Thanks, Bill,
 
I'd like to see the info that was presented to the superintendents.
 
Steve 

________________________________

From: School Information Technology Discussion on behalf of Romond, Bill
Sent: Wed 6/13/2007 10:49 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Statewide K-12 Data Network



I will describe the RFP briefly here, and will be happy to discuss it
with anyone interested. I'd only ask that people understand the concept
behind the RFP before making judgments about it. It IS a big project,
but Vermont schools deserve to have equitable access to broadband, which
is what the project is intended to address. It is described as a "data"
network to be clear that it addresses movement of "packets" rather than
analog voice transmission. What it proposes to do is address broadband
access for schools, NOT take over any information or data systems.

There is an equity issue in terms of broadband accessibility in Vermont,
and many of our schools are subject to that inequity. At the same time,
as you know, the climate for broadband development in Vermont is
improving and we hope this project will be able to take advantage of
that climate. With the emergence of the Telecommunications Authority,
Vermont may now be in a position to improve broadband access for
schools.

The RFP that folks have referred to is one that Commissioner Cate and
the Chief Information Officer, Tom Murray, described conceptually to the
superintendents at their spring conference last month. The project is
also supported in concept by the Technology Committee of the Vermont
Superintendents Association which has discussed this idea with us over
the past year. I've also described the concept behind this and our
intent to release this RFP at meetings around the state including the
technology planning session in March and at the bi-monthly meetings with
the technology coordinators/integrators in the Northwest.  The idea
behind the RFP is that schools and districts in Vermont are essentially
on their own when purchasing bandwidth and other technology services
like filtering. At the same time Vermont ranks near the bottom in terms
of accessing E-Rate dollars. The idea behind the RFP is to allow
schools/districts to purchase bandwidth together through a collaborative
and also offer, as optional services, spam/content filtering, and
e-mail. The entity responsible for implementing this would apply for
E-Rate on behalf of those participating schools and would therefore
remove that burden from schools. Note that the schools would elect to
join this cooperative. Therefore it will only work if it can, in fact,
improve services to schools.

Projects that are very much like this one have been successfully
implemented in a number of other states. Success in Vermont depends on
whether, in fact, we can find a way to collaborate and coordinate in
order to purchase services. If schools can do better through such a
collaborative then they will volunteer to join it.

Please feel free to send along questions and I'll do my best to answer.
I'm happy to send anyone the information that was given to
superintendents as an attachment but I hesitate to attach something to a
listserv message.


Bill Romond
Educational Technology Coordinator
Vermont Department of Education
120 State Street
Montpelier, VT 05620-2501

802-828-0064

[log in to unmask]


Educational Technology Coordinator
Vermont Department of Education
120 State Street
Montpelier, VT 05620-2501
802-828-0064
[log in to unmask]


-----Original Message-----
From: School Information Technology Discussion
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ed Barry
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 7:44 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Statewide K-12 Data Network

School Information Technology Discussion <[log in to unmask]> on
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 7:29 AM -0500 wrote:
>That link did not work. 
>
>I would be very interested in knowing the details, since some grandiose
>ideas have been floated before and gone nowhere.  There are always
>problems with a "one size fits all" solution,  and I am very concerned
>with the issues of who owns the data, how the data is formatted, how
>flexible the tool is, and accessibility, not to mention expense.


My sense is before we start making judgements on this we really should
wait and see if we can get some facts and a rationalle.  It would be
nice
to get a simple "Fact Sheet" or "Overview" on what this is really
looking
to do.

Ed


Ed Barry
Director of Information Technology Services
Milton Town School District
42 Herrick Avenue
Milton, VT  05468
(802)893-3210  FAX 893-3227



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