Executive Summary

Grand County School District is located in Southeastern Utah and is home to 1,594 students attending one high school, one middle high school, two elementary schools, one preschool, and an adult/alternative high school program. The local economy is based primarily upon tourism.

The eight major goals on which our five-year plan focus are to enhance student technology skills, provide access to "electronic highways", update hardware, inventory hardware and software, install at least one computer in every classroom, establish district technology policies, provide inservice opportunities, and establish a local WWW site.

You are invited to visit the Grand County School District home page for additional information about the district.

Planning Committee

The planning committee is the Grand County School District Technology Committee: a representative from the local School Board, the Superintendent, the district business administrator, two members (certificated or classified) from each school, the principal of each school, a member of the local P.T.S.A., a local business/community member, a parent, and a member of student government. This committee is responsible for setting policies and educational goals as part of a district-wide technology implementation plan.

Instructional Focus

Grand County School District's Five-Year Technology Plan has the following eight goals. Refer to our WWW pages for details such as measurable objectives, timelines, etc.

1. Allow all students to gain technology skills which will help them in setting and accomplishing career and life-long goals. Technology will be used to promote student mastery of the objectives in the Utah CORE Curriculum.
2. Allow all students access to state, national, and global "electronic highways" in a controlled environment so each student can learn to access, evaluate, process, present, and utilize information.
3. Update equipment and software as funding allows in order to stay current with UEN recommendations.
4. Obtain and maintain an inventory of all hardware and software, making sure that all software licenses are current and legal.
5. Install at least one computer in every classroom with access to the school LAN, to the district and regional WAN, and to the UtahLINK/Internet.
6. Establish and continually update district policies for purchase, maintenance, security, and usage of hardware and software -- including an ongoing update of this five-year plan.
7. Provide extensive inservice training opportunities for teachers, administrators, and staff. All technology grant applications will include at least 25% of the budget earmarked for inservice training.
8. Establish and support a local Internet World Wide Web site for internal district communication and student HTML publication.

All repair work not under warranty will be completed by the Grand County School District Computer/Network Technician. An immediate goal is to equip the service center and certify the technician for all repair of DOS, UNIX, and Apple based equipment, including a certification as a Novell Certified Netware Engineer (CNE). Replacement and upgrading of existing equipment will take place on a rotational basis with the oldest and slowest processors being replaced or upgraded first. As part of a district commitment, ETI and NextStep monies will be matched through district capital outlay funds and awarded grants on a 1:1 basis.

UtahLINK Connectivity

Local Area Networking plans call for Grand County School District to network all schools to a district-wide LAN using token-ring or ethernet networking on IBM System 1, category-five UTP, fiberoptic, T-1 and 56Kb wires/lines. The immediate goal will be to replace all 386 network servers with Pentium/75 (or faster) servers in preparation for Internet access on a district-wide basis. This network plan will be supplemented by an additional grant from the Rural Electrification Authority (REA). Interconnectivity between all schools within the district and the southeast region will be accomplished by May, 1997.

Inservice

Grand County School District's ETI five-year plan calls for allocating 25% of total funding each year for district teacher inservice. This funding will be used to directly compensate teachers for after-school or Saturday workshops, attendance at out-of-town training sessions, and attendance at the state technology conference (UCET). In addition, the district will provide several application software inservice and training classes during Career Ladder days and monthly inservice Mondays. A schedule of all inservice opportunities are posted on our WWW pages.

This inservice plan will train teachers in specific software applications, in curriculum integration of those applications, and in the use of the Internet. Teachers may complete an application form to take advantage of various inservice opportunities (or to create their own opportunities).

Evaluation

Several evaluation tools will be used to assess the effectiveness of Grand County School District's 5-Year Technology Plan.

• Annual reviews in the form of subjective questionnaires will evaluate direction of instructional focus and the value of inservice being offered.
• District Technology Committee members will report on a monthly basis to the District Technology Director with direct feedback from faculty members concerning effectiveness of the plan.
• The 5-Year Plan will be subject to annual evaluations by the District Technology Committee and Grand County School District administration. Revisions will be necessary as the technology frontier advances.