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Technology team recounts summer upgrades: new bandwidth, devices and data dashboards to help teachers and staff
Summary
District technology director reported new internet provider redundancy, purchases of switches and access points with E‑Rate support, replacement of student devices and rollout of dashboards and a help‑desk/inventory system to speed responses.
Bettendorf’s technology department reported summer work to increase bandwidth resilience, replace aging student devices, expand wireless coverage and deploy new data dashboards and ticketing workflows.
Ben Reller, the district’s director of technology, said the district moved its primary internet service to Metronet and kept a redundant connection with Central Broadband, resulting in no district‑wide downtime since the change. The district also used E‑Rate equipment funding to buy 14 switches and about 50 wireless access points.
On devices, Reller said the district prepared and imaged 135 teacher laptops and received 735 Chromebooks to replace five‑year‑old student devices. He said kindergarten and first‑grade students will continue to use iPads while older students use Chromebooks.
Help desk and inventory: The district expanded use of Incident IQ for help‑desk tickets and asset inventory. Reller said the system routes tickets directly to the correct technician and supports automated checklists for onboarding and offboarding staff, which he said reduces omissions. He reported a current goal of resolving 90% of tickets within 24 hours during the school year and said technicians handle about 50 tickets per day at start of year.
Data dashboards: Reller demonstrated Tableau dashboards that feed data from the student information system. Dashboards included attendance and MTSS (tiered supports) views, teacher homeroom attendance comparisons, and a hall‑pass dashboard tied to Infinite Campus that shows pass counts and durations. He said building teams can use those views for faster interventions.
Ending: Board members and administrators praised the team’s work and called the technology improvements a significant operational improvement; Reller said further work will include device lifecycle tracking and evaluating classroom display systems.
