Background
San Diego City Unified School District (SDCUSD) includes 155 schools with approximately 124,000 students enrolled. It is estimated that by the year 2010 enrollment will reach 150,000 students.
With such a dramatic growth rate, overcrowding in the districts schools will continue to be an issue of concern. To alleviate some of the problems which accompany a rapid growth rate, the San Diego City Schools Board of Education has successfully passed a $245 million bond (Proposition O), which will be allocated primarily for the building of 4 new schools, building additions to 6 existing schools, as well as the renovation and modernization of 27. Of the 245 million, 24.7 million will be placed toward the development and implementation of educational technology.
Goals/Vision
In an effort to integrate technology into every classroom, and enhance teaching, learning, and management, the Board of Education adopted the following policy:
"The Board of Education recognizes the evolving impact of technology on schools and supports the use of technology to improve instruction and increase accountability for decision making and student progress."
To proceed with this policy, former Superintendent Thomas Payzant established a Technology Study Team composed of site staff, central office staff, and parents. With the assistance of an IBM consultant to facilitate the planning process, the team completed a five-year technology implementation plan which lays out the district's technology needs for the period of 1992-1997.
SDCUSD's involvement with the Internet is just beginning and the district is part of a testbed funded by a National Science Foundation grant received by Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. (BBN). The testbed will last for a period of 18 months and will hopefully pave the way for broad-based access to, acceptance of, and financial support of school networking.
Technical Solution
In an effort to cut costs and streamline the structure and efficiency of the district's Information Service Bureau, four administration centers dispersed throughout the city are being consolidated into two administration centers. In July 1994 the Board of Education approved funding to install a wide area network using frame relay to all 160 schools in the district. This network will allow the use of multiple protocols (Appletalk, IPX, and TCP/IP) for schools to communicate to each other and district offices, and access to the Internet. This project will be completed by September of 1995.
In addition, by September 1995 13 middle schools will be completely networked with five computer network drops in each classroom with computers to allow Internet access. Ten elementary schools have Internet access from the classroom. Several others are in the process of networking to the media center to give students a central location to get on Internet.
It is a goal of the SDCUSD to provide every classroom a computer connected to the school's LAN. The library will be set up with approximately 12 computers.
Funding
Seeking out funding for the SDCUSD is an ongoing task. Members of the Technical Study Team work with financial decision makers, including: the superintendent, the assistant superintendent, the budget department, and the San Diego business and residential communities.
SDCUSD has found that its community has made a vital difference in its financial support. In 1974 a taxing authority (Proposition XX) approved by the voters gave the district an opportunity to use existing taxing capacity until the year 2003. Prop. XX stipulated that only a simple majority of the voters would be needed to grant the use of funds gained from the taxing authority.
In 1988 the voters passed proposition Y, which granted $147 million of the taxing capacity to build 9 new schools, remodel and expand 8 existing schools, and build science laboratories at 9 senior high schools. The building program, made possible by proposition Y, is proceeding on time and within budget.
Training and Support
Although the total infrastructure for the district's TCP/IP network is not in place, it is anticipated that in the future other schools besides Scripps Ranch will have internetwork capabilities. In the meantime, by not having the TCP/IP network in operation at other schools, training SDCUSD representatives is temporarily a problem. In an attempt to begin internetwork training, the district main office may decide to open the administration center to schools. Other training facilities will be strategically located at school sites throughout the district.
Teachers accessing the Internet via a dial-up account are very pleased with the Internet's resources. It is anticipated that a 56K line into the central office will be an added benefit when accessing the Internet. This type of connection well further enlighten teachers and will foster effective and creative use of the Internet's resources.
Some teachers, involved in the Teachers Education Program, have received Internet training at the University of California, San Diego. It is anticipated that they will become mentor teachers for the district.
Network support for the district will be centralized at the Information Service Bureau and its current help disk will be extended to serve the needs of the district.
Evaluation
Evaluation of the TCP/IP is currently being implemented by tracking electronic mail usage. BBN is the organization monitoring utilization. Because the TCP/IP network is in its infancy, other methods of evaluating the network's infrastructure and use will need to be developed.
A Problem to Consider
At the time the district opened its TCP/IP network to the "outside world," communicating to other networks on the Internet was not possible. Because San Diego did not follow the Internet Engineering Task Force's (IETF) Internet Protocol naming conventions, they encountered a number of problems. These problems eventually forced a one-day network shutdown so that its naming conventions could be changed to follow the domain name system specified by the IETF.
Richard Fabian
Educational Technology Resource Teacher
San Diego City Schools, Room 143
1775 Chatsworth Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92107
Voice: 619-225-3416
FAX 619-225-0393
