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Schools' technology gets a new home
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Published: August 14, 2009
As the Mooresville Graded School District's Digital Conversion program moves into its second phase next week, the district's technology department and services have relocated to a spacious home at Mooresville High's new annex facility.
Utilizing a large portion of the former middle school's basement, the eight people who comprise the MGSD technology staff will now conduct upgrades, repairs and all other laptop initiative services from one central location at MHS' Magnolia Street Annex.
"This new space will allow us to provide much more efficient service to the schools and students," said Chief Technology Officer Scott Smith on Wednesday. "The ability to centrally locate services makes us more efficient and affords us the ability to be better organized and able to respond quicker."
Smith noted Tuesday, during a board of education tour of the new facility, that having all of the laptops at one central location in the district "has just made all the difference in the world."
"The digital conversion (the summer process of imaging machines) would have taken three times as long and much more manpower had we not moved," Smith said. The technology department began relocating during the last week of June.
He added, "With nearly 4,000 student machines, this would have put us behind before we ever started."
MGSD officials will begin distributing the laptops – all of which will be deployed from the Magnolia Street Annex facility – to intermediate and middle school students Tuesday afternoon and continue throughout the week. High schoolers will receive their machines during the first week of school, which begins Aug. 25.
All students who were given a laptop, as well as a carrying backpack for the machine, will receive the same items for the upcoming school year.
The new technology department is comprised of two storage spaces for the student backpacks and the laptop carts used throughout the district. Smith said the carts previously used at Mooresville Middle and East Mooresville Intermediate schools will be repurposed for the elementary level.
Rocky River Elementary, he noted, is slated to receive 60 laptops on carts, or mobile computer labs, this year while Park View and South elementaries will receive their laptop carts in the 2010-11 school year.
Supt. Mark Edwards commented, "We're not having to take up space for labs now."
Noting the cost efficiencies of utilizing mobile computer labs, Edwards said during the tour that space could become "a premium" in Mooresville once regional growth picks up again.
The new facility also includes a windowless room dedicated to summer laptop storage and utilized for upgrading or repairing machinery. A larger, open area for staff development and staff work spaces has been created for the department. And Three smaller rooms house the offices of Smith and WAN Engineer Robert Lane as well as the district's network servers.
MGSD officials said the entire technology department remains secure at all times, equipped with an alarm system, motion sensors and video surveillance. Additionally, the refurbished facility requires key and badge entry for anyone not assigned to the district department.
Despite making the move from cramped quarters in the former locker room of N.F. Woods Advanced Technology and Arts Center, little capital investment from the district was required, said MGSD spokesperson Dreisa Sherrill.
Said Edwards, "This team has done a phenomenal job. It's understood, appreciated and acknowledged how hard they work."
He added, "Our goal would be to preserve this space for (them)."
For more information on laptop deployment next week, visit the "2009-10 School Open Houses and Events" link on the MGSD's Web site: www.mgsd.k12.nc.us
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