JOINT TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE
MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING
JUNE 12, 2000
A Regular Meeting of the Joint Technology Committee was held in the Enfield Room of the Enfield Town Hall, 820 Enfield Street, Enfield, Connecticut on Monday, June 12, 2000. The meeting was called to order at 6:40 p.m.
ROLL-CALL Present were Town Council Members Scott Kaupin, Mary Lou Strom, and William Vayda and Board of Education Members Kenneth Hilinski and Nicholas Sinsigalli; Technology Coordinator, Joanne Kneiss; Director of Information Systems, Charlene Bond; Superintendent of Schools, Dr. John Gallacher; Financial Operations Manager, Patricia Brooks; JFK Principal, Timothy Neville; Town Clerk, Suzanne Olechnicki; Town Manager, Scott Shanley; Director of Finance, Gregory Simmons; Technicians, Gregg Fielding; Bruce Hargraves, Scott Radcliffe, Gerald Signorelli; Technology Teacher, Guy Bourassa.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Mr. Vayda made a motion, seconded by Mr. Sinsigalli to accept the previous meeting minutes. The vote was unanimous.
IS TRANSITION PLAN PRESENTATION
Joanne Kneiss and Guy Bourassa presented the IS Transition Plan. Ms. Kneiss stated this is the first draft of what they feel is needed for the transition plan. She stated they believe that a separate academic network for the students and the staff of Enfield Public Schools will allow them to be more flexible, and theyll be able to achieve standards of excellence by focusing on student achievement, equalization, and workforce preparedness.
Ms. Kneiss stated they feel they need to be able to support the curriculum through the tools of technology as far as reinforcing the academic concepts through the use of technology. She added theyre finding that all of the colleges are expecting students to have increased knowledge in technology, and students who have a good handle on technology as they enter college find it easier to do their work. She noted there are a lot of opportunities to be employed in the technology industries. She stated they want the students of Enfield to have optimum opportunities along these lines.
Ms. Kneiss stated there are state and federal initiatives that the schools have to be kept apprized of, i.e., the Technology Frameworks, the Connecticut Mastery test results, etc. She noted they feel responsible for the school network wiring and network maintenance initiatives. She added theyd continue to support Voice Mail and telephone issues for the Board of Education members and employees as they currently do today.
She noted in the transition format, they would assume responsibility for the WAN, along with E-mail (Outlook), student information and financial applications.
Ms. Kneiss stated there is a lot of work to be done, and they believe this needs to be done in a phased-in approach over Fiscal Years 2000-2001. She noted there are not only transition issues, but they also have technology issues as they move forward. She stated the phased-in approach would ensure that they could properly manage and adequately budget and smoothly implement this plan.
She stated they see the people they support as different classes of users. She noted students would have access to a Student Local Area Network, and this would be available in each school and will support the student population in the classrooms and laboratories. She went on to note they have faculty users who would need access to a Faculty Local Area Network that would be available in the schools. She stated administrative users need access to the Local Area Network that would service the school administrators, administrative staff and teachers within offices. She explained teachers within offices means this would not be available in any of the labs or classrooms.
Referring to network infrastructure, Ms. Kneiss stated in the transition plan they saw they need to support the servers that they have today and the servers that they would need in the future, i.e., servers to authenticate against the network, servers they could have their applications on, servers for data storage and printing, proxy server, e-mail server, and web server.
Ms. Kneiss stated theyre currently looking at their inventories, and they need time to complete that task. She noted they need a secure and accessible network physical location. She explained currently their locations are often shared and are located in rooms that are used as a conference room or rooms used by other individuals to do their work. She stated that today, their locations are not accessible at all times.
She stated one of the tasks that they need to do is the redirection of their T1 connections, and they need to establish the location where they would have their LAN, and they need the equipment to go with that. She went on to note they have personnel issues that have to be resolved, and they have system software and administrative software issues. She stated the ISP relationship and associated connections that they currently work with the town would need to be established for the school system.
Ms. Kneiss reviewed some tasks they felt were accomplishable in the next six to twelve months:
o clarification of the ownership
o the network administrator they would need to hire for the school system
o their WAN connection
- V-Lan
- servers
o internet issues
o firewall
o proxy
o web server
Ms. Kneiss stated they felt within one year theyd be able to find that secured accessible location for the network physical location, the redirection of the network connections, both the four T1 lines and the eight frame relays that they have. She stated theyd be able to set up an e-mail exchange server, and in addition to having their original server, they would need a back-up server.
She stated within two to three years, theyd have some rather expensive needs in the line of systems for an integrated financial database and a student information management system.
Ms. Kneiss stated as concerns costs, they saw several issues they needed to take care of:
o Service Level agreements
o Redirection costs
o Equipment replacement as a result of their inventory, there will be some things that will need to be replaced, and there will be additional hardware and software that will need to be purchased
o Consultation and design costs
o Personnel issues the need to hire some additional staff
o ISP arrangements
Ms. Kneiss stated her belief there should be a brainstorming session to address the following areas:
o List technical problems that have been solved
o List outstanding technical issues that need to be solved
o List any dependencies that they have for the transition
She stated as concerns resources, they should talk about the types of resources they need over the next three years to do this. She added they need dedicated full-time resources, but to get them through the initial transition, some part- time resources would probably be more efficient as well. She stated if theyre constrained by resources, they will need some alternative actions to be taken.
Ms. Kneiss stated they felt their next steps would be as follows:
o Assign tasks based on a brainstorming session
o Set the date for the next meeting
o Get more detailed costs
Ms. Kneiss stated they do have some costs, but do not feel they have a grasp at this point on any of the total costs.
Mr. Hilinski questioned who would take part in a brainstorming session. Ms. Kneiss stated her belief both the Town and Board of Education need to bring their issues together.
Mr. Hilinski questioned whether its recommended to expand the number of people who attend this meeting. Ms. Kneiss stated her belief the people "in the trenches" probably know just as well some of the issues. She stated this should be a more informal type of meeting.
Mr. Hilinski stated his understanding Year One of the transition would basically be attempting to identify which equipment is which, decide who gets what, the school system would select a central location for the school system technology base; they would work on redirecting the T1s, and they would put the hardware in place for the WAN, and the various additional servers that would be required. He noted during the first year, there would be no actual transition of any capability that would take place. He stated the school system would be putting their infrastructure in place. He went on to state his understanding that in Year Two, the school system would start to assume the responsibility for the various pieces of software that have been supported by the Town, i.e., the financial software and all the various pieces of the student information system. He stated his belief this would be a phased-in plan, i.e., they would schedule in a little more detail what system would transition at what time. He noted in Year Three, they would basically finish up whatever wasnt done in Year Two.
Mr. Hilinski stated they really need an inventory of what they have now. He noted it wouldnt be prudent to disturb those servers that are well-integrated in the system.
Mr. Shanley stated he has not yet had the opportunity to read this Transition Plan, therefore, he has no comment at this time.
Mr. Hilinski stated this presentation is the way they would like to see it go. He noted the Board of Education does not believe a 60-90 day transition, as mentioned by the consultant, is feasible.
Mr. Vayda stated he does not understand why they would want to put this off for three years. Mr. Hilinski stated they wouldnt be putting the whole transition off for three years, but rather they would get the structure in place during the first year, and actually start the transitioning in Year Two.
Mr. Kaupin questioned whether the six to twelve month task could run in conjunction with the one-year task. He stated if the answer is yes, then everything should be in place within a calendar year. Mr. Hilinski stated his belief they should transition one piece at a time.
Mr. Kaupin questioned what would be done in Year Two, and Mr. Hilinski stated theyd be transitioning the responsibility for the actual pieces of software
Mr. Kaupin raised a question about the financial system, and Ms. Bond stated her belief the financial system should be maintained at the business level by each business unit.
Mr. Kaupin questioned whether after Year One, the Board of Education will be ready to run an IT Department. Mr. Hilinski stated the structure would be in place, but they wouldnt have assumed responsibility for the various pieces as of the end of Year One. He noted they would put all of their structure and hardware in place during Year One, and at the end of Year One, theyd then be ready to start transitioning responsibility for the various pieces. He added they could work together to set out a comprehensive schedule in that the Board of Education would assume particular pieces on a particular date. Ms. Kneiss added there would also be Service Level Agreements.
Mr. Kaupin stated his belief the next step would be to supply a lot more detail as to whats in the two to three year plan. Mr. Bourassa pointed out its going to be a decision on the Administrations part as to where their focus wants to be. He stated the first year will allow them to look at a lot of systems and plan for the budget process.
Mr. Hilinski stated as part of Year One, they would plan to go forth for some funding to purchase some servers, i.e., a web server, an administrative server, a proxy server, and mail server for administration. He added hes unsure if they need an additional server for the blocking aspect as well.
Mr. Vayda stated his impression they were to start identifying these items, and hes unsure why it takes a whole year to identify that kind of information. He stated his belief the Year One activity appears pretty light, and he doesnt understand why it cant be accelerated. Mr. Hilinski responded thats not necessarily true because theyre talking about getting all the hardware and putting it in place during Year One. He stated his belief they first need to identify the equipment and identify what they have on the Town and School side. Mr. Vayda stated his belief that could have been done already by simply identifying what pieces of equipment need to be obtained so they could begin discussing what the time frame would look like. Mr. Hilinski went on to note theyre talking about a time frame of a couple months to identify the equipment and decide on the central location. He stated after that hopefully theyll settle the issue on funding and go forward to purchase and install the equipment they need. He noted they would also hire a network administrator so that they would be familiar with the hardware theyre putting on line, and the network administrator could help in planning the system.
Mr. Kaupin stated at the last meeting they came to an agreement as to how the IT functions would cooperate with each other during the transition period. He questioned if that plan would be extended over the three-year period. Mr. Hilinski responded yes, and added if they felt they needed an agreement to be put in place to do that, they could do it.
Mr. Kaupin stated his belief the Town staff needs time to digest the Transition Plan as presented by the Board of Education.
Mr. Vayda suggested at the next meeting, in addition to some supporting information, they identify what they want to accomplish relative to that supporting information.
Mr. Hilinski stated at the next meeting he would like to hear a response and feedback from the Town Manager, Ms. Bond and any of the Towns Information System people, i.e., comments, suggestions, etc. He stated his belief they can start to talk about costs, and at that point, they should have more bids from their suppliers. Mr. Kaupin suggested that pricing get to Ms. Bond ahead of time so that she can review it.
Mr. Vayda questioned how the Board of Education is progressing with the installation of administrative computers. Ms. Kneiss stated all of the machines have been received, and theyre starting to send some out to the various sites. She noted they have not yet completed the wiring, therefore, they cannot ask Ms. Bond to put them on the system until that is done. She stated they did start some training today for people who will be getting these machines, and its their plan to put them on desks even though they have not completed the wiring so that secretaries and others can do word processing or work on applications that are local to the machine. She noted all of the machines that the Council gave them LOCIP monies for have been received, and right now the desktops have been ghosted, but the laptops have not as yet. Mr. Vayda clarified nothing has been connected to the network, and Ms. Kneiss indicated thats correct. Mr. Vayda questioned when the wiring will be completed, and Ms. Kneiss responded within a month.
Mr. Kaupin questioned if theyre ready to identify issues that need to be resolved and assign tasks for the transition. Ms. Kneiss stated her belief they need a good working type of meeting. Mr. Hilinski stated his belief this sounds like a separate meeting between the Town and School IS Departments so that they can get the technical problems out on the table. He added he does not necessarily see that as being a Joint Technology
Committee meeting. He added Joint Technology Committee members could attend. He went on to state his belief the next Joint Technology Committee meeting would involve getting feedback from this presentation, and they can talk about any of the more global issues that the Town might see.
It was decided to wait on setting the next meeting until the Town staff has had an opportunity to digest this presentation.
Mr. Hilinski suggested Ms. Bond get in touch with the consultant to see when they will be ready to give their final presentation.
ADJOURNMENT
Mr. Shanley made a motion, seconded by Mr. Sinsigalli to adjourn.
The vote was unanimous, and the meeting stood adjourned at 7:27 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jeannette Lamontagne
Secretary to the Council
By Suzanne F. Olechnicki
Suzanne F. Olechnicki
Town Clerk
Clerk of the Council