Operational Procedures

This document is intended to set forth the operating procedures of the Technology Department for Jenkins County Schools. It applies to all technology equipment identified in the “Information Technology Equipment” section, and affects all individuals (end users) that operate or interact with the specified Technology, including Faculty, Staff, Students, Parents, Visitors and Administrators within the school system. This document may be amended from time to time. It is the responsibility of the end users to review the document periodically so as to have the most current information found within the document.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY EQUIPMENT

Equipment covered by this document and supported by Technology Department Staff includes:

1) Computers, Laptops, Workstations, Netbooks, Chromebooks, Notebooks, Thin Clients, iPads, Tablets, Mobile Devices and any other computer equipment that runs software, hardware, or provides access to computer and network resources.

2) Any of the components within computer equipment ( ie. network cards, memory, hard drives ).

3) Any network attached equipment, whether it is attached via Wired LAN, Wireless, or BlueTooth.

4) Printers

5) Monitors

6) Servers

7) Network switching and switching fabric / cables

8) External hard drives or data memory cards

REQUESTING TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT

Any and all needs for technology support must be requested via the online help desk system. If a ticket is not created for an incident, then the problem is not being looked into, and the end user should assume that no attempts are being made to address the issue. End users should never anticipate that someone else is creating a ticket for them, or that Technology Staff has been notified of the problem by someone else. If there is no ticket, then there is no problem. If an end user does not have access to a computer ( it is broken or unavailable ), then the end user can visit the media center, or another teachers classroom to access a computer. In cases in which the user can’t logon to a computer ( no user account / bad password etc. ) then they should seek out a media specialist or other user that does have computer access so that they can generate the help desk ticket.

Guidelines for Creating Help Desk Tickets

1) Each user is responsible for creating their own help desk tickets. No-one should generate a single help desk ticket in which the scope exceeds one user for one problem. Examples are:

Improper: “None of the lab computers are working.”

Proper: “Computer #2, #3 and #5 will not allow multiple students to login.”

Improper: “No-one can print.”

Proper: “Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Doe are unable to connect to a network printer.”

Improperly formatted tickets can result in the problem not being addressed in a timely manner or not completely resolved.

2) End users should check back often to see if the status of their ticket has changed, or if Technology Staff has requested additional information.

3) If a ticket is closed by Technology Staff, but the problem persists or was not fixed, the end user is responsible for notifying the Technology Department by re-opening the closed ticket or creating a new help desk ticket.

4) If a ticket is left open without any communication from the user, the ticket is considered “Abandoned”, and will be closed by the Technology Department after 5 days of inactivity.

5) If an end user creates a ticket, and the problem then goes away, it is the responsibility of the end user to notify the Technology Department by updating the ticket.

EQUIPMENT PROCUREMENT & ALLOCATION

The responsibility of equipment procurement and allocation for all end user equipment falls to the school administration. They are responsible for procuring the funding necessary to meet their schools technology requirements as defined by the System Improvement Plan and/or other High Level planning committees. The Technology Department will make recommendations on computer equipment that needs to be replaced or is ineffective, however the decision to purchase falls to the administration. If an end user needs updated or new equipment they will need to provide that information, in writing to their school administrator.

Any equipment that is purchased must first be approved by the Technology Director, and must only be purchased using product quotes provided by the Technology Director. Non-standard equipment or equipment dissimilar to existing equipment will not be purchased.

INVENTORY

Each school is responsible for keeping an up-to-date inventory of their technology equipment which includes at a minimum the location, funding source, and serial number of each device. Each school is responsible for submitting an accurate Annual Technology Hardware Inventory to the Georgia Department of Education.

EQUIPMENT REPAIR & SUPPORT

The only people authorized to repair or make modifications to technology equipment are members of the Information Technology Department or their registered agents.

Requests for technical support outside of the Jenkins County Technology Department is not permitted. Only authorized vendors should be contacted or used for technical support, and only after coordinating with the Technology Director. Only the Technology Director is authorized to request external services for computer technology support.

SOFTWARE ALLOCATION

Teachers may install software on their school issued teacher laptops. However, the Technology Department will only support software that is on the Supported Software list. A "best effort" may be made by a Technician to troubleshoot a software problem for unsupported software. Technical Support staff will not troubleshoot or support any software that is not compatible with existing technology.

All users are expected to comply with all copyright laws. If any software is installed in violation of copy right laws will be removed. Any software installed by users onto their computers is the responsibility of the user. The Technology Department may need to re-provision your computer or reload your computer, in which case any applications you have installed or purchased will be deleted. It is the responsibility of the end user to maintain backup copies of all of their personal data, applications, settings and licenses for software.

In most cases, software that teachers need is deployed via network management utilities. Instructions can be found on installing network software at the knowledge base, or by requesting help through a help desk ticket.

Software and applications required by teachers that is not on the Supported Software list should be reported to the Technology Department in a HelpDesk request. It will be necessary to make the software available to the Technology Department for testing.

EQUIPMENT END OF SERVICE

End of service, or end of life, refers to computers that have reached the point at which they should be discarded. When it is determined that a computer has reached it’s end of service we discard them, or mark for surplus. When we this the entire series / model is discarded. As an example; if we are going to discard Dell GX150 computers, we effectively remove all Dell GX150 computers. This follows the Technology Management Paradigm regarding standardization. If a computer is slow then it is typically due to outdated processing capabilities, which are specific to an entire series. Many people will put up with an extremely slow computer without realizing the amount of time that is lost while waiting for processing to occur.

Careful consideration must be given when designating the end of life for a series of computers. Several factors are used:

1) Cost to Own (risk / reward analysis)

2) Availability of replacement parts

3) Ability for the computer to handle modern operating systems

4) Ability for the computer to run modern software

5) Foreseeable future for continued ability to meet requirements

6) Hardware vendor support / updates

7) GADOE’s definition of ‘Modern Computers’

8) Past series performance / known issues

EQUIPMENT CHECK IN / CHECK OUT

All end users must follow established check in / check out procedures defined at their School when acquiring computer resources. The Technology Department does not manage the assignment or availability of school devices. You will need to check with your school administration for resource access. Any changes in computer equipment venue must be reported to their school administration.

PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY

Only technology equipment provided by the Technology Department is allowed to be operated on premises. End users may not bring in any technology equipment for their own personal use, or distribution for other end users to use; with the exception of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) equipment. This applies to both networked and standalone computer equipment. Personal equipment that is listed on the "Acceptable BYOD Devices" list is allowed for educational purposes, as pursuant with BYOD procedures.

COMPUTER ACCOUNTS

Account credentials should be carefully guarded. At no time should they be written down or given to someone else. Only technical staff should request your password, and only to resolve a problem that you have created a help desk ticket for. At no time should an end user add their account password to a help desk ticket.

New User accounts for Students and Faculty are created each night after they are entered into PowerSchool. Once a student is enrolled into PowerSchool the nightly process will create their Microsoft Windows Account and Google Apps account. The username and password word for each new user is sent to the school administration in an email. This process also applies for new Staff members.

If a student has an issue logging in they should see a Media Specialist or other school designated person for resetting of their passwords or verification of their account. The school Principal must notify the Technology Director via written notice when he/she wishes to delegate or revoke student account administration roles to someone in their school. It is the responsibility of the school Principal to notify their staff of the proper procedures and contact person(s) for handling student account issues.

COMPUTER USAGE / INTERNET USAGE AGREEMENT

All end users, including faculty, staff, students, administrators, parents, visitors and guests, are required to turn in a signed Internet Usage Agreement before accessing Internet resources. School Administration is responsible for putting protocols in place to ensure that only users with a signed Internet Usage Policy are allowed Internet access.

DUTY TO REPORT ABUSE / MISUSE

All end users have a duty to report all violations of the Internet Usage Agreement and Technology Policy and Procedures; as well as any other abuse and misuse of technology. Additionally, faculty and staff are responsible for monitoring their students computer usage to ensure that they are on task and not violating any technology policies. End users should never assume that there is a technology solution in place to prevent abuse or misuse of technology resources, and as such, should be diligent in reporting any issues or questionable access to Internet and computing resources.

INTERNET RADIO / VIDEO

Internet radio is not allowed at any time by anyone. Video and streaming content is allowed only in situations where it is directly related to instruction, and only within the context of approved sites and resources.

NETWORK SERVICES AND SHARING

At no time are network servers allowed to run on end user computing equipment, nor are end users permitted to network share their printers or other devices.

WEB MAIL

Web mail programs are not allowed, this includes hotmail, yahoo, etc. Only Google Mail through the jchs.com domain is allowed. Students are not to email privately or outside of the jchs.com domain. Students must be supervised at all times to ensure compliance.

MOBILE PHONES

The Technology Department does not provide technical support on how to setup smart phone, pda’s or other network aware devices to use our email system.

WEBSITE UPDATES

The School System Website is maintained by the Technology Department. Any content on the website is the responsibility of the content owner, not the Technology Department. If an update of content is needed, then the school administrator, or an agent of the school, should be contacted. The accuracy or completeness of any staff lists, news events, links or other website content is the responsibility of the school.

WHITE LISTING WEBSITES (UNBLOCKING)

All requests to white list or allow websites through the content filtering system must be reviewed for curricular relevance by the school Principal. The Information Technology Department does not make decisions regarding unblocking of websites, sole responsibility is relegated to the Principal of the requesting party’s school. It is the responsibility of the requesting party to ensure that the sites privacy policy is intact and does not provide for the possibility of collecting and distributing student information, and protects students from malicious person’s and content. The request to unblock a website must be accompanied by the district approved “Request to Unblock Website” form and include the Principal’s signature.

MOBILE DEVICE MANAGEMENT

Mobile devices running mobile operating systems such as iOS on iPad’s and Android on Galaxy Tablets are only allowed Internet Access (http / https) on our network. Mobile devices are not managed by the Information Technology Department. Each device has Application Protection software to help protect them from malicious use, however that does not guarantee that they cannot be misused, or that malicious software cannot be installed on them. Teachers are responsible for verifying and installing applications that they need on the devices. The Information Technology Department does not install or maintain software on the devices. The password to allow software installation is provided by the school Principal. Problems arising with a mobile device should be submitted via a Help Desk ticket, and typically results in the factory resetting (erasing) of the device. Maintenance and care of Mobile Devices falls to the school that they are assigned.

DEEP FREEZE COMPUTER LABS

Computer labs are running Deep Freze software. This means that any changes, saves or modifications made on a computer are completely erased when the computer is restarted. This provides every end user a new “clean” computer each time it is rebooted.

TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT PARADIGMS

In order to provide quality support it is necessary to adopt several management paradigms that in which the Technology Department will operate. These paradigms are vital to the structure and operations of school system technologies, and as such take priority in technology decisions. These include:

Standardization:

The goals of standardization can be to help with independence of single suppliers, compatibility, interoperability, repeatability and quality. Examples in our environment include:

1) Buying the same make/model of computer equipment on a cycle.

2) Using the same software for similar business needs

3) Use same make/model computers in classrooms

Least Privileged Access Rights:

In computer science the principle of least privilege, also known as the principle of minimal privilege or just least privilege, requires that in a particular abstraction layer of a computing environment, every module (such as a process, USER or PROGRAM ) must be able to access only such information and resources that are necessary for its legitimate purpose.

In other words, this means giving a user only those privileges which are essential to do his/her work. Examples in our environment include:

1) Users can’t install unauthorized software or drivers

2) Using Deep Freeze to prevent changes to a computer (labs)

Technology Life Cycle:

Technology Life cycle management is a multi-phase approach that encompasses the planning, design, acquisition, implementation, and management of all the elements comprising the IT infrastructure. The convergence of in-depth technical knowledge, astute business processes, and expert engineering and financial services into a solid business model enables agencies to proactively address systematic budgeting and long-term management of their IT infrastructures. Examples in our environment include:

1) Discarding old computers

2) Projecting needs through the System Improvement Teams Technology Assessment

3) Re-imaging computers to ensure they are in a “new” state, uncluttered and undamaged so that they are running at peak performance.