Hello and thank you for joining us today. My name is Sean. I am your host for the K-12 tech podcast. I also have Mike Hotseller with me and John Molnar from Cranston Local Schools. He is the tech director there.
Today we are going to be discussing what it looks like as far as preparing for the next school year and what a tech director has to go through to do that. So, John, if you want to introduce yourself and give a quick background of who you are and how you got to where you’re at, then we’ll go from there.
Sure. Thanks, Sean, yup. My name is John Molnar. I’m the tech director at some local schools. We’re up in Ohio, Georgia County, actually near the lake. And this would be my 14th year, 15th year in education, and my eighth year now at Kent State School.
So as you can imagine, we’ve seen so much change over the time. But right now, the big thing is Chromebooks and 1 to 1. And making sure all of our students have that technology far different from when I first started, when we only had computers in labs and students didn’t have that much access to those, you know, you had to schedule them and get to them. And now they have it constantly. So, yeah, that’s my background. And then as, as we’re kind of talking about summer, so, you know, we start preparing for summer probably a few months ago.
And what happens now is, you know, we look at end of the year stuff, so so our daily held tickets tend to go down the normal operation of, hey, just making sure everything’s working and helping the students out and the teachers out. That tends to fade away as is they’re focused on some other things. And we begin preparing for know we collect our Chromebooks and some of the grade doubles, some of the other grade doubles take them home and then we start looking for the summer because our jobs completely change when summer hits, we go from, you know, doing a lot more, a lot of daily support right now in operations, kind of keeping the lights on to looking back and saying, you know, what worked this year? What didn’t? What can we improve on? And then, you know, what do we got to upgrade to make sure that everything that we’re we’re supporting during the school year is ready to go and causing the least amount of impact during the school year? So we meet with the principals, we meet with some of the other building personnel. Some teachers go over what’s coming down the line in terms of curriculum, any changes we have to worry about our books, and integration for students and teachers.
And then we also look at projects like we’ll be looking not this summer, but I think next summer, you know, our wireless and our infrastructure, the things that that people don’t really see. But that’s really what keeps everything working. And we have to make sure that that we have that up to par updated and no dead areas because it’s just an expectation now that anywhere you go, you’re going to be connected. So, you know, over the summer, we’re going to do some you know, we usually start out we hire some students over the summer to help us and kind of learn. But, you know, we start from some basic stuff is kind of you cleaning out computers in classrooms, doing some inventory checks, making sure we know what’s available, what’s not. We tend to send the kids around each classroom.
They blow out the computers, make sure the computers are up to date. You know, our records match what’s out there still? And then from there, you know, we start expecting shipments of Chromebooks. We should be getting about 700 to 800 Chromebooks this summer. There’s a lot.
That they have at the school right now.
So currently there is about. There’s about 2500 students, a little more than that right now. So they each have their own Chromebook for 1 to 1 K through 12 and then all the teachers have access to a Chromebook as well. So we’re roughly between 20 803,000 Chromebooks because we do have some spares, some extras on the shelf on the students right there.
So so you replace about 30% of those then over the summer?
Yeah. Our job our replacements cycle right now is first grade, fifth grade in ninth grade. Get new Chromebooks at those grade levels and then they are expected to keep those for the next four years. Then they trade them in currently our fifth grade through 12th grade. Keep them or I’m sorry, fifth through 11th grade, take them home. Except the exception would be eighth grade because they turn them in right now. And then in ninth grade, the first day of school, they’ll get their new Chromebook, and then K through four, turn their Chromebooks in.
And you know, there’s a lot that goes with that. When they do turn them in, you have to collect them all, go through them all. And then, you know, as summer winds down and you’re getting ready for the next school year, we have to come up with our plan, how we’re going to distribute it back to the students. And there’s a lot of organizing, and alphabetizing. Then you got to find out which classroom they’re going to be in and have that set up, make sure everything’s in place so that when day one comes, you know, a lot of the expectation is day one, they’re joining their Google classrooms and they’re off and running.
So that’s another great job that our students really help us with. But between unboxing Chromebooks, tagging Chromebooks, assigning Chromebooks to students, you know, we have a huge list going on of who has what and then, you know, organizing them and getting them ready for the first day of school.
So then what do you see is like what is the, I guess, the biggest challenge? Preparing for the next school year? Is it getting them out? Is it Dagenham? Is it on boxing? I mean, what is it ordering and hoping that the order comes in hand time? Like what? What is like the biggest obstacle that you guys, you know, see when preparing for the next school year?
Yeah. So I would say the last two years I would go with ordering in, hoping that everything’s here on time. I mean, there’s, you know, when you’re doing budgets for the next year, we’re almost jumping a year ahead, right? Because the stuff I need to order, I can’t wait till July one. The school district’s fiscal period is usually July one to July one. So, you know, when you’re budgeting, there was a lot of times, especially years ago, where you couldn’t start ordering your stuff till July one.
It wasn’t a huge deal. You know, your computers would come in in a couple of weeks. You get them set up, you have plenty of time. But now school starting earlier, you know, we’re starting school the middle of August and then, you know, the Chromebooks. And, you know, you guys know all of the the the backorders and stuff. So the last two years, the biggest challenge has been one place when can we place the order? How soon can we get it and how soon will show up?
If it’s too early, you’re set that product while school is going on, your warranties are kicking off on those products and you’re not even using them for a few months. Right. And if it’s too late, then then you’re out of luck. You’re trying to find a solution to why you don’t have any Chromebooks for the students to use. So that’s been that’s been the last couple of years. And then, you know, as far as getting them all set up and going, you know, fortunately, the Chromebooks are pretty easy to get going, but having that extra manpower with our students helping us is a big help in terms of getting them unbox tech because there’s a lot that goes into it. And then I always tell them, you know, take your time doing it because we’re relying on that information for the next four years as these students each have those Chromebooks.
So once they are unboxed and and enrolled and tag and everything, I mean, how do you actually get them to the students? How do you get them in their hands? Do you just is it a stack of them in a classroom? Do they have to come somewhere and pick them up? Like, what’s the logistics behind all that?
Sure. And that’s that’s even changed over the years, too. You know, we used to have like pickup days before school would start in that time consuming. Right. People have to come here and generally, some of these kids are coming into the buildings anyway to tour the buildings or they might have some kind of orientation going on. But so in the past we’ve done it, you know, where, where they’re ready. They, walk through, they pick up their Chromebooks and they get them that way. Most recently, though, we’ve found the best way is just to hand them out the first day of class.
We tend to get them all set up in a room and we’re ready, waiting for the class list to come out. And once those classes come out, we’ll begin organizing them by class so that the homeroom teacher that first day can hand them out, and then the students have them right. Then in there, it seems to be the less disruptive.
So definitely understand you there. I do want to bring up with your device refresh cycle. Have you always done that or was there a time where I know some schools, they still replace their entire fleet every four or five years instead of you.
Sounds like you do it every year. And a portion of the fleet. Do you find that works better or what. What are your thoughts on that?
Yeah. So what we found was that, you know, years ago our district actually was funded with some iPads through a grant and we had iPads and we were collecting those back over the summer and re handing them out to new students. And, and what we found was, you know, going from student to student, that wasn’t the best student. The first student might have taken care of it. And the second student maybe not as much. Right. So I think what we found was that happy medium that works for us where we know every year we could budget for between six and 800 Chromebooks as opposed to replacing them all at once. You know, as you guys know, too, there’s some Chromebooks that unfortunately you just get some bad models, right? You find the same mistakes or the same problems with them over and over.
So, you know, by only having maybe a limited amount of those, you kind of limit that and protect yourself that way. But also then for budgeting standpoint, you know, going down the road, we know that fixed cost every year roughly what it’s going to be and then also our workload. Right. Because you know while some summers we may be not. We might not be doing huge projects. There’s going to be other summers coming down that, you know, we’re going to be replacing, you know, a bunch of wireless access points or we could be replacing a bunch of desktop computers. So knowing that work every year, that that workload is is a huge advantage as well.
No, definitely I was that was another thing I was going to ask with the with the summer coming up and everything is that typically when you do big projects, or are there some that you have to do maybe throughout the school year like you were starting to replace wireless access points? I would assume now probably be a summer project only hopefully unless you’re obviously having big issues with it.
No, you’re right. Yeah. That’s typically we try to schedule as much as we can over the summer. And, you know, you think in summer for a school district that, you know, nobody’s here, everything’s shut down. And that is not the case anymore. I mean, the parking lots are still full. There’s still athletic stuff going on. I see the football players out there. It’s June 2nd and you know, they just got done with school and now they’re out there practicing.
Get ready for the season. There’s all kinds of you know, there’s still faculty and staff around here making things work, but the summer seems to be the least disruptive time. So if we can do the projects over the summer or we could schedule mount, we definitely do. If something happens like a server or a switch does go down, you know, that’s not as large of a project, but it’s something that we would just have to address during the school year.
And I know you also mentioned, you know, problems coming up in ordering Chromebooks and small batches. I mean, just, for example, I know just working with you, the camera issues that we’ve experienced just from going from in the classroom to having to go virtual and not knowing those camera issues or even there to not have 4000 of those Chromebooks all ordered at once versus, you know, 800 here and there has to be it’s not a series of a problem. Maybe I don’t.
Yeah, I would call it. It’s a more manageable problem. How about that. Yes. Yeah. So yeah. And that was another thing, you know. So you saw this shift in the last year or two where we went remote in and technology was being relied on so much and that hasn’t gone away, right? So students and teachers used and learned certain techniques and practices during that time that they want to continue to use. So you’re right. Like where, you know, the camera, you kind of were like, oh, that’s great, the Chromebook has a camera.
What do we do with that? We’re all sitting in front of it. We’re all we all right by each other. We could see each other is now turned into it went from you know where remote and we relying on that every day for class to hey we did these great projects over the time that we now we want to continue to use so that piece that little part of it has become a big part in a lot of the course works that go on and even some of the hallmark in allows the students to work together depending where they’re at.
So yeah, I was just in another unfortunate one, but it’s, you know, again, with your help with us over here, we were able to manage and get through those and keep it going.
So I say I know we’ve had schools here order Chromebooks as early as October of the next school year. Wow. Just due to the supply chain issues. And that was one thing you mentioned some like you said, your school goes back by middle of August, I think is what you had said. A lot of the schools here in Indiana, east-central Indiana, they’re going back by late July. And so that summer is even shorter for them. So I’d be very curious to see how their projects go over the summer versus how you handle forced.
Sure. Are they getting out earlier?
Do they get they get out. So I know one school district, their last days, June 3rd, and they go back July last year it was June 3rd and they went back July 28th. Hope so. Yeah, we do. What’s a balance calendar?
So all of the breaks, the spring, fall, and winter breaks are all two weeks long.
Gotcha.
So that’s why it kind of breaks it up that way. Personally, when I was a student, I would have preferred the longer summer.
Right. Right.
Enjoy the warm.
Weather. Yeah, of course. You want a long summer? No one wants to shorten it, and it’s already short enough weather-wise.
I know. And I’m thinking how hot they could get, like in July. I mean, I guess if the schools have air conditioning, but I know around here not all of those do either. So that was always some of the you know, when you could get out a little bit earlier.
When I was teaching, we did not have air conditioning. And let me tell you, it was not comfortable.
Yeah. It’s tough to get the kids to focus.
So. Okay. So I guess what is something you’re really looking forward to approaching the summer and getting through and then what’s something that you’re just it just bothers you every day when you wake up and you’re not looking forward to tackling it. Um.
I think what I’m looking forward to is the change of the way the job changes, right? It goes from, you know, every day. And it’s one of the things I love about the job is, you know, I come in, I don’t know what I’m going to be doing that day. You know, I might have a plan in my head, but that changes because anything could erupt. People could call me, say they have a problem. Something might break, something might not work, or it could be a smooth sailing day.
And I get done what I was hoping to get done. So, you know, I like the change of pace that comes in the summer where we have things planned out. We get to accomplish some things and check them off and say, Hey, we got this done, we got this done, we got this done. So I think that’s probably what I enjoy most. And then, you know, as summer kind of winds down, I get to the point where I’m ready to see everybody come back in the buildings and get to work that way. Because I truly do enjoy working with everybody and, and helping them out. But when it comes to things, I’m not like, you know, I’ll tell you, the things that keep me up at night is, is I’m waiting to get started on some of the projects.
Right. Making sure that the stuff arrives on time. Sometimes I overthink things like, is it going to be here? Is it going to go smoothly? Is the order going to be correct? You know, the things that are out of my control because I know once everything’s here and ready to go, you could put in time.
We’ve got a great team here, a great system. So that’s never bothered me. Never, never. I’m never too worried about that. But it’s when it comes to when the stuff is going to show up and knock on wood, I think we’ll be in good shape this year. But it’s that and then, you know, starting to plan. You know, one thing too I could talk about is there’s something called E-Rate for school districts where we get some funding for specific projects, right. Connectivity projects in terms of our Internet. And they’ve expanded that to wireless access points and network switches. And those are things that, you know, as soon as school is starting like September, I mean, we’re actually planning for that stuff now that we’re not going to even replace it until next summer.
But we have to start planning now because we have to be able to file that paperwork as early as September and October. You could begin filing that paperwork and then making sure that you have all of that stuff lined up. So, you know, in the back of my head is I’m thinking like all summer and we’re under control here. I’m always also thinking about that stuff. So it’s just a constant.
Just a never ending planning session kind of.
Right. Right. Just yeah. For the unknown, too. Right. Because you think you know what’s coming and then you have a year, like the last year or two, and you’re like, whoa, never even thought of this.
Sure. And I can definitely relate to, you know, having that uneasy feeling about relying on other people and hoping things come in because until they’re in your hand, so your control or even dealing with vendors or trying to order things for schools or cases or whatever, and every tech director, obviously every school wants their stuff before the school year starts. But that’s okay. We’ll put an order in. We don’t exactly know when it’s going to be fulfilled or when they’re going to respond or when it’s going to show up to the school and, you know, becoming that middleman of the schools, contacting us, we’re contacting the vendors and just going that back and forth.
I mean, this summer is definitely the time where that happens. And that’s at least for me, that’s the most uneasy feeling. Part of what we do is that hurry up and wait kind of scenario right in.
It’s constant, right? And it’s everywhere. Like it’s not just technology, it’s not just schools. I mean, I see it in our maintenance department, you know, they got to get all of their projects planned and ready and and all of those people lined up. And, you know, we don’t have to worry about the weather much, but, you know, that’s something that could push them back. And, you know, in all of these things happen. And then you always come back to what you guys.
Had all summer to do this. Well, us and every other school district is looking to have it done in the summer. Right. So it’s the same thing in technology. You’re ordering you’re trying to get all of this stuff. You finally settle on this product and then it’s out of stock or you settle on this device and all of a sudden you find out the price has increased. So it’s not going to work out for you. So it’s all of that. So, yeah, that uneasy feeling. Those are the things you wake up some nights at two in the morning and you go, Oh, shoot, what? What am I doing?
But yeah, it can be anything, right? It could be a global pandemic that shuts down an entire country and the manufacturing over there, it could be a boat getting stuck in a canal that blocks up every other boat. It could be no more microchips. It could be a thousand different things, which we’ve unfortunately seen in the past two years now. But it’s just roll with the punches, right? I mean, what else are you going to do.
Or that’s it. You know, in technology to the tech director, I think our. Think if you ask any of them. You know, we always have a back up plan in our head, right. So, you know, just because I’m changing out my Chromebooks this year, if the worst case scenario, I had to take back and roll out something temporary just to make it work right? Or if we have to if something comes up, you always try to have a backup plan because. It’s tough. And we’ve seen it more now in the last few years than ever before.
I can remember of all of the possibilities and things that can go wrong. So trying to have a backup plan or a plan C, D and E, just in case you could kind of squeak by till until you can get your original plan back up and running.
Yeah, I think yeah, I would I would agree. I would say that every school that at least we’ve worked with so far has definitely had a back up plan, even if it’s just those loaner devices that maybe on their last year or whatever of service. It is just having, having that like maybe we can get by with this versus, you know, back in the day. We had textbooks so you could you could take a book home. It wasn’t it wasn’t going to crash on you.
It wasn’t going to you know, you’re not going to open it up. And there’s no words on the pages at this point. So, you know, having going from that to being able to literally have class at home, I don’t think we’re ever going to go away from that. I don’t think we’re going to go backwards. But so, yeah, that having that safety net or that backup plan, I would say is probably one of the more important roles that a tech director plays in a school.
Yeah, you’re right. And I think kind of what you touched on, too, is, you know, we’re past the. We hope it works. We’re going to try using technology. It’s expected like this is this is the textbook. Now, this is your pencil and paper sometimes.
This is your tests that you have to you need this to take the tests. And unfortunately, it doesn’t. There are times when there’s things out of your control. Like last year, I could tell you we had a storm and it knocked out our fiber line. And we had we truly had one full day of school where we had no Internet while they were working to repair it. Just nothing we could do. And, you know, it was kind of neat to see some of the things the teachers came up with and used their backup plans with right to make the day work. But, you know, fortunately, it wasn’t like a testing day because they’re state tests that have to be done online. And, you know, they give you some leeway, too. There are windows, but there’s a lot of planning that the schools and the administrators go through to make these days work and line up and make sure they have the support for what they need. So, yeah, that’s always the you got to have a good backup plan and even a plan C because you all those things out of your control are what makes it you know, it makes the job challenging at times, but kind of fun to write.
It’s kind of fun, too, to scramble every once in a while and make sure you still got it.
I say kind of giving another example of that whole backup plan situation. I think it was the year that COVID hit. We had a school district here that had ordered brand new laptops. They didn’t arrive when they were supposed to.
So we actually we worked with another school district, another one of our clients. We got all of their all devices, gave them to that school. They didn’t get their new ones for the whole year, just the way they could continue doing class online and everything. Because, like you said, that is their textbook.
Right, right. Right. Yeah. That’s I mean, it’s those kind of logistics that they’re not ideal, but you kind of get creative, right? And it’s nice to have a partner to be able to work with and say, Hey, what do you guys got?
How can you guys help us out? Because that goes a long way, right? I mean, I remember stuff like that. If if, you know, we’re we’re in trouble here and somebody can help us out. You know, you always try to repay the favor or pass along the good word, so.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, John, that’s all I have for you, man. I appreciate your time and I hope, you know, coming up to the end of the school year here treats you well. And I know I’ll see you soon so that’s not a big deal.
But yeah, I appreciate your time and I hope you have a great summer and good luck for next year.
Well, thanks, guys. I appreciate it. And yeah, thanks for everything you guys help us with, too. You know, it’s like I said, it’s nice to have somebody you can rely on to help us keep our daily routines going.
So we’ll talk soon.
All right. Have a good one, John.
I like.
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