District Administration - July/August 2011 - (Page 58)

Finding the Right Purchasing solution solution. Out of 438 full-time employees, 164 completed the survey. The district plans to send out a follow-up survey after a year of using the new system to gauge its success. “This was the first time that we used this formal evaluation process,” says Matt Rodosky, the district’s technology and finance director. “Since then, we also used this methodology for selecting a data warehouse and upgrading our absence and substitute management system. It’s hard to get people to join a committee, so we’ve found that a survey is the best way to get feedback from all stakeholders involved.” Competitive Phase The process of identifying the most important requirements helps to narrow the field of vendors by eliminating products that don’t meet the needs of the district. “When we started the process of considering projectors, we had a list of 54 models,” says Scrogan. “As we developed our list of requirements most important to us, the list shortened to 13.” Then the final step can begin, where a district discriminates between vendors in this smaller group in a “competitive phase” using a variety of methods. “In this phase, we call vendors in for in-person demonstrations, call references at other districts, conduct a ‘shootout’ between candidates, and eventually get to competitive bidding to get the best price out of the final list,” says Scrogan. “The longer you wait in the process to decide on the specific vendor and product, the better,” Cator advises. “Technology changes so fast, you want the final decision to be as close to the actual purchase time as possible.” In the Linwood schools, Pileiro says the competitive process can include additional research beyond the product itself. “Particularly if we’re considering a brand-new technology, we research the financial health of the company, see how their sales are, what the stock price is. We might sit back for months or a year to see how they do, because you don’t want to be in a situation where you buy a lot of something and the company suddenly goes out of business,” he says. 58 July/August 2011 Students in the Recovery (La.) School District work on the reading curriculum software the district recently purchased and implemented throughout its schools. Consider Solutions Already in Place ADministrAtors shoulDn’t only look outsiDe their Districts for something new when researching possible products or technology to purchase; solutions can sometimes be found in unexpected places. “When we get a request to purchase something new, such as curriculum software, we do a thorough examination of what we already have to make sure we don’t duplicate functionality,” says roderick matthews, director of information technology in the recovery school District in new orleans. “that happens a lot, where teachers and employees might not be aware of all the features of products we’re already using and request something new, but when we look into it, we show them how to do what they’re asking for using an existing product. We’ve saved a lot of money by researching and being very familiar with what we already have, and essentially preventing the same products from being purchased over and over.” the recovery district went through this internal research process recently in considering new laptops for elementary students. “We did the research and found that the older laptops used by our high school students had all the functionality we were looking for at the elementary level,” says matthews. “so we gave them to the elementary students and instead bought new computers for the high schools, using what we already had and saving a lot of money.” this phenomenon illustrates further the importance of products having an intuitive user interface, as well as districts having quality professional development and clear communication. “the reason some functionality is not utilized is that it may not appear to be helpful to staff,” explains Bailey mitchell, chief technology and information officer in the forsyth county (ga.) schools for the past 13 years, and chair of the executive committee for the consortium of school networking (cosn). “educators will use the intuitive part of a product but stop short if the complexity of the product consumes extra time that most teachers and administrators simply don’t have.” Patricia haughney, director of information services in the Barrington (ind.) 220 school District, agrees. “since most staff members are building-focused, they’re not always aware of solutions that might already be in use throughout the district,” she says. she stresses the importance not only of professional development but of communication, and her it department has started sending out quarterly newsletters about technology initiatives to keep staff better informed, and has made sure to involve representatives from every school on the technology committee. “it’s easy for our department to get so caught up in what we’re doing,” haughney says, “that we forget that not everyone has the same expertise or knowledge of what’s going on in the district as a whole.” District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - July/August 2011

District Administration - July/August 2011
Contents
From the Editor
News Update
Facilities News
Inside the Law
District Profile
Administrator Profile
The Social Media Dilemma
Is Year-Round Schooling on Track?
After 50 Years, Ethnic Studies Still Controversial
Finding the Right Purchasing Solution
Look, Listen, Learn
Research Center
Supervisor’s Opinion
Going Mobile
Superintendent’s Insight
Books
Product Focus
New Products
Online Edge

District Administration - July/August 2011