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Hartland technology director outlines upgrades: Windows 11, device refresh and summer maintenance
Summary
Technology director Scott told the board the district will upgrade remaining machines to Windows 11, replace aging computers, update interactive classroom panels by hand over the summer, and maintain a backup 10-gig Internet connection to reduce outages.
Scott, the district's technology director, gave a 20-minute report on the district's current technology assets, staffing and planned summer work.
What he said: Scott reported the district supports about 1,950 computers, roughly 320 interactive panels, 744 phones, 840 wireless access points and nearly 900 access badges. Bandwidth averages 700'800 megabits per second with peaks around 3 gigabits; the district uses a shared 10-gigabit Internet connection through LESA and maintains its own backup 10-gig connection to Wayne County RESA.
Planned work for summer 2025 includes:
- Replacing desktop and staff computers at the central (Legacy) building that are seven to eight years old (bond-funded replacements). - Upgrading remaining district computers to Windows 11 to comply with Microsoft support changes. - Replacing/refreshing the high school Chromebook carts purchased from the 2020 bond. - Updating firmware/software on interactive flat-panel displays (requires manual USB updates for each panel). - Annual server and network maintenance plus the usual equipment recycling and reimaging.
Staffing and training: Scott outlined the district's technology team (help desk, network administration, systems engineers shared with LESA) and emphasized on-demand training: help-desk resources, online how-to videos and one-on-one support for teachers when new technology is introduced.
AI readiness: Scott said the district participates in an AI task force at LESA and is planning for the increased data and compute requirements AI tools may demand. He noted that state or federal funding could be needed in the future to offset such costs but had no firm information yet.
Why it matters: The planned replacement and Windows 11 upgrade are necessary to maintain security updates and reduce instructional disruption. The manual update process for interactive panels is labor-intensive and will be scheduled for summer to avoid class interruptions.
Ending: The board thanked Scott for the overview and asked staff to continue communicating schedules for replacements and training resources to schools.
