Date: Fri 07-May-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

education-NHS-technology

Full Text:

The Tech Team At NHS Is Staying Ahead Of The Curve

(with photo)

BY STEVE BIGHAM

Inside the walls of Newtown High School, a handful of experienced technicians

have laid the tracks for what may be one of the most sophisticated computer

networks in town. The technology program within the Newtown school district

appears well ahead of the curve and set for the 21st Century.

Robert Brand, who writes columns on technology and the Internet for The Bee ,

recently toured the high school and was pleasantly surprised by the strides

the school has made in the way of technology.

"They have a system at Newtown High School that is better than most colleges,"

he said. "In my view, they're in a class by themselves."

Newtown's is a system that grew out of the District Technology Plan written in

1994-95, which lays out the school system's strategy for technology. With that

plan in place, the town was able to go after state funding. The 100-page

document is constantly being updated.

The town recently built a 70,000-square-foot addition to NHS, which included

the kind of infrastructure that allows for the free and easy flow of

information. According to Superintendent of Schools John R. Reed, much of this

would not have been possible had it not been for the project.

"We could have never gotten the funding [from the normal operating budget],"

Dr Reed explained. "With the high school addition we were able to do

appropriate planning."

As part of the $28 million high school renovation and expansion, $1.3 million

was spent on computer hardware, software and infrastructure.

Dr Reed said the challenge now is to maintain technology on an annual basis.

"It was a significant undertaking. We're proud of the high school and what

we've done. Now we need to continue it and see it through," he said.

Internet & Cable TV

The school system now receives its Internet access from Charter

Communications, the local cable TV provider, which pipes the World Wide Web

into the high school through a 512K line. This allows students and teachers

free-flowing Internet access.

"You open up Netscape Navigator and its on," noted Steve Stevenson, a member

of the school system's talented "Tech Team."

The system is linked to the middle school and five elementary schools. All

schools are tied together on a local area network that allows for the

uninterrupted flow of information. This sophisticated network is monitored by

the Tech Team, which ensures both reliability and security -- two keywords

when you are talking about a system that contains large quantities of

sensitive information.

To help secure the information, the school district has a "fire wall" in

place, which allows the district to control what information comes in and goes

out of the system. There are millions of undesirable sites on Internet these

days and the "fire wall" prevents them from being downloaded by students with

wandering minds.

At NHS, the Tech Team is also installing a virtual private network (VPN), a

sophisticated mechanism which encrypts the network, thereby preventing users

from breaking in to restricted areas, such as grades and personal files of

students and faculty.

Each student's personal file/portfolio will eventually be installed on the

network. This will allow teachers to track the progress of a student's work

from ninth to twelfth grade. The district is also establishing electronic

mailboxes, which will allow students to submit their homework from home.

Headed by Henryk Michnowicz, the Tech Team has established the groundwork for

a successful network. However, its continuing job is to keep the system up and

running, and provide program upgrades and staff support.

As NHS Assistant Principal Jules Triber points out, it is the Tech Team's

responsibility to ensure that the equipment is user-friendly. Otherwise, he

said, the staff can't use it.

Bleak Beginnings

Steve Stevenson was the first technician hired back in 1993. Things have come

a long way in six years.

"It was bleak at best," he recalled. "We had some apple IIEs in the science

labs and also in math. In '93, the library got a few, too. CD-ROMs were new at

this time.

"In '94, we networked the library and a local company gave us some equipment

which allowed us to get on the Internet -- one or two accesses per school by

modem. We networked a computer lab in '94 and things sort of stayed that way

until we rebuilt school. That's when things took off."

Henryk Michnowicz formerly worked for a brokerage house in Boston. He knew

what components were working and which were not, and he understood networks

inside out and took the lead in their installation. The wiring is category

five, the top of the line, and the system is also hooked up to a generator

which kicks in the second there is a power failure. Such was the case

Wednesday afternoon during a brief power outage. Team members knew it would

work but opted to run down the hall to watch the uninterrupted power supply

(UPS) system in operation.

Carmella Amodeo, Colleen Cox and Steve Dawson are also part of the Tech Team.

Newtown High School is using standardized Dell computers, which allows for

easy upgrade and repair. Teacher Tom Swetts, of the school-to-career program,

is a certified Dell technician. He is teaching students how to repair

computers. Students are learning how to replace mother boards, CPUs and

computer chips. Soon, residents will be able to take their old machines to the

NHS lab and have new memory installed at a cost of $300.

"It's all done on a school-to-career grant," Mr Swetts said. "The idea is to

find people who have a strength in this area."

Those who do can command high salaries right out of 12th grade.

Times have certainly changed. It's not how fast your car is, it's how fast you

computer is, and many of those highly-technical students have traded in their

wrenches for a motherboard and a mouse.

Down the hall in the mechanical lab, students are using cad-key, a fully

three-dimensional graphics system -- perfect for would-be architects and

engineers.

"We're the pioneers. We've sort of paved the way," noted Mr Michnowicz. "We're

hard at work with your tax dollars."

The high school is also looking to improve its Web page, which some consider

to be a window into the district's technology. Mr Michnowicz has some ideas,

but he wants that project to be student-driven.

Mr Brand made numerous points about how impressed he was with what he saw on

the tour. "Why don't we know about this?" he asked.

"We're not PR guys, we're technicians," Mr Michnowicz said.