Technology Program Administrator

Leland Jones

FRIT 7739

Georgia Southern University

Fall 2022
 Executive Summary

Why is the current standing of the technology department of Hart County Charter System

an important issue? This question will be answered throughout this report. Hart County lies on

the Georgia-South Carolina border and is a rural community. In recent years, Hart County has

seen a major boom in industrial presence. This also means it has seen large population growth.

Using data from the 2020-2021 school year, and fiscal data from 2018-2019 retrieved from a

public search, Hart County School system had 3,492 students enrolled. By word-of-mouth

reports from different administrators throughout the district, I am told that this number is

expected to increase substantially this year. With this boom in the growth of students, our

technology department has had its hands full trying to meet the growing needs of students,

parents, and teachers. As of the 2022-23 school year, there is 3 district IT professionals. One of

them is assigned to each school group. So, one works with all elementary schools (3), one works

with the middle school (1) and the other is assigned to the high school (1). These guys are

constantly making sure everything is running smoothly at their respective schools. They also

help out each other if there are major issues or emergencies at another person’s school. Within

each school, there are media specialists which are the first line of technology defense. They are

there for minor troubleshooting and issues for students and teachers. If the media specialist

cannot handle the issue, she sends it on to our IT department which is housed centrally near the

board office. I would love to say that our school has an instructional technology specialist, but as

it stands currently, Hart County does not. I feel as growing needs are put on display and teachers

become more and more overwhelmed, the need will become so prevalent that it will have to be

created as a position in our school district. I have actually spoken with our superintendent about

this issue. She told me that at the current time, our instructional coaches have embedded
technology duties that she feels adequately meet the needs of our school district. I would

respoectfully have to disagree with her on that point. I feel as though the instructional coaches

pour the majority of their attention into their content area, as they should, and the technology

piece is just met as much as it can be. The organizational chart below shows the flow of the Hart

County Charter System.

Organizational Chart
 Methods

For my research, I am using two methods to gather information and data. The first is

observations. Since I work in the district, I have first-hand experience with how things are run

and done. There are obvious things that do not pertain to me and my current job, so I will have to

go out of my classroom to do a majority of these observations, but I will also be using my own

experiences to guide my evaluation. For my second method of gathering data, I will interview

our technology director. Please view the appendix of this report for the interview questions.

Center Context and Goals

Hart County Charter System Mission:

Mission: The mission of the Hart County Charter System is to prepare all individuals to meet

tomorrow’s challenges by providing quality educational opportunities today.

Hart County Technology Department Mission Statement

Mission: The mission of Hart County Charter System technology is that all stakeholders

consistently and collaboratively blend learning while utilizing 21st-century skills and resources

to develop college and career-ready citizens.

The Following Goals were retrieved from the HCCS Technology Plan

Goal 1: Student Achievement

● Design and expand educational opportunities and experiences for students that will

eliminate the achievement gap between subgroups and meet the needs of all learners.

● Provide necessary technology and training for students and teachers to facilitate pleasure

reading and for informational text Students leverage technology to take an active role in

choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by

the learning sciences. ISTE Standard

 ● Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by

collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally. ISTE

Standard

● Educators understand and use data to drive their instruction and support students in

achieving their learning goals. Educators: ISTE Standard

Goal 2: School Climate and Community Engagement

● Maintain and enhance opportunities to educate the community on programs and services

offered to students of HCCS through multiple communication avenues

● Use multiple and appropriate methods of communication and engagement to reach all

stakeholders and every part of the community to gain meaningful input, participation,

partnerships and shared responsibilities for students success Evaluate Strategic Plan

progress using stakeholder involvement and communicate progress

● Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and

working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe,

legal and ethical ISTE Standard Digital Citizenship

Goal 3: Efficient and Effective School Operations and Support Function

● Design and expand educational opportunities and experiences for students that will

eliminate the achievement gap between subgroups and meet the needs of all learners.

● Provide and maintain modern equipment that supports the county’s technology initiatives

(High Expectations)
Goal 4: Continuous School and System Improvement

● Educators continually improve their practice by learning from and with others and

exploring proven and promising practices that leverage technology to improve student

learning Educators: ISTE Standard

● Provide alternative and traditional opportunities for employees to enhance and advance

their careers through partnerships with other educational institutions and internal staff and

professional development programs

● Leaders create a culture where teachers and learners are empowered to use technology in

innovative ways to enrich teaching and learning Education Leaders: ISTE Standards

Center Activities

Begining in 2017, Hart County Began to move to a 1:1 technology device ratio for

students. At this point, Hart County has reached 1:1 status. Each student in the school and all

staff have their own laptop. Students have Chromebooks and teachers have Dell laptops. As with

many aspects of technology, there are issues. The technology center spends much of its time

troubleshooting issues that arise with issues. They have streamlined the ticket reporting process.

By simply sending an email to support@hart.k12.ga.us, a technology ticket is opened

automatically and one of the directors is able to help as time allows. I asked the technology

director how many tickets he estimates his entire staff receives in a day. He told me that he

estimated there to be over 75 tickets submitted daily. Therefore, much of their time is spent

resolving issues that may arise that need to be addressed.

Our district is very fortunate to have instructional coaches. These coaches' core focus is

their content area and working closely with teachers in that content area to help them reach their

full potential as a teacher. Another aspect of their job is instructional technology. Embedded in
their job description is to assist with IT issues that may arise, provide professional development

directly tied to instructional technology, and advocate for new systems or programs that they

deem beneficial for the teachers they serve. I absolutely love our instructional coaches and the

work they do. In the evaluation process, I will speak to how I believe this should be a split

position where they can focus either solely on their content or on instructional technology.

Another key part of our technological success is our media specialists. There is one

housed at each school. As I have spoken with these different professionals, they have let me

know that a large part of their job is troubleshooting technological issues. They are also normally

tasked with managing the school's websites.

Evaluation

After evaluation of the centers and overall program of HCCS, there are many areas that

our system shines. I feel as though our system has done a great job of meeting goals 1, 2, and 4.

These were: Student Achievement, School Climate and Community Engagement, and Continous

School and System Improvement. As a whole, our system is constantly improving. From the

time I started my career in 2019, until now, I have had nothing but improvement in the different

aspects of technology. When speaking with the technology director, I asked him why he believed

this success was happening. He told me that he believes it begins at the top, with the office of the

superintendent, and trickles down to others. He feels as though he is supported by her and able to

do things as he sees fit, and she will support that. From there, it goes to those underneath him,

and even farther down until it reaches the teachers. The teachers who directly impact students

feel supported and then they are able to do their job more efficiently.

One area of struggle that I see is Goal 3. This goal spoke about having an efficient school

and effective school operations and support. While I do feel we are progressing towards this
goal, I feel there is room for improvement. As mentioned earlier, our school instructional

coaches are tasked with coaching their instructional area and technology. These areas coincide at

times, but not always. This can leave one or the other lacking. So, I feel as though a technology

coach for technology would be very beneficial for our system and help them reach this goal.

Monthly Brag Sheet

 Resources

Search for public school districts - district detail for Hart County. National Center for Education

Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a part of the U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.).

Retrieved October 17, 2022, from

https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch/district_detail.asp?Search=1&details=1&InstName

=hart&DistrictType=8&NumOfStudentsRange=more&NumOfSchoolsRange=more&ID2

=1302730

Appendix A

In an interview with the technology director I asked the following questions:

1. What is your name and title?

2. Please describe how you have seen this district be successful in technology.

3. Please describe a struggle you have seen the district overcome with technology.

4. Please describe a struggle you still see in the district.

5. Why do you believe this district has had so much success recently?