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Technology Services maintains a portfolio of projects and initiatives for the District. Our projects are organized based on the Future Ready Technology Plan. We are in the process of updating this section of the website to reflect our active and completed projects.
All projects have a health status indicator1 based on the following legend:
◉ Green - The project is on target - no risks identified.
◉ Lime - The project is on target - with minor risks or concerns identified/addressed.
◉ Yellow - The project is at risk of not being on target - concerns are identified and managed.
◉ Orange - The project is slightly off target - risks are identified and managed, unknowns exist.
◉ Red - The project is off target - there are several high risks and multiple concerns.
◉ Purple - Project Requested, Under Evaluation
◉ Gray - Canceled
1 The health status indicator will remain in place for completed projects for transparency of the overall health of the project.
Collaboration and Communication
Projects in Goal 1 support the development, implementation, advancement and on-going support of tools that enable holistic District collaboration and communication:
| Project Name |
Target Date |
Status |
Health |
Sponsor |
| Office 365 Email Migration |
April 2019 |
Completed |
◉ Green |
Carol Bradley-Lies |
Technology Services completed the migration of all District staff email accounts, including email, contacts, tasks, calendaring and Skype for Business from on-premise to the cloud. This migration increased mailbox sizes to 100GB, expands opportunities for connected engagement, collaboration and increased security features.
The migration to Office 365 included the move of 5.65 terabytes of data, across 4,000 mailboxes. With 72 million emails migrated, Technology Services migrated users school-by-school. On the morning after each school migration, our team visited the school to provide 1:1 assistance and to answer any questions.
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| WiFi Calling on Mobile Devices |
August 2019 |
Planned |
◉ Planned |
Kent Vanderploeg |
| The saturation of mobile devices on cell towers in our area, as well as building materials like concrete, may diminish the strength and quality of cellular signals for personal devices while in the District. Enabling WiFi calling on our WiFi network will make improvements for access to services on WiFi-enabled and eligible cellular devices. For eligible devices and users, this will provide a more reliable mobile calling experience for District staff.
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Anytime, Anywhere, Future Ready
Projects in Goal 2 reinforce and support the innovation, development, and work of our District staff and students for critical thinking and problem-solving skills with “just-in-time” access for learning and engagement:
| Project Name |
Target Date |
Status |
Health |
Sponsor |
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Rethinking Learning Space Design
Projects in Goal 3 support the development and implementation of a set of technology hardware and software options for classrooms, teachers, and students to support teaching and learning:
| Project Name |
Target Date |
Status |
Health |
Sponsor |
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Community and Global Connections
Projects in Goal 4 bridge technology connections between the District, our Schools and the community using technology to support growing technology literacy in the community:
| Project Name |
Target Date |
Status |
Health |
Sponsor |
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Online Safety, Security and Responsibility
Projects in Goal 5 promote, provide and facilitate an innovative and education-focused approach for technology security. (This includes administrative procedures, training, and technology implementations):
| Project Name |
Target Date |
Status |
Health |
Sponsor |
| Cybersecurity Awareness Campaigns |
Ongoing |
Ongoing |
◉ Green |
Andrew Peterman |
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K-12 districts, universities, and businesses nationwide are targeted with phishing e-mails in an attempt to trick users into downloading malicious software or into revealing their usernames, passwords or other personal information. The District receives a growing number of coordinated phishing e-mail campaigns. With 91% of all cybersecurity incidents starting from an e-mail, phishing e-mails are becoming more aggressive and making it difficult to determine a legitimate e-mail.
Technology Services is using a phishing education and awareness training tool to provides phishing simulation e-mails and, if clicked on, associated awareness training. The simulation e-mails look like a service, provider or e-mail that one may normally receive, but uses the tactics commonly found in phishing e-mails. These simulation e-mails are non-punitive, educational and structured to be informative.
Since starting these campaigns in September 2018, staff have (as of April 2019):
- Reduced click rates on phishing emails from 21% to 1%;
- Reduced providing information to a phishing attempt from 8.9% to 0.2% of cases.
Included below are example training pages from our recent campaigns. Links on these pages will not record your activity, but provide important information about phishing and new approaches and recommendations to protecting your inbox: March 2019 | February 2019 | November 2018 | October 2018 | September 2018
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Unified Self-Service and Support
Projects in Goal 6 deliver and support a District-wide unified approach for one-stop access to data, information, and support:
| Project Name |
Target Date |
Status |
Health |
Sponsor |
| Student Information System Replacement |
August 2020 |
On Time |
◉ Green |
Andrew Peterman
Adam Smeets |
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With integrations to a large number of tools and resources, our student information system (SIS) is a central part of the District’s suite of applications used to monitor student progress, engage with families and support staff in their roles and responsibilities. As our source for collecting , and reporting on, student and parent information, the SIS is a critical District system.
Over the past academic year, the District has experienced regular technical support challenges with upgrades and updates completed by our vendor. In addition to support challenges, we have also experienced significant outages that have impacted the overall SIS experience. For these reasons, we are investigating if there are better options to provide services to our students, staff and parents.
In consultation with the Superintendent’s Cabinet, the Board of Education, the Indian Prairie Education Association Teacher Administrator Communications Team, we identified that the District’s next step was to initiate the search for a replacement SIS and to be available by August 2020.
At the April 8th, 2019 Board of Education meeting, Technology Services announced the start of the search process for our new Student Information System (SIS). A copy of the presentation is available at http://bit.ly/TechPlan19-22. Additional updates about this project will be available on the Technology Services website at http://tech.ipsd.org.
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