Holy Redeemer School Board

HR School Board

Technology Committee

August 13, 2008

PROGRESS NOTES

(Revised)

1. Choose a school Internet filter and obtain best price.

Progress: St. Bernard M1200 appliance with a 175 seat license, 3 year term, purchased. Discounted to $5,700 from retail price. Task completed.

2. Selecting a local computer company to maintain HR computers.

Progress: BrightLine Technology selected. Task completed.

3. Computer Room upgrade: 32 new computers Task Completed.

Pendergast Foundation Grant: $10,000

Men’s Club Grant: 5,000

Private Funding: 5,000

4. Software Donation: Task completed:

50ea. Microsoft Office 2007 $365.00/copy

50ea. Microsoft Office 2003 Server Client Access Licenses $36.00/copy

1ea. Microsoft Windows Server Enter Ed 2003 Server License$2,900/copy

50ea. Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium $49.00/copy

Total Estimated Street Price of Software $25,400.00

Hitch: The only request is that HR switches to LIVE.COM as default.

Bonus: Microsoft will send a check for about $1,200 to Tech Committee

5. Computers (1) per classroom - 8th thru pre-k. Task completed.

6. SMART BOARDS

SMART Board 600i; interactive whiteboard system; adjustable mount board with built in projector; Senteo interactive response system; SynchronEyes classroom management software.

Task completed: McDonald Charities awarded a grant totaling $15,700, for the purchase of SMART boards and projectors classrooms. Steve Caton to install.

7. WebSite

In Progress: A2Z Ware Contract

The Technology Committee has selected a "Community Web Application" for Holy Redeemer's new web-site for the parish and school. The Tech Committee has looked at numerous options, including schoolwires.com, memberclicks.com, connectingmembers.com and other possibilities. We have chosen A2Z Ware because of: (1) the web-site's options, (2) the ability to cut costs with HR volunteer labor (from the Tech Committee members); and (3) the overall cost.

For a similar website, please click on St. Justin the Martyr: http://www.stjustinmartyr.org/community/

The Tech Committee recommends the "Managed Option" contract. This contract is significantly less than the market average of upwards of $5,000 for similar websites. The A2Z software includes web hosting, Calendar and Reservation component, News component, Contacts component, Documents component, Photos component, Academic Core component, Gradebook compononet (not mandatory), and homework component. It also includes pages for Alumni, Visitors, Parish Organizations, and Marketing information that has been discussed earlier. And it is easier to use that Microsoft's "FrontPage" software.

HR's website would be similar to the St. Justin website, with modifications for HR's colors (red and white), and other unique HR info.

In order to begin, the website company (A2Z Ware) needs a signed contract and payment within 30 days of installation.

School Goals:

1. Elimination of Thursday envelope - scanner and e-mail

2. Online classroom notes, grades, assignments, and updates

3. Parents as on-line Teaching Partners

4. Increased communications between parents and teachers

5. Phone Book and Directory

6. Parish and School Activity Communication

Parish Goals:

1. Marketing school and parish to new families (static info)

2. Usable by parish - community building

3. Organizations make updates to website

4. Expandable

8. Internet and Cable in each classroom: Task Completed.

9. Accelerated Reading Program

Task Completed:

Purchase the Hosted Service.

First Year Total Cost: $3,799 – paid by private donation

Second Year Total Cost: $1,400 – paid by private donation

Each Subsequent Year Cost: $1,400

First year cost about $15.20 per student. Each subsequent year, the cost will be a subscription fee of about $5.60 per student per year.

Program administrators: Meg Clarke and Lisa Mueller

Purchase the full-scale Enterprise Edition, with all the hosting done at the Accelerated Reader site. Students may work at school or at home, or from any internet connection. This program includes:

Special Reports: allowing parents to get involved. All quizzes, recorded voice quizzes (younger students), vocabulary quizzes, and literacy skills.

Star Reading Assessment Tool. This will pinpoint exactly each student's reading level. All students will therefore be continually challenged to improve their reading. Strong readers will be challenged and struggling readers won't be overwhelmed.

10. School and Parish Computer Maintenance

Task Completed: Brite Line Computers has been hired on a monthly basis (16 hours) to fix problems, perform preventative maintenance and become familiar and competent with HR technology.

11. New School Server

Brandon submitted an informal estimate of approx. $4K to buy a new server. The Tech Committee asked for an detailed estimate for a new server and also an estimate to patch the existing servers. Both bids can then be considered.

Currently the school has 2 servers, both were donated several years ago and were used. The servers are Pentium 3, SCSI, and have very limited storage: 40 Gb internal, and 300 Gb USB external on the other. They are starting to frequently show warning lights for various parts (RAM, SCSI cards, etc. ) on start-up. None of this is currently archived in any way, which is not an issue yet because it’s not storing any critical info.

A new server would be significantly faster, more reliable, and would have built-in redundancy and back up tape drive. It would replace all current servers serving the parish and school.

Any new server should have extra drive bays so that we can install new larger hard drives and ditch the external drive. We should also upgrade RAM (both hard drives and RAM are dirt cheap right now).

I doubt HR needs a tape drive’s storage capacity. Tape drives can be temperamental. A DL DVD drive may serve as a more affordable alternative. Brandon’s not sure if back-up software will recognize a DVD burner.

To conclude, Brandon is raising valid concerns.

Greg Mueller

August 13, 2008

Top of Page

Attendance: Fr. Mike Murphy, Mr. Schiefelbein, Dan Appelbaum, Corky Bahr, Mary Byrne,

-Mr. Schiefelbein reported that the teacher orientation started today. The teachers met at 8am mass. They then reviewed handbooks and participated in accelerated reading training for an hour. There are eight more training sessions that need to be completed before the accelerated reading program can be started, so there is no official start date yet. The teachers are committed to implementing the program. They also did some goal setting for the year. In 2005, the teachers assisted in writing a 5-7 year school improvement plan. The plan focused on three areas: Catholic Identity, Institutional Ideas, and Educational Issues. It was not looked at last year, so the faculty is now trying to look at it again and decide what they should focus on for the year. They also discussed a program called Culture of Kindness which is an anti-bullying program that the PTO has agreed to fund. The program will be presented to students, faculty, and parents. A date has not yet been set.

-Mr. Schiefelbein also reported that the SMART Boards are in and staff training is scheduled for Sept. 12. The training will be done by Schillers and was paid for by an anonymous grant. Cable is also being hooked back up. There is a one-time hook-up fee, but no monthly fees. It will provide additional educational material for the teachers and students. The SMART Boards are hooked up to the internet, but not cable. We may need TVs and wall mounts for the classrooms in the future, which might be something that the grant committee can ask for.

-There will only be a starting bell and an end of day bell. A bell will not ring throughout the day to signal change of class.

Fr. Mike reported that he hired a new CRE. Her name is Pat Maloney. She came from St. Gerard and has worked in the Catholic schools both as a full-time and part-time teacher. She will coordinate PSR for HR, as well as prepare the day school children for the sacraments and help with school masses. She will also teach the safe-touch program. She will be a part-time employee and will work Wednesday, 1/2 day Thursday and Friday.

Greg Mueller reported that the school may need a new server. There are two options available; one being a patch to the system, and the other, a brand new server. The parish has a signed web application contract. The website will allow for individual classroom information to be posted, as well as, individual parish organization information. Each teacher/organization will be responsible for updating their information. Security may be an issue if a lot of people have access to changing their information. This will be addressed with the host company. The site should be up and running in 60 days. The tech committee will do the initial organization of it.

-Dan Appelbaum addressed the two vacant positions on the board. The board agreed that the next highest vote winners in the spring election should be offered the positions. Therefore, Cathy Barry and Ben Witte will be contacted by Dan Appelbaum.

-It was decided that Dan Appelbaum will remain as president of the School Board. Sue Dreyer will be Vice president. Mary Byrne will be the secretary.

-Ted Gerard agreed to represent the school board at the Finance Council. The next Finance meeting is Oct. 22.

-The school crossing guard retired and we presently do not have a guard. A notice will be put in the bulletin that we are looking for a volunteer for the position. It requires about 30 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon to assist students across Lockwood. It was suggested that the eighth grade students could do this job, but was decided that safety was an issue.