats" I wore keeping technology running for such a small district. Things ran smoothly because I was there in the background doing what needed to be done - running updates, doing backups, preparing budgets. I'm not the kind of computer person who would sits back and do nothing, waiting for a crisis to strike. Once there was a problem, I could charge in and fix it and be a hero. No I quietly kept the crisis from happening in the first place.
But still I tried to explain all the areas that I supported:
Teaching and Learning
- Educational Software
- Curriculum Integration
- Instructional Technology Research
- Staff Development
- Web-Based Resources and Instruction
Desktop Support
- Equipment Purchasing and Allocation
- Ergonomics and furniture
- Software Licensing
- Help-Desk Support
- Equipment Repairs
- Virus Protection
- Maintenance and Upgrades
Budget and Planning
- Technology Planning
- Budgeting
- Evaluatoin
- Grants
- E-rat Applications
Administrative Computing
- Processing Grades and Student Records
- Human Resources
- Business Operations
- Document Imaging and Management
Network Operations
- Network Infastructure
- User Management
- E-Mail System Management
- Backup Procedures
- Remote Management
- Intranet Management
Ultimately, my job was cut and I took a full-time job at Longwood School District.
It has now been three years since I left that district. That small district has now hired five people to do what I did... so much for cost savings. Not all the positions are full-time, but I really wonder what that school board was thinking.
I have continued to work to support Education in Technology. First as a Network Technician for Longwood School District. I worked in two elementary school and an Junior High School, but I focused solely on hardware and network issues. I missed the"instructional" side of things. I missed teaching Google Docs to forth, fifth and sixth graders. I missed instructing the teachers on how to use Google Sheets to teach math.
BOCES offered me a job supporting the teachers so I moved to BOCES last year. It is nice to work with so many teachers, but I do miss being in a classroom. All in all I'm pretty lucky to be able to work in a job that I love. And despite setbacks, I get to keep doing it.
More later....
Kim Cronin
and yes... my name changed from Bunchuck...
