Cascade School District outlines plans for improved technology management

LEAVENWORTH — Cascade School District’s technology department is managing more than 1,400 student and staff devices while fielding thousands of annual support requests and repairs, prompting efforts to standardize replacement and maintenance.

During the June 22 school board meeting, Technology Director David Belmont said the department has worked on 375 student devices since it started tracking in January, about half of the district’s student laptops. Additionally, the technology department received 1,800 support tickets throughout the school year from staff, administrators and educators asking for help.

“It kind of gives you an idea of the day to day operations and just how much goes into keeping tech up and running from an end-user device perspective in our organization,” said Belmont.

Belmont told the school board that he was focused on several different areas to improve technology in the district, which includes having a steady equipment rotation, refining process and maintenance, and continuing to expose students to tools commonly used in real world applications, such as the Microsoft district.

According to Belmont, having a steady equipment rotation would prevent the district from having to make large surprise purchases when equipment ages out all at once. As such, Belmont said he is working to get new devices for each of the major schools, which includes new student laptops for all grades at the high school, 75-inch touch panels to replace existing projectors at the middle school, new staff computers at Alpine Lakes Elementary and new iPads at Peshastin Dryden Elementary.

He also emphasized the importance of refurbishing and reconfiguring existing technology across the district for improved experience and longevity. He estimated that 480 laptops had already been repaired and refreshed since the end of the school year.

“As we build better, more stable configurations, and bring new hardware in…that stability, that uptime is what enables our staff to not be affected by down times, and enables our students to have more time to learn without having to fight the technology,” said Belmont.

Board member Zachary Miller said he appreciated the increased communication surrounding district technology operations. 

“I feel like we know more about technology right now at this point than we have in other years,” said Miller.

Starting July 20, CSD will hold its school board meetings at the brown house located in the Alpine Lakes Elementary parking lot. The current board meeting room will be transformed into Belmont’s office, where he will be able to store equipment on the first floor and set up guest workstations. 

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media