In 2017, Ohio’s Bloom-Carroll Local School District completed a major infrastructure upgrade.

EdTech asked Mark Thomas, Bloom-Carroll LSD’s director of instructional technology, to discuss the processes and best practices that worked for the district as it planned and executed upgrades.

MORE FROM EDTECH: Check out these three tips to making district upgrades with a budget.

EDTECH: What was the major infrastructure project recently completed at Bloom-Carroll LSD?

Thomas: We upgraded our edge switches throughout the entire district. We added an HPE Nimble storage system to our infrastructure for staff and student file storage. We added item-level backup, and we completed a Cisco Meraki wireless infrastructure upgrade throughout the district.

EDTECH: How should schools choose which upgrades to take on?

Thomas: My team and I identify the systems that we know are aging out and start putting together a budget and proposals. 

The Board of Education cannot fund everything, so we make our determination of how to use their allocation for our greatest need. Data connectivity and wireless connectivity are high needs — those typically would trump end-user upgrades, for instance.

EDTECH: How do you choose which technologies you adopt?

Thomas: We always have to be cognizant of cost. We also look at dependability. We talk to other school districts that use a specific type of system we’re considering, to see what their experiences have been. 

In my 20 years in educational technology, I’ve never been the first to put a brand-new technology into my systems. We try to look at the industry and see how the vendors we’re interested in have performed. 

EDTECH: Would you caution against being an early adopter?

Thomas: I’m definitely not an early adopter on most things, but I’m not a late adopter either. If a company comes out and they’ve taken the market by storm, and there are positive reviews and it’s a technology we’re looking at, then certainly we’ll invest in it. 

I don’t have a dedicated network administrator or voice administrator or wireless administrator. My staff and I do it all, so it’s our job to be extraordinarily knowledgeable about all the systems that we support. We watch industry standards and districts that are trying to do the same things we’re doing. 

There are a lot of things we can do — and a lot we can’t — with our specific resources, and we have to know the difference.

A lot depends, too, on the fact that we work with buildings that were built in the 1940s. Some systems just won’t work when you’re dealing with an old building. 

EDTECH: What pitfalls would you caution against?

Thomas: I would caution someone new in the field about jumping on every bandwagon or listening to every sales pitch that comes along. Eventually, you’re going to get burned, and you will waste taxpayer dollars. 

I have to be very cautious because every dollar I spend comes from a taxpayer. I also don’t have an unlimited staff that can spend hours and hours troubleshooting. The technology has to work the first time it’s set up.