Coronado Unified School District Report

Coronado Unified School District Technology Review July 20, 2011 Joel D. Montero Chief Executive Officer Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM July 20, 2011 Jeffrey Felix, Superintendent Coronado Unified School District 201 Sixth Street Coronado, CA 92118 Dear Superintendent Felix, In February 2011, the Coronado Unified School District and the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) entered into an agreement for a technology review. Specifically, the agreement stated that FCMAT would perform the following: 1. Review the delivery of instructional and administrative technology services and make recommendations for improvement. 2. Review the district’s organizational structure for technology support services and make recommendations for improvement. 3. Review the district’s staffing for technology support services and make recommen- dations for improvement. 4. Review the district’s computer network security and make recommendations for improvement. 5. Conduct an information assurance audit to review the security and privacy of district information and make recommendations for improvement. This final report contains the study team’s findings and recommendations in the above areas of review. We appreciate the opportunity to serve the Coronado Unified School District, and extend our thanks to all the staff for their assistance during fieldwork. Sincerely, Joel D. Montero Chief Executive Officer FCMAT Joel D. Montero, Chief Executive Officer . . 1300 17th Street - CITY CENTRE, Bakersfield, CA 93 . 301-4533 Telephone 661-6 . 36-4611 Fax 661-63 . 6-4647 422 Petaluma Blvd North, Suite. C, Petaluma, CA 94952 Telephone: 707-775-2850 Fax: 707-775-2854 www.fcmat.org Administrative Agent: Christine L. Frazier - Office of Kern County Superintendent of Schools i Table of conT enT s Table of contents About FCMAT .........................................................................................iii Introduction ............................................................................................1 Study Guidelines ............................................................................................1 Study Team.......................................................................................................2 Executive Summary ........................................................................3 Findings and Recommendations .....................................................5 Organizational Structure and Staffing ....................................................5 Instructional and Administrative Services .............................................9 Information Assurance and Network Security ...................................13 Appendices ............................................................................................15 coronado UniFied school district ii Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM iii abouT fcM aT About FCMAT FCMAT’s primary mission is to assist California’s local K-14 educational agencies to identify, prevent, and resolve financial and data management challenges. FCMAT provides fiscal and data management assistance, professional development training, product development and other related school business and data services. FCMAT’s fiscal and management assistance services are used not just to help avert fiscal crisis, but to promote sound financial practices and efficient operations. FCMAT’s data management services are used to help local educational agencies (LEAs) meet state reporting responsibilities, improve data quality, and share information. FCMAT may be requested to provide fiscal crisis or management assistance by a school district, charter school, community college, county office of education, the state Superintendent of Public Instruction, or the Legislature. When a request or assignment is received, FCMAT assembles a study team that works closely with the local education agency to define the scope of work, conduct on-site fieldwork and provide a written report with findings and recommendations to help resolve issues, overcome challenges and plan for the future. Studies by Fiscal Year 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 92/93 93/94 94/95 95/96 96/97 97/98 98/99 99/00 00/01 01/02 02/03 03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11* 10/11** *Projected **Actual coronado UniFied school district seidutS fo rebmuN FCMAT also develops and provides numerous publications, software tools, workshops and professional development opportunities to help local educational agencies operate more effec- tively and fulfill their fiscal oversight and data management responsibilities. The California School Information Services (CSIS) arm of FCMAT assists the California Department of Education with the implementation of the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) and also maintains DataGate, the FCMAT/CSIS software LEAs use for CSIS services. FCMAT was created by Assembly Bill 1200 in 1992 to assist LEAs to meet and sustain their financial obligations. Assembly Bill 107 in 1997 charged FCMAT with responsi- bility for CSIS and its statewide data management work. Assembly Bill 1115 in 1999 codified CSIS’ mission. AB 1200 is also a statewide plan for county office of education and school districts to work together locally to improve fiscal procedures and accountability standards. Assembly Bill 2756 (2004) provides specific responsibilities to FCMAT with regard to districts that have received emergency state loans. iv abouT fcM aT In January 2006, SB 430 (charter schools) and AB 1366 (community colleges) became law and expanded FCMAT’s services to those types of LEAs. Since 1992, FCMAT has been engaged to perform nearly 850 reviews for LEAs, including school districts, county offices of education, charter schools and community colleges. The Kern County Superintendent of Schools is the administrative agent for FCMAT. The team is led by Joel D. Montero, Chief Executive Officer, with funding derived through appropriations in the state budget and a modest fee schedule for charges to requesting agencies. Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 1 inTroduc Tion Introduction Background The Coronado Unified School District consists of five schools and approximately 3,037 students. It is located along the California coastline adjacent to San Diego. It is governed by a five-member board of education. The district employs approximately 178 certificated and 146 classified staff. Student scores on the Academic Performance Index range between 850 and 909, with the scores at Coronado High School among the highest of the comprehensive high schools in San Diego County. Approximately 90% of the district’s high school graduates go on to college. In December 2010 the district requested FCMAT to review its technology systems and services. The study agreement specifies that FCMAT will perform the following: 1. Review the delivery of instructional and administrative technology services and make recommendations for improvement. 2. Review the district’s organizational structure for technology support services and make recommendations for improvement. 3. Review the district’s staffing for technology support services and make recom- mendations for improvement. 4. Review the district’s computer network security and make recommendations for improvement. 5. Conduct an information assurance audit to review the security and privacy of district information and make recommendations for improvement. Study Guidelines FCMAT visited the district on March 14 and 15, 2011 to conduct interviews, collect data and review documents. This report is the result of those activities and is divided into the following sections: • Executive Summary • Organizational Structure and Staffing • Instructional and Administrative Services • Information Assurance and Network Security • Appendices coronado UniFied school district 2 inTroduc Tion Study Team The study team was composed of the following members: Andrew Prestage Carl Fong* FCMAT Management Analyst Director of Technology Services Bakersfield, California Orange County Office of Education Costa Mesa, California Brian Stockbrugger Laura Haywood FCMAT Consultant FCMAT Public Information Specialist Aliso Viejo, California Bakersfield, California *As a member of this study team, this consultant was not representing his employer but was working solely as an independent contractor for FCMAT. Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 3 execuTive suMMary Executive Summary The Information Technology Department lacks a clear and strategic mission. Department leadership, staffing levels, and employee technical skills do not sufficiently support the district’s technology needs. Customer service needs improvement. Technology standardization and purchase procedures should be established. There is excess hard- ware inventory and a lack of inventory control. Technology support staff schedules may need to be adjusted to provide better coverage, particu- larly during lunchtimes. Some technology staff lack sufficient training to provide some aspects of user support. Some necessary updates to critical infrastructure have not been performed. Technical skills also are lacking in basic project management and network design. A single information technology department would more efficiently and effectively support the district and school sites. A technology coordinator could provide overall direction of technology resources, including instructional technology and technical support. Consulting agreements with local partners could provide as-needed assistance in areas that are beyond the capabilities of staff. A five-year technology plan should be created as the template for executing the superintendent’s vision for technology. Participants in developing the plan should include board members, cabinet, administration, technology staff, teachers, students, parents, community members and strategic partners. Technology committees should be formed to oversee various aspects of software and hardware selection and usage, and to guide technology planning. Staff have encountered problems with overall network performance and reliability. The district has not determined whether these issues relate to the network, the county office, desktop computers or individual applications. The district does not have a current computer replacement plan. Staff are working with older equipment, resulting in a significant loss of productivity. A single grade book application should be selected, and integration and performance issues should be resolved. The district should develop diagrams of the wide area and local networks. A disaster recovery plan and centralized storage system are needed. A security plan should be created to govern use and access to the network. Physical security is needed for the intermediate data facility. coronado UniFied school district 4 Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 5 orGaniZaTional s TrucTure and s TaffinG Findings and Recommendations Organizational Structure and Staffing The district has the following Information Technology Department staffing: • One network supervisor • One interim network supervisor • One interim network engineer • One computer technician The district’s instructional technology staffing is as follows: • One lead technology resource teacher – full-time 7/6 schedule – time split between district office and middle school • One technology resource teacher at the high school, split 50/50 between that position and classroom teacher position • Two elementary school technology resource teachers, part time, 19.5 hours per week The Information Technology Department lacks a clear mission, resulting in poor organization and communication within the department. With two network supervisors, the computer tech- nicians are confused regarding the reporting structure. Users outside the department are confused regarding the support structure. Department leadership, staffing levels and employee technical skills are insufficient to support current and future technology needs. Customer service also is lacking. For example, help desk tickets are not prioritized and assigned by urgency or time of receipt. Rather, each technology employee can pick and choose the tickets they want to work on from the help desk system. This causes a backlog and frustration among technology users. In addition, some IT staff reported that tickets are not closed when completed, resulting in confusion and delays in resolving other problems. Users indicated that they often are not notified when a problem has been worked on or resolved. There is insufficient IT staff to support the number of help desk tickets being submitted. Technology standardization and purchase procedures are not established. For example, a staff member was given a catalog and was asked to select a printer for purchase rather than the IT staff conducting research and making a recommendation. The study team noted an overabundant and disorganized supply of hardware in the Information Technology Department, and a lack of inventory control. A back door entry was left open, leaving hardware unsecured. A young child was sitting at a desk near the open door and equipment. Several interviewees stated that the Information Technology Department often is unstaffed during lunchtimes, resulting in a lack of support and coverage for the schools and district office. Based on the study team’s observations and interviews with district office staff, FCMAT also found that project priorities were not identified or communicated to the end user, and that tech- nology resource teachers at the school sites and the IT Department do not collaborate to resolve problems. coronado UniFied school district 6 orGaniZaTional s TrucTure and s TaffinG IT staff reported that they lack the necessary tools for their position but could not clearly define what tools are necessary. Due to the lack of standardization within the district, some IT staff reported that they lacked the training to provide some aspects of support. Staff indicated that if there was a network problem, they could not diagnose the problem and had to contact the network supervisor for a resolution. IT staff indicated that some necessary updates to critical infrastructure equipment have not been performed due to lack of technical training provided or offered. In interviewing the IT staff, the study team concluded that the level of technical skills in basic project management, network design and some basic troubleshooting is lacking. FCMAT was provided with a current projects list that included an anticipated project comple- tion timeline: Middle School VoIP changeover Summer 2011 High School VoIP changeover Spring Break 2011 Village VoIP changeover Summer 2011 Microsoft Exchange 2010 Upgrade Spring 2012 Cisco Unified Communication Spring 2012 SAN / Server Virtualization implementation Summer 2011 SATT 21 Grant Implementation (270 Netbooks) Summer 2011 NComputing Proof of Concept Spring 2011 Projectors – Strand / Village MPRs / Granzer Hall Summer 2011 Meraki Wireless at Village Summer 2011 Meraki Wireless at Middle School Summer 2011 A single information technology department would more efficiently and effectively support the district and school sites. A leadership role for this department such as technology coordinator could provide overall direction of the district’s information technology resources, including instructional technology and technical support. Technology support staffing should include a technology support specialist II position and two technology support specialist I positions. The technology resource teacher group should include one full-time technology resource teacher. The scope of this position should be to provide instructional technology support to the students and teachers at the high school and middle school levels. A part-time technology resource teacher (50%) could provide instructional technology support to the students and teachers at the elementary schools. The hours dedicated to this position could increase with the needs of the district. The remaining hours could be allocated to regular classroom instruction. A part-time lab instructor (approximately 50%) could provide computer lab time at each of the two elementary schools. Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 7 orGaniZaTional s TrucTure and s TaffinG Recommendations The district should: 1. Reorganize technology support and instructional technology staff to better serve users’ needs. 2. Create an information technology mission statement that aligns with the district’s mission. Communicate the mission statement to all district sites. 3. Create an organizational chart for the Information Technology Department and make it available to all departments and employees. 4. Create a priority list of projects for upcoming fiscal year that is communi- cated throughout the district. 5. Accurately track all open, closed and pending help desk tickets. Require staff to use the ticketing system and avoid sending emails directly to technology staff. 6. Create processes and procedures for assessing help desk tickets and notifying users of work in progress or resolution. 7. Provide cross training for department staff. 8. Create a schedule for all technicians that will optimize districtwide coverage. Schedule on-site time for each technician 1-2 days per week. 9. Provide professional technical training and project management through classes offered at the county office of education and/or professional education technology associations. 10. Establish consulting agreements with local partners to provide as-needed consulting in areas that are beyond the capabilities of IT staff members and to augment district IT staff when assistance is needed. 11. Create a five-year technology plan. This plan should be the blueprint for executing the superintendent’s vision for moving forward with technology. The plan should be coordinated by the technology coordinator. Participants in creating the plan should include board members, cabinet, administrators, technology department, teachers, students, parents, community members, and strategic partners. 12. Create a technology committee at each site. Topics of discussion at regularly scheduled meetings should include current and future needs for technology, and the use of technology in instruction, professional development and professional learning communities. These committees should be chaired by the principal and co-chaired by the technology resource teacher and technology coordinator. 13. Create a district technology committee to review and refine the implementa- tion of the technology plan, provide contingency planning and discuss general technology issues. The committee should be chaired by the superin- tendent and co-chaired by the technology coordinator. coronado UniFied school district 8 Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 9 insTrucTional and adM inisTraTive services Instructional and Administrative Services The district utilizes the administrative applications from the San Diego County Office of Education, which can be labor-intensive for staff. For example, the study team found that to create a report for Human Resources the user must: • Log in to the application at San Diego COE • Run a query to generate the report. However, the query does not allow the user to select the fields necessary for the required report • Export the final result in a comma delimited file to local desktop • Import the file into Excel • Delete and adjust columns and fields for the necessary report The user who runs these reports keeps notes on how to create reports for each specific system. The user noted that sometimes the response from applications is slow. The district maintains its own local email system. Staff reported that the email system has had problems in the past. Staff reported constant problems with overall network performance and reliability, and specifi- cally with respect to network traffic and access to applications and files. Concerns were expressed with how long it takes to load applications, Netbook connection to the network, and Genesis access. The district has not determined whether these issues relate to the network, the county office, desktop computers or individual applications. The district uses the AT&T Opt-E-Man network to connect all district locations and to connect to the county office. The high school serves as the hub of the wide area network. The connection speeds are as follows: Site Link Current Speed Planned Speed High School to SDCOE 50 Mb 100 Mb High School to District Office 10 Mb 20 Mb High School to Middle School 50 Mb No planned upgrade High School to Strand 10 Mb No planned upgrade High School to Village 10 Mb No planned upgrade The district uses two different wireless technologies: legacy Cisco wireless and Meraki wireless. There are two wireless networks in use: one for district use that requires a wireless encryption protocol key, and a guest use network that has no security and is limited to the Internet only, with no access to district resources. There is no centralized management of the wireless network and configurations. There were several complaints about wireless performance, coverage and security. This appears to be a serious point of concern for staff, affecting classrooms, teachers and students. Staff stated that the wireless network often is unavailable and coverage is insufficient, creating much frustration at the school sites. The unsecured wireless did not filter content and allowed FCMAT consultants to view inappropriate websites. The IT staff does not have a current inventory of the server hardware and software assets that are in use. Servers are placed at several different locations throughout the district. The current server coronado UniFied school district 10 insTrucTional and adM inisTraTive services hardware has been in place for several years, and it has been determined that several servers need to be replaced or upgraded. Virtualization is being used by a growing number of organizations to reduce power consumption and reduce the space requirements of servers. It also provides high availability for critical applica- tions, and streamlines application deployment and migrations. Virtualization can simplify IT operations and allow organizations to respond faster to changing technology needs. The district does not have a current computer replacement plan. The superintendent has placed a hold on all new computer orders. This has yielded significant cost savings and allowed the district to evaluate the future direction of technology purchases. However, it has also impacted staff with older technology and a significant loss of productivity because hardware is inadequate. Several instructional applications are in use, including Edline, Genesis, Making the Grade, GradeWorks, GradeQuick, and others. Edline is a hosted application that is used by students, teachers and parents. Teachers post homework, assignments and some grading information. It includes an integrated grade book that is used by some teachers. Students access Edline to review homework, assignments and grades. Parents also have access to Edline to view similar information. Genesis is the district student information system hosted at San Diego COE. Site and district administration use Genesis to record student and grade information, run reports and report data to the state. Teachers post progress report grades and final grades to Genesis. It is the main software used to distribute progress reports and final grades. Parents can access Genesis to view student information and grades/attendance. Administrative and site staff throughout the district complained about access problems with Genesis. The sites receive many complaints from parents on access and performance problems. Three grade books are used throughout the district: • Making the Grade is used primarily by some teachers at the elementary school level because they use a standardized report card. • GradeQuick is the grade book that comes included with Edline and is used by some teachers. GradeQuick does not integrate with Genesis, so there is no easy way to update grades from GradeQuick into Genesis. • GradeBook is the grade book included with Genesis. Users have experienced many problems with the adoption of this grade book. It was described as a “beta” product. Many of these teachers have switched back to GradeQuick. Teachers are frustrated with Edline and Genesis because of the performance problems with Genesis and the lack of integration between Edline and Genesis. Parents and teachers are frus- trated with Genesis and Edline because they each require a separate login ID and password and each contains different information on students. There is also a delay in getting students added to the Edline system due to the process and the lack of bandwidth available to the lead technology resource teacher who performs the upload. Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 11 insTrucTional and adM inisTraTive services Recommendations The district should: 1. Contact the San Diego COE to provide additional training or tips and to obtain any new or updated documentation on county-hosted applications. 2. Closely review network performance and reliability issues. 3. Contract with a local partner such as Datel or Nexus IS to evaluate the overall network performance and optimize the network. 4. Implement a bandwidth monitoring solution (such as MRTG) to determine current bandwidth usage, which will allow staff to determine the appropriate upgrades to increase site link speed. 5. Evaluate the current desktop operating system and application installation to ensure that they are optimized to maximize performance. 6. Contact the local cable company to discuss the possibility of a partnership to deliver high speed network connectivity between the district locations and the San Diego COE. Local cable companies can be a good alternative to provide network connectivity at higher speeds and lower costs. 7. Consult with a local partner to help the IT department identify any perfor- mance problems, coverage areas, and to ensure wireless security. Establish a method to centrally manage and administer the wireless network in the event that quick changes to security or access are required. Develop a plan to ensure wireless performance and reliability, as well as coverage and security. 8. Create a current inventory of all servers including make, model, configura- tion, location and installed applications. 9. Consolidate and centralize all server technology to a secure location. This will improve performance, reliability, and administration. 10. Create a server refresh plan that also includes the evaluation and implementa- tion of virtualization technology. 11. Create a detailed hardware inventory of all desktop and laptop assets and to whom or where these assets are assigned. 12. Create technology standards for different types of computer uses such as teachers, students, labs, administrators, and office workers. These standards should include desktops, laptops, Netbooks, and virtual desktops. 13. Create a computer replacement priority list based on inventory and users’ needs, and prioritize computer replacement. 14. Create a committee to select a unified grade book and communication system to disseminate grades, homework and other assignments. This committee should evaluate the products in use, discuss and consider alternatives, and coronado UniFied school district 12 insTrucTional and adM inisTraTive services make a recommendation to the cabinet/superintendent and board. The committee should be led by the technology coordinator. 15. Contact technical support at Edline and San Diego COE/Genesis to deter- mine if there is a way to provide better integration and coordination between these two products. 16. Designate one or more district or site employees to perform the Edline updates when new students enter the district. Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 13 inforMaTion assurance and neTW orK securi Ty Information Assurance and Network Security Information assurance and/or security provide preventive measures to protect the district’s network infrastructure, servers, workstations, and critical information. The study team found that the district does not have a basic firewall to protect itself from intrusion from the Internet. The district lacks network diagrams of the wide area network and the local area network. IT staff indicated that this knowledge resides with the current network supervisor. However, FCMAT’s interviews with the network supervisor indicated some uncertainty regarding how the networks were constructed. The district does not have disaster recovery plan or a centralized storage system. Backups are performed on external hard drives connected to the servers at each location. The external hard drives are rotated once a week. These backups contain local files and emails. The study team did not review the disaster recovery plan, but as it was described to the team, it was not implemented in an effective, efficient and reliable manner. The backup and disaster recovery solution in place does not appear to be sufficient to recover the necessary data should a disaster occur. Centralized storage should reside at the district office in a secure area. A backup and recovery plan should be created and tested periodically. The district could partner with a local business to create a comprehensive disaster recovery plan for key data, including files, email, databases and more. This plan should include: • A centralized storage system for key district data • A tape backup archiving system with regular scheduled backups • Off-site tape storage and rotation • A commercial software package to perform backups and verify their integrity The district lacks a security policy to govern the use and access to the network. The study team performed a scan on the district’s wireless and discovered two wireless networks at the district office. One wireless network was unsecure and the other required a password. The district lacks technology standardization across the sites. Some sites utilize voice over IP for phones; other sites may have a more efficient wireless system or laptops. The district lacks physical security for its intermediate data facility (IDF). A FCMAT consultant was escorted into the unlocked IDF room in the Accounting Department. This room was disorganized, with extra parts, cables, and other miscellaneous equipment. The IDF has an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) capable of four hours as reported. However, the room does not have air conditioning sufficient to keep equipment at normal operating temperatures should a power failure occur. District staff need to empty the Recycle Bin on their computers at the end of the workday. Users often delete files into the Recycle Bin but do not empty the bin. When a FCMAT consultant showed this process to Human Resources staff, they were surprised to see the deleted files still on the computer. Members of the IT staff stated that each IT Department employee has the same administrative privileges for servers throughout the district. coronado UniFied school district 14 inforMaTion assurance and neTW orK securi Ty During an informal walk through the district office, the study team noted that office staff work areas were organized and clean. File cabinets in public view had locks in place. In Human Resources; the staff has a door with a lock, a shredder underneath the desk and a closet with a lock and cabinets with locks. There are additional shredders in other areas of the district office. The only item of concern is a sliding glass window with no lock. Recommendations The district should: 1. Implement a basic firewall to protect its network infrastructure. 2. Create a districtwide and local area network diagram to serve as a baseline for how the district is connected to each of its sites and how each local area network is constructed. 3. Create a storage solution where all servers connect to a centralized device. 4. Create a network security policy. 5. Implement web filtering to protect students from inappropriate websites. 6. Create technology standards for all sites to facilitate technology support and problem resolution. 7. Place locks on the entry doors for the intermediate data facility (IDF). 8. Place a lock on the sliding glass window in the Human Resources staff area. 9. Work with IT on how to instruct users on how to empty the Recycle Bin from the desktop. This is especially critical in the Human Resources area. 10. Have the IT Department set up a procedure to determine which IT staff should have administrative privileges to servers. Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 1155 appenddricaefsT Appendices Appendix A Study Agreement coronado UniFied school district 1166 darppaefnTdices Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 1177 appenddricaefsT coronado UniFied school district 1188 darppaefnTdices Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 1199 appenddricaefsT coronado UniFied school district 2200 darppaefnTdices Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 2211 appenddricaefsT coronado UniFied school district