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Winchester Public Schools reports device refreshes, cybersecurity work and annual savings from phone and fiber moves
Summary
Technology director told the board the division closed roughly 5,400 help-desk tickets this year, is managing over 12,000 devices, completed Windows 11 on about 1,600 devices and refreshed about 1,000 Chromebooks; two infrastructure moves were estimated to save roughly $36,000—$40,000 per year each.
Winchester Public Schools presented its annual technology update on June 22, detailing device refreshes, cybersecurity steps, multi-year infrastructure projects and planned summer capital work.
Technology director Mr. Bryant told the board the division has closed "a little under 5,400" work-order tickets year-to-date and is now managing more than 12,000 active devices. "We've completed about 1,600 devices" on a multi-year Windows 11 and Office 2024 rollout, he said, and the district refreshed roughly 1,000 Chromebooks this year as part of a five- and nine-year refresh cycle.
Key infrastructure work included new PowerSchool and cafeteria-system servers, operating-system upgrades on about 50 servers, and cybersecurity steps including multi-factor authentication for staff. Mr. Bryant also described two large projects that he said are delivering recurring savings: a migration to a cloud calling platform and fiber/digital phone lines and a fiber migration to a vendor identified in the record as "Shin Tel." Each of those projects was estimated to save "roughly about 36 to 40,000 in savings a year."
The district also described instructional-technology work: onboarding and training, a districtwide digital-citizenship certification, a hosted regional EdTech conference, and AI-focused professional development and an AI integration framework for staff and students. Planned summer projects include security-camera upgrades, expanded data-storage capacity, a planetarium projector/computer replacement at Hanley, and a gym scoreboard/digital-ticker installation and press-box upgrade at the same campus.
Budget and timelines: Mr. Bryant said the scoreboard project would begin in early July and be ready for volleyball season; the cloud-calling and fiber moves are complete or near-complete and reported to be producing annual operational savings. The director identified cost-savings figures as approximate.
