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Creating a Full-Time Sysadmin Position at a School?
Old_Mountain_Man asks: "I have been working at a K-8 school for the last two school years, as a volunteer through an Americorps program called the Montana Technology Corps. In theory, I am here to teach teachers and students how to use technology, but because of the need and my ability to do so, I have become an unofficial Systems Administrator. We also have a contracted Systems Admin that comes in once a week, and works 30 hours or so a month. After this year, the Tech Corps position will no longer be available to the school, so something needs to be done to keep the IT systems of the school functioning. I am going to propose to the school board that they create an official, full time systems administrator position, and to hire me for that job. Are there others out there that got their jobs similarly? How do you convince a board that they need to start budgeting for this? They have obviously taken the plunge to getting this technology in the school, so how do I convince them that they need somebody here to maintain it?"
"We have about 375 students, and probably 40 or so staff that use the computers. We have a lab of 25 machines, workstations in each classroom, a laptop cart, four smart-boards, six networked printers, and six servers hosting files, applications, Exchange and an Isaserver. In all, this is about 170 machines that need to be taken care of. There's no way the contracted systems admin could keep up with this, while working only 30 hours a month, so I feel the school needs somebody here full time.
What I am looking for is specific information regarding how many IT support people are needed for this kind of setup. I wonder if there are papers/reports that break down how much support time is needed for different systems that I could take to the school board.
In addition any advice on how to shape my presentation to the board would be useful."
What I am looking for is specific information regarding how many IT support people are needed for this kind of setup. I wonder if there are papers/reports that break down how much support time is needed for different systems that I could take to the school board.
In addition any advice on how to shape my presentation to the board would be useful."
For a few weeks... If they need a systems administrator, they should realize it pretty quickly.
That's a fairly small school. They already have a roving sysadmin, which seems like the right approach for a budget-strapped district with such a small number of machines per school. If the roving sysadmin is not able to handle the load, propose that they hire a second roving sysadmin for the district. I don't think you'll get very far offering to work full time as a sysadmin for just one small school.
(First post, or am I slow?)
Take a look at the Massachusetts state-wide requirements for public schools-- if you were subject to them, you'd require at least one (maybe even two) full-time sysadmins per that many students (plus a few other people too). You could cite that as documentation for the validity of your proposal.
If you're working in a corporate environment, most schools and gov't institutions tend to pay less, and on a sliding scale that typically has a cap.
While you're creating the position from scatch, they may reference other districts or institutions to determine what they should budget. There's also the risk if you asking too much and it just not being available.
At any rate - it may require some sink or swim experience for them before they truly realize the need if it's like any other bureaucracy. Unless the powers that be are already somewhat technology savvy, they'll likely fail to see this with any but the best prepared amount of discussion. Inclusion of facts and costs for each decision branch would likely be very helpful.
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I just graduated from a high school in Fairfax. for a school with about 2400 students, smart boards, projectors and at least 1 computer in every room, multiple mobile laptop labs with 25 or 50 laptops in them, and computer labs, we had 2 full time tech people, one for software/network support, and one for other stuff. Plus we had student techs who would actually do the work outside of the office. finally we had county support for hardware problems and wireless fixes. so, figure on one full time employee w/ 2-3 student techs and you should be able to run the school's resources just fine. Also, this was a public school
I work in a large school district. Large enough that it has a central IT department, (which is where I work).
The closest position here to what your describing is what we call a "Site Technology Coordinator", who we have at most high schools and middle school that deal with most of the stuff our actual sys admins don't have time to deal with. (We moved the printer without telling the WAN team and now we can't print?)
First, for a school of around 400 or so, you shouldn't need more than one full time technology assitant, if you have the tools to properly manage the systems. We use ZENworks, which obviously is overkill for such a small scope, (we have 50,000 students we service though).
Our largest school has about 2,000 students and about 150-175 staff, and we still only have one full time STC. We do however have area techs as well.
For your situation, the best way to convince a board is comparative analysis. See how other school districts or other schools fare, and what they do. Like us for instance. Your needed staff will probably total one full time Admin, and at least one part-time tech, (such as a TOSA [Teacher on Special Assignment], or teacher with extra responsibilities).
If you need more info, e-mail me.
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Seems to me one of the best things you can do is explain exactly how much technical support they have right now. List out all of the duties you are performing and give ballparks for how many hours you spend on each any given week or month. List separately what the traveling SysAdmin's duties are, and hours devoted to each. For good measure, give a couple of common emergency scenarios, and what it would take to dig out from under them. Remind them that they soon won't have anyone doing your set of tasks. You're also going to have to give an idea how much someone filling that job can expect to ask for compensation, of course keeping in mind that there is a salary gap between the academic and the corporate world. Still, quote both ranges.
Having never made a presentation like this to a school board, I can't give you much advice as far as format goes, I'm afraid. But as far as content goes, it sounds like you've got a good start on it already. Hopefully you'll at least convince them to increase their staff, if not create a full time position. Maybe consider alternative setups - can they get by with a part time SysAdmin, and a full time Asst. Sysadmin, or Operator type position at lower pay?
Good luck with your endeavors...
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the school system i used to work for had it solved pretty smartly. the bulk of the elementary schools were divided between admins. about 4-5 schools were the responsability of one admin from the central office. if work became heavy he could pull a fellow admin from another set of schools to help cover/assist. for bigger elementary schools, all middle and high schools, they have a dedicated on site admin. back to the multi-school admins. they usually had someone onsite, usually a media librarian, who had basic tech knowledge to do a preliminary level of service, mostly for stuff like basic desktops, leaving the more serious computer/server problems for the main admin. you wont get an immediate response, but it does lend to a pretty balanced response time with lower budget costs. your best bet is to try and justify the cost of someone who works at the school full time to solve the problems over someone whos there on a very limited time basis
I work as the Computer Tech for a school district in South-East Michigan. We currently have about 1.0 FTE for each 180 computers but we are laying off people for next year. In trying to investigate what other districts are doing it is clear the choice is based on what they can afford - not what would be useful or ideal.
A couple notes
-Most technology plan resources recommend 1 FTE for every 100-200 computers, or 1 FTE for every 300-500 closely managed computers (Thin clients for instance)
-There are clear trade-offs in terms of response time and tech support. Document the current repair turnaround time, and number of failures and compare it to what would be expected with different levels of staffing. Let the elected school board decide if it is worth taking funding from teachers to get computers fixed faster
-It is possible to survive with much less support if you are REALLY WILLING as a district to reduce the flexibility of computer us (for instance no support for use other than office or a browser, no non-district software installed, using things like deep-freeze, etc
If my high school sys admin was a benchmark for success you should try to get in the way of education as much as possible. If someone is programming in Brainfuck go ahead and remove the scripts and lock their account for a week even though you only saw the naughty word because you were searching for it.
The moment anyone does something that violates the terms of use (even something completely petty that doesn't affect anyone) find out which class and person is doing it, sprint to the class, sneak in quietly (wearing camouflage gear), tip-toe behind the person offending the petty rule, and scream in their ear while they're doing whatever it is they shouldn't.
Bonus points if you put your hand on their shoulder, and they turn around and see you glaring into their eyes with disgust just as you start to scream at them.
If you can demonstrate these skills to the board you're in; technical abilities don't matter in my experience.
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You're going to have to convince them that they're hosed without someone taking care of these machines. You're also going to have to see if they have the money in their budget to hire someone full-time, and if you can afford what they're willing to pay.
Starting talking to board members individually. Invite them to see the technology infrastructure and make sure they know how many man-hours it takes to maintain the system. Don't just leave if they don't appear to be listening to you. It's times like these that a sudden illness or death in the family would really come in handy (OK, so that's a bit morbid).
Write a proposal for the position and a justification for it. If you live in the district, they're somewhat obligated to at least listen to you. Just take your time and work through the system.
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
- The legislature didn't get a budget out yet.
- There are still serious questions about school funding; who's paying for what and how much, and if they way they're doing it is constituational
- Schools are having a tougher time passing levies for operations, so they're really going to be touchy on the bottom line
I'm not saying it can't be done; just that it's going to be a seriously uphill battle.How do you convince a board that they need to start budgeting for this?
You don't. You watch the tapes of the old board meetings, figure out which board member is most likely to have a clue what you're talking about and then you convince her directly. Bringing along the rest of the board is then her game in which you're just a player.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
Disclaimer: I'm the UNIX/Linux SA for an engineering college.
As with presenting to many other types of layfolk, it's usually best to paint a picture of exactly what it is that the person would do and why.
First: What is the before and after picture regarding what you've been doing so far? What improvements in the education experience have you enabled in your time there?
Second: What exactly are the ramifications of not having someone in your position? What falls apart and what gets lost?
Third: Who will vouch for that among the existing teachers/staff?
If you can say something like:
"Before I arrived, there were limited services available in area X. As a result, the educational mission was degraded because the students/teachers/staff couldn't do Y. By virtue of my work, Y is now possible and the educational mission is therefore improved in ways P, Q, and R (as corroborated by faculty A, B, and C).
Maintenance is required to keep Y working, however, and without it Y would degrade to Z, which would have a catastrophic effect on piece J of the educational mission. In addition, as a full timer, I could also enable the needed piece W, which I currently don't have time to do, and we can (eliminate/reduce) the contractor time, saving $D from the budget."
Wow. That was a lot of letters. To put it more simply, you need to put things both in context of the educational mission of the school (improving technical scholarship, easing the teaching of math, reducing the administrative headaches the teachers experience and freeing them up for more relevant work, etc) and reducing cost if possible. Show what has been achieved already, how that work is important, and how it will be wasted and useless if not maintained.
In a very real sense, this position is a high-tech janitor or facilities person in the mind of a school board--a necessary evil (lest everyone be overridden with crap). The more you can make your case that crap is reduced and will return without vigilance, the more likely they are to make the position. As others have noted, saying "district L has one" would help, but ultimately the people on the board have to see the value you bring. If it's not greater than, say, additional Music or PE classes (or other non-core services), you'll have a hard time selling it.
Making the position, btw, is the hard part. Getting the job is easier. Not trivially easy, mind you, but easier.
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana." --Groucho Marx
Your own data is far more valuable than anything any of us can give you.
Take the part-time guy to lunch and find out exactly what he does and how long it takes him to do it.
Add the hours you put in.
Then make adjustments for the efficiency of having one person do the whole job.
This gives you a starting point.
If that's not enough for a 40-hour-week job, make adjustments for tasks that are currently done by teachers that can be offloaded to you, as well as tasks that are not getting done that will benefit the teachers and students "if only we had the manpower."
Finally, to short-circuit the question of "can we do any of this with volunteer labor," make a realistic assessment of how much work volunteers could do, and add in the cost of training and coordinating the volunteers.
One more thing to consider:
As a full-time sysadmin, you can also run a serious, skill-building high-school "computer club" and if you have the credentials, teach certification classes to high school students after school or in the evenings. Parents love this.
Best of luck.
By the way, the part-time guy might want the job you are trying to create, and the school board might just hire him for the position. If you two put your heads together and he gives you a good reference, maybe his other clients will hire you.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
A lot of people have posted about salary requirements and things. Please note that the original question states that he's currently an AmeriCorps member. For those who aren't familiar, AmeriCorps is a national service program where people commit to a term of service on a limited subsistence allowance. Most positions require 1700 hours for a year, and pay around 1000k/month, with the option of either a $1,200 cash stipend or a $4,725 education award upon successful completion of service.
Anyway, to get back to the original posters point about how to sell the school board on this proposition, there's a couple things I'd suggest. First, try to get a champion within the system, whether this be a board member, school principal, a group of teachers, etc. Having someone else advocate for your cause sends a stronger message than you begging for a job.
Second, prepare a report of what you've done in your two years as an AmeriCorps member. What was the status of the computer systems before you were there? Technical knowledge among the staff? In other words, tell the board what they'd get by investing in you. You need to convince the board what the value add of having a full time position is, as opposed to 30 hours a week. Whether you present it as what you add to the school, or what the school loses if they don't create the position, is up to you. Both approaches have strengths and weaknesses.
Note that the contractor is a challenge here. You might burn a bridge if the board does make it into a full time position, and you get the position as opposed to him/her. In small town Montana, that could make things interesting . . .
p.s. From your email address, I'm guessing you're in Bonner, MT. Having spent two years in Helena (one as an AmeriCorps*VISTA back before Katie was in her position, and Laura was the Tech Corps director, and the second as a state employee), good luck! It's beautiful, and Missoula is a wonderfully liberal city, but jobs, especially tech jobs, are definitely a challenge.
Simply give every teacher a printed copy of the details of Julie Amero's case, and mention if a competent full time person is not on staff, this could happen to them. Suggest that they may want to voice their concerns to the school board.
I think what I was thinking of was here at 4.B.3.