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District technology director outlines upgrades, Skyward migration and student‑safety monitoring
Summary
Director of Technology Abe Levellis reported on new wireless links to outbuildings, fiber to the SCI Center, planned Skyward student‑management migration, print‑use statistics and safety flags from the Gaggle monitoring system (about 240 incidents flagged, fewer than 10 classified as serious).
The district’s director of technology, Abe Levellis, gave an annual April technology update outlining recent projects and priorities for the coming year.
Levellis said the district installed wireless bridges to outbuildings (baseball field, maintenance shop, auto shop, transportation office and weight room), replaced interactive panels across campuses, repaired and added security cameras after last summer’s lightning strike, and completed fiber installation to the SCI Regional and Workforce Training Center to connect it to the main campus network. He said connecting the SCI Center to the district backbone should eliminate a separate internet charge for that site.
On software and systems, Levellis described the planned migration from the district’s longtime student management system to Skyward. The district chose Skyward after a multi‑vendor review and will stagger migration (Skyward’s legacy product will be used through the coming year while the district prepares to move to Skyward’s newer product in a later phase). He told the board the current system remains supported for security and state updates but is not receiving new feature development.
Levellis also presented operational metrics: year‑to‑date print volume of roughly 736,000 pages printed, about 1.1 million copies made and 31,000 scans. He noted that the district now receives automated weekly snapshots for principals. On student‑safety monitoring, Levellis reported the Gaggle system flagged roughly 240 incidents during the year; he said fewer than 10 of those were the most serious, and that Gaggle escalates urgent cases by phone while lower‑priority findings are routed to administrators by email.
Upcoming budget items Levellis said he will seek include Chromebook replacements on a four‑year cycle (roughly 300 devices per year), replacement interactive panels at the high school, and teacher laptop replacements; he also plans Category 2 E‑Rate work to upgrade firewalls and Wi‑Fi coverage (district pays 20 percent; E‑Rate pays 80 percent). A board member asked about ticketing numbers and whether a change in help‑desk systems affected year‑to‑year comparisons; Levellis confirmed the help‑desk system changed and that skewed some metrics.
“By bringing the SCI Center onto the campus network and moving ahead with planned replacements, we’re trying to keep costs manageable while improving service,” Levellis told the board.
