Information Technology Advisory Committee - Sep 20th, 2018

The town has started working with In-Force 911, an emergency alert vendor. They have a product that allows town employees to send emergency alerts directly to APD, from a phone or laptop. The town is considering this for schools, and perhaps the library. This is a subscription-based service. The School, IT, and Police departments are discussing protocols that might be used with this service.

Under the new VoIP system, school telephone numbers will be room related: two digits to indicate the building, and three digits to indicate the room number.

The Gibbs school opened on time, and the IT pieces came in under budget. The IT department installed approximately 750 devices in the building. These include servers, access points, projectors, and network gear.

The Hardy school is getting a six-classroom addition. Network infrastructure will have to be extended into the new rooms. The new rooms will receive the same kinds of technology as existing classrooms. Construction should finish around Thanksgiving, with move-in over the Christmas break.

The town is getting new Chromebooks for third-graders, who will need to take the on-line MCAS this year.

The social media policy efforts are stagnating. The town has evaluated several tools, all of which will involve additional management overhead. There are lots of questions regarding gatekeepers, oversight, and approval. This is still an ongoing effort.

There are 10 IT-related capital projects this year; one from the library, and nine from the IT department.