Diminishing Resources and Greater Expectation

Reporting and accountability requirements are growing, as are expectations for student performance and district management. In addition, state and local budgets are struggling with reductions in educational technology funding. Resources are diminishing to troubling levels rather than expanding to meet the ever-growing needs of technology. School districts need to explore new ways of managing their money so that they are able to accomplish their goals in the face of budget cuts. Panelists on this webcast will explore how innovative districts have been able to efficiently balance budgetary cuts while addressing new technology mandates including those of No Child Left Behind.

Moderator:

Jim Hirsch, Associate Superintendent for Technology, Plano Independent School District

Presenters:

Marla Davenport, Director, Learning & Tech, TIES Neil Delerson, Chief Information Officer, Richardson ISD, TX John Porter, Associate Superintendent & Chief Information Officer, Montgomery County, MD Each of the speakers will present a unique strategy for leveraging technology to reach district goals. These include: John Porter - Zero-based Budgeting Marla Davenport - Consortium approach - How districts can share costs to save money Neil Delerson - IT Outsourcing

What's your strategy for doing more with less?

Please submit a short description of what your district is doing in terms of technology - either how you are managing resources or how you are using technology as solutions. In addition to posting the responses online for the web cast, your answers will inform a future article for Technology & Learning magazine. Please send your descriptions to phendric@temple.edu

Presenters Biographies

Jim Hirsch is the Associate Superintendent for Technology for Plano Independent School District in Plano, Texas. Mr. Hirsch has been involved in public education and the use of educational technology for more than 27 years and has worked with thousands of teachers across the United States and Canada to integrate technology into their daily classroom curriculum activities. Mr. Hirsch currently serves as the Chair of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and on the editorial advisory boards for Scholastic Administrator, eSchool News and the Dallas Morning News. Recent recognitions have included the Making It Happen Award by NetSchools. He has published more than 80 articles in a variety of journals and has authored three books on educational technology.

Further Study

From eschoolnews: "AASA conference focuses on how to do more with less"

Scroll down to read eight "Guiding Principles" to help school leaders form successful alliances with private-sector companies. These principles were developed by former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley and Carlton Curtis, vice president of external relations for Coca-Cola Co.

This article also contains descriptions of vendor programs that offer free and subsidized technology opportunities such as: FreeColorPrinters program from Xerox Corp. and the Energy Savings Performance Contract from Honeywell