At the end of last school year, when I volunteered to be in the inaugural cohort of the Staff PDP, I was in a completely different headspace. I was looking forward to one of the slowest summers I’ve had at EPS, with no building projects or major infrastructure overhauls—just maintenance and the usual running of summer interns. The 23-24 school year was shaping up to be pretty much the same, so doing the PDP made perfect sense. I would have some extra time to really focus on an additional project.
That extra time, however, started to get gobbled up by the end of summer. It began with an increased commitment to emergency management. As you will read about in “Informacast: The Gift that Keeps on Giving,” a significant portion of this year was spent rolling out new features for Informacast. Much of the fall was dedicated to finding more ways to apply the system to enhance the community’s emergency response. We introduced new drill methods, created scenarios, and implemented innovative communication strategies for emergencies.
As if that wasn’t enough, I also decided this year would be a good time to roll out an asset management system. You can read more about this process in “A Watchful Eye: The Rollout of Follett Destiny.” I had a few goals in mind for this new system. First, it needed to be user-friendly for the entire school, not just the tech department. Follett’s system met this requirement with its permissions and user types, allowing each department—Kitchen, Arts, Athletics, and others—to feel like they had their own platform for tracking assets. Second, it needed to be cost-effective. While Follett does have a yearly fee, it was reasonable since we were already using the service for the library. Adding resource management didn’t significantly increase our bill, and preventing just one laptop from disappearing pays for the service.
The big setback for the year, as I have mentioned in other writings, was Jannell’s departure. It pushed back timelines, created a lot more work for Jack and me, and forced me to learn many new processes.
So here we are in March, and I find myself juggling a PDP, an elevated role in emergency management, the rollout of an asset management platform, and taking on many of Jannell’s duties. Oh, and did I mention I’m still running EV three days a week, preparing to teach Web Design 2 in a few weeks, and handling all my other responsibilities?
While I don’t think anything suffered due to the increased workload this year, I do know some things were delayed. There are still a few Informacast features that haven’t been implemented. Follett Destiny’s rollout was pushed back to late May instead of Mid-Winter Break. And my PDP has been on the back burner since November.
All that being said, I see this as one hell of a year. I accomplished a lot and learned even more. This was a huge resume-building year. The benefits to the school are significant: we have a much more robust emergency response system, a school-wide asset management system, and many automated processes. So yeah… it’s been a good year. Let’s just hope I can finish my PDP in time.
At the end of last school year, when I volunteered to be in the inaugural cohort of the Staff PDP, I was in a completely different head space. I was looking forward to one of the slowest summers I have had at EPS. There was no building project or major infrastructure overhaul. It was just going to maintenance and the usual running of summer interns. The 23-24 school year was shaping up to be pretty much the same. So doing the PDP made perfect sense. I would have a bit of extra time and could really focus on an extra project.
That extra time, however, started to get gobbled up by the end of summer.
It started with an increased commitment to emergency management. As you will read about in “Informacast: The Gift that Keeps on Giving”, a big portion of this year was spent on rolling out new features to Informacast. Much of the fall was spent trying to find more ways to apply the system that would help make the community emergency response more robust. We introduced new ways of doing drills, creating scenarios, and implementing new ways to communicate an emergency.
If that wasn’t enough of a lift, I also decided that this year would be a good year to roll out an asset management system. You can read more about this process in “A Watchful Eye: The Rollout of Follett Destiny”. I had a few goals in mind when rolling out this new system. First, I wanted something that was going to be easy to use for not just the tech department but the school as a whole. This system needed to be easy to use for Kitchen, Arts, Athletics, and any other unit that might need to track assets. Follett had this. It has permissions and different types of users that allow each group to feel as if they have their very own platform to keep track of assets. Second, I wanted something that wasn’t going to have huge year-to-year costs. Follett does have a yearly fee, but because we were already using the service for the library, adding on the resource management portion didn’t even double our bill. And keeping just one laptop from walking off basically pays for the service.
The big setback for the year, as I have mentioned in most of these writings, was the departure of Jannell. It pushed back timelines, created a lot more work for Jack and me, and left me having to learn a lot of processes.
So here we are now in March, and I find myself juggling a PDP, an elevated role in emergency management, the rollout of an asset management platform, and having to take on a good portion of Janell’s duties. Oh, and did I mention I am still running EV three days a week, getting ready to teach Web Design 2 in a few weeks, and still doing all of those other duties that I have?
While I don’t think anything suffered due to the increased workload this year, I do know for sure things were pushed back. There are still a few features with Informacast that have not been implemented. Follet Destiny was pushed back to late May rather than Mid-Winter Break. And my PDP has been on the back burner pretty much since November.
All that being said, I look at this as one hell of a year. I accomplished a lot and learned even more. This was a huge resume-building year. The benefits to the school will not go unnoticed either. We have a much more robust emergency response system, a school-wide asset management system, and a lot of processes that are now automated. So yeah… A good year. Let’s just hope I can finish my PDP in time 😊