Staff and Students,
This past summer Mr. Dupras and I completed a number of different projects in the building. While most of what we did will go unnoticed, improvements were made to our technology infrastructure. Thanks to a grant from the state of Indiana, we were able to get two new servers to take the place of our aging servers. This was needed as our previous servers were seven years old and very outdated. One of the servers houses our Mobile Device Manager which allows us to keep inventory of our iPads as well as to communicate with them for password resets, lost iPads, and much more. The other server has been set up as a new Open Directory (allows us to manage network users), DHCP server (assigns IP Addresses to each device on the network), and DNS server (allows for exchange of data with Internet…essentially gives us access to Internet).
Another essential update we made this summer was to upgrade the firmware on our wireless router. This should help to improve connecting throughout the building, especially with new devices. We also updated our web filter towards the end of last year as well as the software on our firewall. All of this was done in addition to configuring each and every iPad for the upcoming school year.
We purchased iPad Air 2s this year for our 6th grade students. iPad Airs are no longer sold by Apple. These were purchased with grant money from the state of Indiana. There is no guarantee we will be able to purchase new iPads next year. Currently 6th grade has iPad Air 2s, 7th grade has iPad Airs, and the rest of the school has iPad 3s. We have phased out all iPad 2s this year as they will not longer be acceptable to use with state testing.
All iPads were distributed the first week of school. All iPads were wiped and reconfigured in the summer which should’ve fixed any software or iOS issues; however, hardware issues that are not visible would not be fixed as a part of this process. Students having issues should fill out support tickets.
Insurance form and Acceptable Use Policies were on the same sheet this year. Payments are to be made to the business office.
Thank you,
Mr. Smith