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The Kent School District focuses on technology across their schools and has drawn lots of
attention, in fact, they have recieved many awards during the past few years. Kent School
District is the only school district in the world to be included in the Microsoft Innovative
Schools World Tour, Congratulations!
The Kent School District mission is successfully preparing all students for their futures.
Our students will live and work in a digital connected future and learning must take place
in a similar environment. The IT Department helps to ensure the process of selecting and
employing digital resources is intentional. This puts the district on the road to realizing
the boards goals. Although there is no specific goal for the IT Department, our board's expectation
is that technology is leveraged to insure all board goals are accomplished,
The IT Department plays a critical role in providing innovative and cutting edge technology
tools in a robust and reliable environment supporting our 28,000 students and 4,000 staff.
Our IT team provides tools and resources to help our staff make data driven decisions
and track key performance indicators to help us increase the graduation rate and close
the achievement gap.
Our school board and superintendent provide a clear mission and strong goals. The IT Department
frames all of our efforts with these goals in mind. Our IT governance model includes
a 5 year road map, proactive budget forecasting, project and change management, and a culture
of exceptional customer service. We shift our organizational chart to allocate resources
based on individual strengths and project needs. This fosters and strengthens relationships
and communication across our teams. One example of a project that involves all IT teams is
our Tech Expo.
The annual Tech Expo provides opportunities for students
to develop their 21st century skills. This event transforms timid students into engaged
learners and confident public speakers. It is a unique opportunity for effective partnerships
with families, communities and businesses.
Our team develops custom applications that automate and streamline district operatons,
as well as engage parents and community in our strategic planning and policy decisions.
To further enhance our communication strategies, we disseminate information via live video
streams, local public access broadcast, videos on demand, and our website. Parents and community
members can subscribe to recieve information and alerts via emails, text messages, and
phone calls.
Our infrastructure includes a data center that provides fiber connectivity to all of
our buildings stretching across 71 square miles. We provide file storage and email for
over 30,000 students and staff. We're installing kiosks with wifi connections throughout the
low income housing communities to increase access to digital resources.
Each year our one to one program deploys 10,000 laptops to our secondary students within the
first 8 days of school to provide them access to digital resources. Our district has also
developed a comprehensive digital professional development platform. Teachers across the
district can attend training remotely using Microsoft Lync, or self directed with content
designed for independent learning.
Customer support demands have increased drastically over the last decade. As we add 2,500 computers
to our environment each year. We target a three nines uptime on all critical systems,
we re image all instructional computers every year and constantly refresh and surplus them
to students of poverty.
Students play an integral part in our success in Kent. Our student internship program offers
opportunities for students to experience real world applications through on the job training
in the IT field. We employ up to 50 interns at any given time to work on various projects.
The Kent School District is the 4th largest district in the state of Washington. With
over 138 different languages spoken. This district has a history of being recognized
for excellence for their innovative use of technology for teaching and learning. Kent's
willingness to share their strategies and resources allow for their successes to be
replicated in other districts. Education leaders and dignataries from around the world visited
Kent to learn their best practices. The Kent School District IT team have taken technology
beyond just the support role and have made themselves a strategic partner in the learning
community. With the Kent School District IT Department anything is possible!