An elementary school student points at a broken Chromebook as the Tech Director holds the device.

We sat down with a California-based Information Systems Specialist to discuss how his team manages purchasing, upkeep, and repair of devices throughout the 20 sites in the district. His school district is in a primarily agricultural area and has around 16,900 students within their 16 elementary schools and four junior highs.

With over 20,000 devices deployed, this team juggles repair, constant device updates, end-of-life procedures, and the purchasing of new Chromebooks. Although they’re busy, bumping between the many sites within the district, you can tell through this Information Systems Specialist’s enthusiastic voice that he and his team truly have an unwavering passion for supporting the community through technology.

Read about his typical day, the software that keeps technology in his district organized, and more, by reading our Q&A below.



Can you tell us a little about the Information Technology team at your school district?

I lead a team of about six. We have 20 sites, and each site has, what used to be a Lab Technician, now appropriately a Site Technician. We have a team that focuses on network-related stuff like switches, there’s one main network administrator, two field technicians that rotate in as part of that team, and  a small team dedicated to student information and database type stuff. 

I’m the guy that stays at the site for field support so I don’t lose touch with that classroom environment, then I also try to do technology purchasing recommendations, as well as participate in our in-house repairs for Chromebooks.



How many devices are currently deployed and how does repair work in your district?

I’m going to guess our district has 20,000+ Chromebooks and iPads. 

Some days I might have as many as 20 Chromebook repairs a day. Other days, it may just be a handful - 1 to 3. It varies, but the typical repairs are broken headphone jacks, missing keys, broken screens are pretty popular, and touchpad issues. Every once in awhile you’ll get something that is actually physically damaged. Right now, it’s a lot of batteries on our older, 2nd generation Chromebooks. We have batteries that are not holding a charge or starting to swell. With iPads, we usually try to make sure they have a good protection case, but somehow the iPads still manage to get damaged. 



Tell us about your device deployment method.

We have a pilot program with about 800 devices that includes multiple grade levels from 1st - 8th. We’re sending the devices home with the students, and they can check out a wireless hotspot if they don’t have a reliable wireless connection. iPads are usually kindergarten through first grade, unless you have that rockstar Apple teacher that thinks that they can make an impact with students in a higher grade level. 



What is your district preparing for throughout the Chromebook lifecycle?

Since we do our repairs internally, we are trying to balance age with the Google update end-of-life. For example Acer C720s hit update expiration in July 2019. We don’t 100% know what that means. Our main goal is compatibility with state testing. I can’t guarantee that after the state testing software moves over to a different version, that any of those Chromebooks will be able to support it. We are maintaining what we have now, but in a limited way. One thing that we don’t really know is if Google will press every model on the software expiration date given or if they are going to give us a little leeway, like “we don’t have to support it, but we will”. That is a concern we have with the 720s right now. Typically the Chromebook would just update, but now I’m seeing a message that says “This is the last update this device is going to get”.

* In November 2019, Google extended the auto-update expiration dates upwards of two years, based on the device. Read about this change and find out if your Chromebooks were on the list here.



When you are researching which Chromebook your district is going to deploy next, what do you look for?
I’ve been doing a lot  of research in looking for our next Chromebook and, for example, if we pick a Chromebook like Acer C771 because of it’s rocking processor, the Google auto-update expiration is in 2023. I have a hard time making a recommendation on that because we have a guaranteed 2-3 more years out of the device. My goal is to get the expected life of a textbook out of the devices we deploy. That’s the comparison I like to make - about 5-7 years out of each device. We do our best to do that. 



What types of software does your team utilize?

I like to use Gopher for Chrome. It’s a spreadsheet add-in that is super slick. We get the whole Gopher Pack where it gives us tools like user and tool management. I love that tool. It’s a big improvement from the big ugly spreadsheets we used in the past. Another project I’m fine tuning and putting the final touches on is using our library software Follett Destiny, which will  be a resource manager to track all of the assets. Business has their own fixed asset inventory, but it doesn’t scale well and isn’t very user-friendly, so moving toward a more dedicated inventory software to keep track of all these devices was needed. 



What does a normal day look like?

My day varies, but I would say that a typical day starts by reviewing my emails. Sometimes I think I’ll never get out of here if I just do that. If I’m sitting at my desk reading emails, then I’m not out in the field getting things fixed, so typically I start out with that, then we use a Help Desk software called Jitbit. The reason why I like it is because we are a Google District and Jitbit supports Google Single Sign-on. When someone logs in with Google, Jitbit grabs their credentials and their Google login, so they don’t have to have a separate login to submit a ticket. Our ticketing system was dated before and teachers couldn’t log in to create a work order, so that’s another really cool thing we’ve done to make the end-user support go smoother. Once I see what tickets are assigned to me, then go through whatever parts I need to bring to the sites, and do the repairs in the field as much as possible. 



You have a wide range of repair responsibilities. Are there specific people within your department that just do Chromebook repair?

We thought about having a bench tech to do all the Chromebooks, but no one wants to do that. We all just do our own part and process them and turn them around as fast as possible. Me, I’m fond of not bringing them back to the office, but rather doing them at the site because things seem to not get as lost that way. You spend all the time documenting where everything is going, then you lose a bunch of time. Is it worth it?



Other than Chromebooks, what other technology do you have in your district?
Most of our clerical and admin staff have desktops. We do have a few surviving computer labs. Of the 20 computer labs, we have around 10 left. In the junior highs we have labs with module-based desktop PCs for the Industrial Technology and Life Skills classes. Then all the teachers have a district-issued laptop. At one point we were deploying teacher iPads, but found that not all teachers were going to utilize them, so we now deploy them based on the intended use. 



What is your favorite part about your role?
I’m a problem solver, so that’s what I like most about my role. I also like being able to support the community in some sort of way by keeping the devices and equipment maintained for all the students. The biggest impact to instructional minutes is having someone on site making sure everything is in working condition. When I can fix something remotely, it’s great, but when I show up at a site I feel more hands-on. On Friday, for example, I was on site all day doing small things and people came up to me and said “Hey, you’re here, can I ask you about something?” I’m not one of the people that are like “No, I don’t have a work order, we’ll have to create you one and get you next week.” That’s just not my style. I feel like I’m more valuable being on site, but then again, I’m here to support my team, so I can pull back and work on bigger picture stuff, which is fun. 


If you’re interested in learning more about implementing technology into the classroom, read our blog here!