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Santa Clarita, Ca, United States
I work as a Technology Manager in the Entertainment Industry. My first film was Disney's Dinosaur and have been credited on several films since. I love working on old electronics, especially old radios. I am also passionate about technology and education. I have 4 kids and you can read about us on our family blog.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

SCVi 2012 Summer Technology Projects

Summer is a time to get projects done at SCVi.  There are many projects going on at the school with construction in the building and changes to infrastructure.   This page gives a summary of some of the things we'd like to accomplish this summer.  Accomplishing this ambitious list will require a great deal of help from our staff and parent volunteers.


Project Description Why Are We Doing This? Estimated Effort Estimated Purchases
New Power For Island [Jana] Need at least one 220V circuit and 5 Dedicated 20Amp circuits to the Island.  These will have to be pulled from the utility closet at the stairs. At a minimum we need:
  • 220V : Data UPS
  • 20A : Network UPS
  • 20A : Alarm System (Not yet installed)
  • 20A : Data Center Air Conditioning
  • 20A: Data Center network panel. (Telepacific and Fire Line)
  • 20A: Data Center Expansion (Future UPS)
    All power to the Island was cut in the construction.  We will not be able to supply internet to the school in the fall with the current power configuration. Contractor + Permits $10,000
    Wireless Bridge For Cafe [Matt] Install Aruba iAP-175 outdoor access point. Install switch and wireless bridge in cafe. We don't have a conduit between the buildings. Price is per bridge.  80 hours $4,000
    Cafe POS System [Dawn/Matt] Purchase and install a POS system for Cafe.  Purchase three laptops for staff use. We will have a new cafe to replace the snack shack. POS system needs to be installed before school starts.  Dawn will have a laptop that runs the software and so will her assistant. One backup machine will be kept in the Island. 40 hours $5400 (System)
    $2100
    (Sony Laptops)
    New Cabling For Downstairs [Melissa] Run network cable and install a switch downstairs.  Install access points. This includes
    • At least two ethernet connections per classroom. 
    • Wireless Access Point Cables 
    • Installation of iAP-175 outdoors.
    •  Phone line run from AT&T Demarc to outside Heath Office.
    Entire downstairs was gutted. Needs wiring replaced. Cisco switch from Kindergarten needs to be re-installed. 80 hours $1,000 (Volunteers Price - Supplies Only)
    Google Transition [Matt, Shannon, Jana, Cheryl] Move to  our scvi-k12.org domain for all  mail, calendar, and groups.  Some Known SubTasks:
    • Organize new calendars [ Cheryl, Jana]
    • Help folks with moving to Gmail [Jana, Shannon]
    •  Create Facilitator/Staff user accounts [Shannon]
    • Create student user accounts
    • Start looking at Google Sites [Jana]
    Allows centralized mail, calendar and groups. Same system used at High Tech High, Disney, and  other schools and business. 160 hours $0
    Upgrade phone System [Elaine, Shannon] Upgrade existing Cisco 2821 with a new Cisco 2851
    Some Details:

    • I believe the cisco 2851 is the newer replacement.  It can handle 96 phones where our current one can handle 48.
    • If you look on CDW's web site, there are may different models of Cisco 2851's.  Which is the best one for us?  If we call CDW, will they help us select one? 
    • We will likely need a Cisco professional to help us get it set up, but we want to maintain it after that. We will add and remove users just like we do now.   This is why I budgeted a few thousand extra dollars into the project.
    • We really try to avoid re-curring costs, so be wary of any annual maintenance fees or subscriptions.  We need to clearly know the benefits of any program they try to sell us.
    • Once we find someone who can answer questions, we need to ask these questions:
      • Will the new system come with Voice Mail, or do we need to use our old Voice Mail system?
      • If we have to use our old one, will our old voice mail system work with the new Call manager?
      • Will the new system work with our old phones (7910 and 7960)
      • Are there any other compatibility issues ?
    • We don't currently plan to change anything about our phone service.  Our VOIP connection is supplied by Telepacific and we have 20 DID lines and a few POTS lines. Most of the on-site numbers  only exist in our system.  We just want to upgrade our current system to support more users.

    Our current system is ready to crumble and at the maximum number or clients.  We are growing and our needs are increasing. 80 hours $9,000
    Apple Macbook Air Cart [Shannon]
    • Purchase 30 Mac book Air comptuers and cart.
    • Sticker/ Add to inventory
    • Image hard drives 
    Laptop cart for Middle School. 24 hours $30,000
    iPad Cart [Shannon]
    • Purchase 30 iPads and cart.
    • Sticker/ Add to inventory.
    • Resolve any iTunes ID issues
    iPad Cart for Grades K-2. 8 hours $15,000
    New Computers [Shannon]
    • Purchase 20 Mac book Pro comptuers and cart.
    • Sticker/ Add to inventory
    • Image hard drives 
    New Staff, replacement for existing Staff, replacement for missing student computers and new Mac Minis. 24 Hours $30,000
    Drop Box Replacement [Tad Miller, Matt] Replace our use of dropbox with a Synology NAS hosted on site.






  • How many accounts can I create?
  • Is there a annual support fee on the enterprise grade stuff (RS212 specifically)
  • What disk can I use.
  • Does it have all the same software supported as the consumer grade stuff?
  • Other questions??
  • We have filed up our drop boxes and need something better. Synology works on computers and iPhones.   We can host for multiple iLead sites at SCVi. 20 hours $1,000
    Hallway Music Play classical music in upstairs hallway - Project was stalled due to concerns with doing it properly Gives a soothing and inspiring atmosphere - 20 hours $600
    PA System For Downstairs Run speakers through entire downstairs and hook to existing PA system at front desk This can easily be done why the school is open and we already have the Amp 40 hours $600
    Wired Conduit To Maui Wowie Run a conduit to Maui Wowie and install a switch and Access Point We could do a wireless bridge if we prefer, but a conduit might be cheaper in this case. 40 hours $200
    Lobby TV's Install 4 TV's in the front of the lobby to stream media Gives a nice presence when you walk in the building 8 hours $1,500
    Top Of Stairs TV's Two TV's at the landing on the stairs. This will involve running power to this location Announcements to see as you walk upstairs in the AM 4 Hours + Contractor $3,000
    Hallway TV TV mounted on wall in new High School area. Kim Adam would like a TV to show student work in the hallway upstairs. It will constantly stream student artwork projects as an interactive art display 4 hours $500
    Island Projects Set up new shelving
    Set up new tables
    Clean up Accumulated items

    We want to make daily life in the Island easier. Make more computers available to students 50 hours $300
    Donated Hardware Catalog, configure, and deploy donated computers We have many new donated computers and monitors stockpiled in Storage and the Island. We need to get them in the hands of our learners. 40 hours $0
    Inventory System All computer hardware and other electronics tracked in inventory We have a good start, but we need to make progress and get everything in the school stickered and added to inventory. 40 hours $0
    Tech Support Tent Cards A tent card in classrooms explaining how to contact support Make it clear to everyone how to get help for technical issues 8 hours $0
    Re-Image Macbook Air Cart [Shannon] Update our laptop image to latest spec then wipe all the macbook airs to the new image
    • Multiple Accounts
    • New Software additions
    Many of the macs were changed and we learned some things during the school year. 20 hours $0
    Broken Macs [Shannon] Fix broken Macs in Island
    • New Mac Minis
    • White Mac Laptops
    • Macbook Airs
    • Old Mac Minis
    We have broken laptops and Mac Minis in the Island. All need to be re-imaged and re-deployed. Some may need hardware upgrades 20 hours $0
    Class Web Sites Work with teachers to get class web sites organized for start of school. We will have a combination of different sites, Wix, Google Sites, Facebook, YouTube, etc. Teachers need help getting theset tied in to their EdLine landing page. 80 hours $0
    Matt's Tasks --- ---- --- ---
    Manage This List Track progress of tasks on this list I can't do all of this... I need lots of helpers.  List will probably move into Pivitol Tracker or Trello to track status of tasks. 40 hours $0
    Document Exit Process Documentation clearly stating what we do when we exit someone Folks stick around in email and groups. The steps required by IT staff should be clearly documented. Also document other procedures to be followed by IT staff. 8 hours $0
    New Ethernet Switch Donated Gig-Ethernet backbone switch needs to be investigated and configured This could greatly improve our internet backbone if we can figure out how to use it 4 hours $0
    SCVi Technology Web Page A section on the SCVi home page explaining technology
    • Presentations
    • Vision
    • Policies
    • Internet Filtering
    • iPad Program
    • Tech Support
    • Volunteer Opportunities
    • Examples of student work
    Communicate our vision and answer basic questions. List opportunities to volunteer.  Show this table so folks can pick up tasks. 20 hours $0
    Other Tech Tasks (Probably Not This Summer) --- --- --- ---
    Wii Smart Boards Try to get Wii Smart Boards Working This project was stalled in 2011. Can we make it go now? 40 Hours $0
    Volunteer Hour Transparency Show top volunteers and each person's volunteer status There is no recognition for folks that volunteer and no reminders for folks that don't. We need to make volnteer hours fully visible so you can see where you stand and so we recognize those that contribute the most 40 hours $0
    iPhone App App to show latest events and volunteer hours An easy portal for parents to know what is happening on the school and see their contributions to voluteer hours and family giving 200 Hours $300

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