K12 Technology Summers

Ever wonder what a tech department for K-12 does all summer. FREAKING WORK! We stay busy with various projects, updates and tasks. Here is our summers

1. Summer 2011 (please remember, there are only 10-12 people total do these things. This is in addition to typical work orders which usually drop to 75% of our end of the year daily average.)
• Change out our imaging and desktop management software
• means re-imaging labs and libraries (2000+ devices)
• pushing apps
• Change out our help desk software
• redesign layout
• change categories (hardware, software, blah blah)
• add/modify required fields (name, phone, etc)
• anything else that needed to be visited
• test the thing
• re-write rules for assignment of work orders
• re-train staff
• Pick up all local printers (yeah, we are going to be popular next year)
• change out our hardware web load balancing appliance and ssl box
• Upgrade vmware esxi to 4.1 on 8 nodes. Rolling upgrade
• fix veeam backups due to change of ip...grrr
• change out backup software
• e911 configuration and setup
2. 2010
• open a renovated school -- fyi renovations suck. reusing parts and pieces from before is ok, but sometimes it adds labor, the wonderful hidden cost. Materials go down, labor goes up.
• site visits to locate technology pathways
• work with GC to find solutions to interesting challenges. It is amazing what is on the as-builts versus what is actually in the wall/ceiling.
• open 3 partial renovations and changed schools. Almost worse than a fully renovated. Frankenbastard schools for both cabling and physical infrastructure. Have to do some calculations...if we do it 100% right it'll cost x. if we do the way they meets code, but isn't so pretty, it cost x/2 or x/4. How long will this have to work? 1 year, 2, 3...5, 10? closer it gets to the bigger number is the closer to 100% right.
• clean up lingering AD migration from 2009 items
• share permissions & layout
• email archives
• Upgrade 3000 switches OS to support SSH and current code. Not hard, but requires some attention
3. 2009 -- almost the death of me and my group. Never again.
• Migrate from eDir to AD and Groupwise to Exchange
• prep work with the contractor doing the move. Contractor was successful. Took care of our issues generally. Nothing is perfect, but the issues were acceptable. Plus, I know what 2 items i missed in my RFP. Damn. More GPOs.
• Actually move all items. This was done over a 2 week period. Pretty much threw a switch for about 3500 accounts. Friday you have Groupwise. Monday you have Exchange. email will back fill. Important people's email moved first, obviously -- like mine!
• Open several new schools
• 1-1 high school (yes, my group did all the items below except where noted)
• manage all cabling installation
• Includes data, fiber, Teacher AV, outside plant fiber...
• Vendor did the cabling, switch mounting, & AP installs
• install & document switches
• deliver, image, and install 1000 computers
• Teacher station
• student stations
• install ip phones
• configure, design and implement wireless for 1-1
• open renovated ES (see above for how much of a pain these are)
• Assist with Business and Student information systems change
• Install servers
• Deploy BIS and SIS apps on workstations as selected

So, summers are usually filled with projects. The only consistency is change.