Development

The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Central School District takes a distributed approach to technology decision making including, but not limited to, the development of the instructional technology plan. To understand how the plan was developed, it is important to understand the structure and function of the Instructional Technology Leadership Team. Members of the team represent a variety of stakeholders who report back to the five schools’ Building Councils. Each Building Council has identified a teacher to be a Building Technology Coordinator (BTC). The BTC acts as a liaison between the IT Leadership Team and the Building Council.

This group, the District Instructional Technology Leadership Committee, meets twice a month (at both the building and district level) to discuss agenda items such as procurement, data privacy, professional development, technology support, and best practices to provide input for other executive decisions.

Additionally, the five Building Technology Coordinators facilitate building technology committee meetings with the building principal as part of the district’s Shared Decision Making model. Each building technology committee includes the school library media specialist along with classroom teachers. Committee discussions are brought to the District IT Leadership Committee. The District Technology Plan was developed as part of the work of this large stakeholder group.

Key Dates and Outcomes

January-March 2015: Building Committees met to gather input from constituents. The input was given directly to each Building Council, which is the formal shared-decision-making body for the building. The Building Council includes parents and support staff.

February 26, 2015: The District IT Leadership Committee met with Aaron Bochniak and Dave Versocki (Deputy Directors for Northeastern Regional Instructional Center) for updates on the Smart Schools Bond Act and to provide guidance on updating Part 100.12 of the Technology Plan.

March 10, 2015: The District IT Leadership Committee was briefed on updates to Blackboard 9 in preparation for recommendation that this be the districtwide Learning Management System.

March 24, 2015: The District IT Leadership Committee received a report on year-long embedded Google Apps for Education training for elementary teachers. Teacher feedback was reviewed and the feedback was used for the formation of professional development in Part 100.12 of the Technology Plan. Additionally, the committee arranged for teachers and administrators to attend the NYSCATE conference on Blended Learning in an effort to help develop Part 100.12 of the plan.

April 14, 2015: The District IT Leadership Committee reviewed input from building committees and the memo on Part 100.12 guidance from NERIC Director Dale Breault. The Committee worked on the K-12 Scope and Sequence document.

May 12, 2015: The District IT Leadership Committee held a workshop to write an updated District Technology Plan.

May 28, 2015: The District IT Leadership Committee held a workshop to finalize the Technology Plan.