CETPA - EdTech Journal - Winter 2016

Shaping the Future of Education Through Technology winter 2016

| issue two

A CALIFORNIA EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS ASSOCIATION PUBLICATION

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new and emerging technologies

it relevancy in education

managing change in school culture

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c o n t e n t s Issue 2 EdTech | Winter 2016

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a d v o c a c y

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

EdTech Journal is the official publication of the California Educational Technology Professionals Association (CETPA). EdTech Journal is published twice a year as a service to our members and information technology managers for California’s K-12 and secondary education school systems.

The CETPA and the EdTech Journal assume no responsibility for the statements or opinions appearing in articles under an author’s name. The services of an attorney or accountant should be sought in legal and tax matters.

new and emerging technologies are driving the way

BY AARON BARNETT

16 legisl ature wraps up for 2016

BY BARRETT SNIDER

8 56th annual cetpa conference

All copyrights and trademarks are property of their respective owners. Except where otherwise noted, content in EdTech Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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PUBLISHER California Educational Technology Professionals Association EDITOR Lisa Kopochinski lisakop@sbcglobal.net ADVERTISING MANAGER Cici Trino Association Outsource Services (916) 990-9999 cicit@aosinc.biz

l e g a l

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every thing you need to know about it relevancy in education

BY JASON EATMON

the california electronic communications privacy act : a real head scratcher

BY GRETCHEN SHIPLEY t h e

p r o f e s s i o n a l

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oh , so many e - rate and ctf changes

BY FRED BRAKEMAN If undeliverable, return to: 915 L Street #C424 Sacramento, CA 95814

c u e

v i e w

20 managing change in school culture

BY RICK RUBINO

22 ad index

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT AARON BARNETT Director, Information Systems/Technology Moreno Valley Unified School District aaron.barnett@cetpa.net

PAST PRESIDENT PETER SKIBITZKI Director of Administrative Operations Placer County Office of Education peter.skibitzki@cetpa.net

PRESIDENT ELECT

Technology Innovation

STEPHEN CARR Chief Technology Officer Ventura County Office of Education stephen.carr@cetpa.net

TREASURER JULIE JUDD Chief Technology Officer Ventura Unified School District julie.judd@cetpa.net

SECRETARY BRIANNE FORD Chief Technology Officer Irvine Unified School District brianne.ford@cetpa.net

DIRECTORS-AT-LARGE MAX EISSLER Chief Technology Officer Martinez Unified School District max.eissler@cetpa.net

DAVID GOLDSMITH Director, Information Systems Hanford Elementary School District dgoldsmith@hesd.12.ca.us | dgoldsmith@hesd.k12.ca.us

ROLLAND KORNBLAU Rolland Kornblau Director of Information Technology El Rancho Unified School District rolland.kornblau@cetpa.net

TIM LANDECK Technical Director Pajaro Valley Unified School District tim.landeck@cetpa.net

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STEVE THORNTON Director of Technology Menifee Union School District steve.thornton@cetpa.net

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ANDREA BENNETT CETPA andrea.bennett@cetpa.net

6 EdTech | Winter 2016

SACRAMENTO, CA NOVEMBER 8-11, 2016 Shaping the Future of Education Through Technology

p r e s id e n t

’

s

m e s s a g e

NEW AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES ARE DRIVING THE WAY by a aron barnet t

AS

we begin another school year serving the students, teachers and staff in our institutions, we are reminded how rapidly technology is transforming and influencing the way education is delivered into our classrooms. New and emerging technologies are driving the way we build our networks, store our data, secure our systems, and provide mechanism on streamlining our business processes. Over the past 56 years, CETPA has been on the forefront of innovation providing an environment of networking, collaboration, professional development, and leadership for our membership.

With the annual conference quickly approaching, we are preparing for our largest and most popular conference and exhibitor’s showcase that CETPA has ever produced. We are anticipating more than 1,200 participants and over 250 vendors will be attending this year’s conference that will be held November

8-11, at the Sacramento Convention Center. We have expanded the popular student show case and will have a new BYOD lab. We will also have a new event called our Innovation Expo that will showcase the vendors participating in Intel’s Accelerator Program.

These are startups with innovative ideas for the use of technology in education.

The keynote speakers will feature Dr. Ayanna Howard, a highly recognized leader in robotics; Dr. Robert Ballard who is a famous explorer and historian, and U.S. Navy Commander; and Erin Gruwell an awardwinning top educator and founder of the Freedom Writers Foundation.

With a strategic focus on cybersecurity, CETPA will be introducing a strand at the annual conference that will focus on providing solutions on safeguarding our networks, protecting critical data, and securing our systems from cyber threats which are exponentially increasing in volume, diversity and sophistication.

The Shootouts and other great sessions will go on all week and don’t miss the President’s Reception on Tuesday this year.

CETPA and K12HSN have created a technology partnership that will concentrate on developing tools and trainings for IT Professionals including a cybersecurity framework template and a Network Management matrix to assess your networks. The professional learning events are being developed now and you will hear more at the conference.

a aron barnet t is the direc tor of information systems / technology at the moreno valle y usd . he is currently serving as president of the cetpa board of direc tors and can be re ached at abarnet t @ mvusd . net

The board is continuing to actively engage in legislative advocacy at the state level helping to provide oversight on many different technology driven and educational initiatives. The board is expanding our partnership with F3 as we look at student data privacy laws and future summits. The board is also looking at partnerships with cloud computing providers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure as new technology is changing the technology landscape providing exciting solutions in Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS).

With the annual conference quickly approaching, we are preparing for our largest and most popular conference and exhibitor’s showcase that CETPA has ever produced.

CETPA has an opening on the Board of Directors this year. I am reaching out to our membership to apply for this amazing position on the Board. I have to say that serving on this Board has been one of the most rewarding and interesting positions I have been a part of in my career and it has been an honor to serve as we help steer the direction for technology in California’s vibrant educational community.

So join us on November 8 -16. I’m excited to see all my friends and colleagues as we host the 56th annual conference in Sacramento.

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2016

CETPA CONFERENCE

by andrea bennet t

The

plans for the 56th annual conference are almost complete. We will begin the event on Election Day—November 8th, 2016 in Sacramento.

Network Engineer, DBA, Data Coordinator, Technician, and we do have those with other titles who are interested in school technology. Superintendents, teachers, Ed Tech Coordinators, TOSAs and others all find the conference engaging. Attending profesThe CETPA Board of Directors would like to en- sional learning events is more important than ever. courage to you take the time to vote in this important Changing laws, updated programs, and the continelection, either by absentee ballot or before you ued rapid pace of change and advances in technology arrive. If you would like information on absentee make it necessary for ongoing learning. voting, here is one resource: https://www.fvap.gov/ It was 56 years ago that another iconic election took vao/vag/chapter2/california place in November when John F. Kennedy defeated CETPA’s Annual Conference focuses on providing high quality professional learning for IT Professionals working in schools throughout California. Our attendees have job titles such as Director of Technology, Chief Technology Officer, Network Manager,

andre a bennet t has been cetpa’s e xecutive direc tor for almost

10 ye ars . she has worked in le adership roles for the e ast side union high school distric t and oakl and unified .

8 EdTech | Winter 2016

Richard Nixon for the Presidency. Of the 180 million people in the U.S. in 1960, 70 million watched the presidential debate that year. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was published. In science, the first working laser was built by T.H. Mairman; the first weather satellite and the first communications satellite used solely to improve global communications, called Echo 1, was launched. (http://www. infoplease.com/year/1960.html) Today there are nearly 2,300 satellites in orbit transforming communications and the use of technology.

We have some exciting new events planned in addition to the valuable, relevant sessions, inspiring keynotes and featured speakers, hands on labs, and the popular shootout sessions. The Expo has been expanded with returning and new vendors showcasing the latest technology. There will be an increased focus on security and privacy and a new BYOD lab.

More information is being constantly updated on the website. Here are some highlights to help entice you to register.

KEYNOTES The CETPA Board of Directors carefully considers the keynote speakers and we think we have a good track record for some awesome events. This year will be no different with three amazing individuals participating.

OPENING KEYNOTE – DR. AYANNA HOWARD Dr. Ayanna Howard received her B.S. in Engineering from Brown University, her M.S.E.E. from the University of Southern California, and her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles in 1999. Her area of research is centered around the concept of humanized intelligence, the process of embedding human cognitive capability into the control path of autonomous systems. This work, which addresses issues of human-robot interaction, learning, and autonomous control, has resulted in over 180 peer-reviewed publications in a number of projects—from scientific rover navigation in glacier environments to assistive robots for the home. To date, her unique accomplishments have been highlighted through a number of awards and articles, including highlights in USA Today, Upscale, and

Time magazine, as well as being named a MIT Technology Review top young innovator, recognized as NSBE Educator of the Year, and receiving the Georgia-Tech Outstanding Interdisciplinary Activities Award.

From 1993-2005, Dr. Howard was at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, where she led research efforts on various robotic projects utilizing vision, fuzzy logic, and neural network methodologies. In 2005, she joined the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech, where she is a member of the systems and controls technical interest group and the founder of the Human-Automation Systems (HumAnS) Laboratory. Dr. Howard has also served a term as the Associate Director of Research for the Georgia Tech Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines and a term as Chair of the multidisciplinary Robotics Ph.D. program at Georgia Tech.

PRESIDENT’S KEYNOTE – ROBERT BALLARD Robert Ballard is Founder and President of the Ocean Exploration Trust; Director of the Center for Ocean Exploration and Professor of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography. He is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, Commissioner for the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, and a Senior Scientist Emeritus at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He served in the U.S. Navy for more than 30 years and continues to work with the Office of Naval Research. A pioneer in the development of deep-sea submersibles and remotely operated vehicle systems, he has taken part in more than 140 deep-sea expeditions. In 1985, he discovered the RMS Titanic, and has succeeded in tracking down numerous other significant shipwrecks, including the German battleship Bismarck, the lost fleet of Guadalcanal, the U.S. aircraft carrier Yorktown, and John F. Kennedy’s boat, PT-109. He has also discovered hydrothermal vents and “black smokers” in the Galapagos Rift and East Pacific Rise in 1977 and 1979. The author of numerous books, scientific papers, and articles, he has been featured in several National Geographic television programs, including “Secrets of the Titanic” and a more recent five-part mini-series, “Alien Deep with Bob Ballard.”

He was a special advisor to Steve Spielberg on the futuristic television show seaQuest DSV. His honors include 21 Honorary Doctorates, National Geographic’s highest award, the Hubbard Medal, and a National Endowment for the Humanities Medal. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014.

about themselves and others, reconsider their own daily decisions, and ultimately, re-chart their future. With Erin’s support, they chose to forego teenage pregnancy, drugs, and violence in order to become aspiring college students, published writers, and citizens for change.

While Erin has been credited with giving her students a “second chance,” it was perhaps she who changed the most during her tenure at Wilson High School. Erin decided to channel her classroom experiences toward a broader cause, and today her impact as a teacher extends well beyond Room 203. Erin founded the Freedom Writers Foundation where she currently teaches educators around the world how to implement her innovative lesson plans into their own classrooms.

The conference will be ending on Veteran’s Day. We will have special ribbons to honor those in our community who have served and a special performance of our national anthem by Tim Goree. It will be an amazing week as we witness an historic presidential election together, learn a lot and strengthen our community.

We hope to see you in November and in the meantime, consider a regional group meeting or other CETPA event!

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9 EdTech | Winter 2016

The California Electronic Communications Privacy Act:

A REAL HEAD SCRATCHER by gretchen shipley

I’m

not sure how much state legislators hang around school districts, but I wish it was more. Given that the California Education Code has more than 100,000 statutes, it seems politicians love to pass laws that aim to promote education and student safety.

However, sometimes these laws are difficult — if not impossible — to apply to the practical realities of the educational setting.

One particular head-scratcher is this year’s California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“Act”).

The Act imposes significant limitations on all political subdivisions of the state, including public school districts, to compel the production of, or access to, information on an electronic device, including cell phones, laptop computers, tablets and any other

10 EdTech | Winter 2016

device that stores, generates or transmits electronic information.

As a result, under the Act, school districts are only supposed to access a student’s or staff member’s device, whether owned by the district or an individual, in the following instances: • With the specific consent of the “authorized possessor” of the device;

• If the government entity, in good faith, believes the device to be lost, stolen or abandoned, provided that the entity shall only access electronic device information to attempt to identify, verify or contact the owner or authorized possessor of the device; • Pursuant to a search warrant; or • Pursuant to a wiretap order.

• With the specific consent of the owner of the In applying these requirements to school districts, device only when the device has been reported does that mean: as lost or stolen; • An administrator needs student consent to search a district-owned or student-owned • If the government entity, in good faith, believes device used by a student, even when student that an emergency involving danger of death or misconduct on the device is in plain sight? serious physical injury to any person requires access to the electronic device information; • A teacher needs consent to remotely connect to a student-operated, district-owned device to

l e g a l monitor student progress, check homework, or ensure a student is on task during online instructional class time?

• A staff-operated, district-owned device cannot be searched even when there is a legitimate, work-related reason for doing so?

It is also not clear what we are supposed to do with the legal standards that were set by the U.S. Supreme Court for searching student and staff devices. In New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325 (1985), the Supreme Court ruled that a school district can search studentowned property when it has reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing, provided the search is justified at its inception and reasonable in scope. In City of Ontario v. Quon, 130 S.Ct. 2619 (2010), the Supreme Court upheld the legality of a public employer’s search of a government-owned electronic device used by staff for work and personal matters, so long as the employer has a legitimate, work-related reason for searching the device. The Act appears to greatly limit these legal standards in California.

criminal proceeding. A search in violation of the Act should not prevent a school district from using the evidence found against a student or staff member in a disciplinary proceeding. The real issue will be is if the misconduct is criminal in nature, the school district’s search could adversely impact law enforcement’s ability to use the evidence in a criminal proceeding.

When the authoring legislator’s office was contacted to inquire whether or not the Act was truly intended to apply to school districts, they confirmed that, at this time, the Act does apply to school districts. So now what? Rest assured that efforts are underway to clarify the law as it applies to school districts. However, there is a lengthy process to pass clean-up legislation, which could take months or even a year to pass.

gretchen shiple y, partner at fagen friedman & fulfrost ( f 3 ) and co - chair of f 3 ’s emat ters pr ac tice group. f 3 ’s emat ters te am provides legal counsel and services to cetpa . she can be re ached at gshiple y @ f 3 l aw . com .

In the meantime, school districts may want to consider revising policies to factor in the requirements of the Act. For example, a school district could offer a blanket statement that in order to use a personal device on campus, a student will be deemed to be an “authorized user” under the Act and will grant access Another confusing aspect of the Act as it applies to to the personal device to district staff upon reason- The Act defines “authorized possessor” as the “possessor of an electronic device when that person is the school districts is that any evidence uncovered in a able suspicion of wrongdoing. owner of the device or has been authorized to possess the device by the owner of the device.” search that violates the Act may be suppressed in a

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t h e

p r o f e s s i o n a l

OH, SO MANY E-RATE AND CTF

CHANGES! by fred br akeman , infinit y communications

&

consulting , inc .

AFTER TAKING A HIATUS FOR A WHILE, I AM HAPPY TO AGAIN PROVIDE SOME NEW INFORMATION ON BOTH THE E-RATE AND THE CALIFORNIA TELECONNECT FUND (CTF) DISCOUNT PROGRAMS.

CALIFORNIA TELECONNECT FUND (CTF)

For years, it used to be that the California Public Utility Commission’s CTF program would provide a 50 percent discount on certain services you received from your telecom provider. Services covered under this discount program were the basic line charge for voice and data services, cellular services and taxes and surcharges. It did not pay for one-time installation charges or usage. You would see this in the form of a credit on your monthly telephone bills.

Also, if you were applying for and receiving E-rate funding, then the E-rate discount was applied first on your monthly telephone bill and then your telecom vendor would then apply the 50 percent discount to the balance of the bill.

To be in line with the new federal E-rate rules that came out in late 2014 (more about this later on in this article), effective July 1, 2016, the CPUC reduced the discount percentage on Voice services from 50 percent down to 25 percent. Discount percentages

fred brakeman is president of infinity communications & consulting , inc , a full- service consulting firm including e - r ate /c tf and microsof t ed tech k - 12 consulting , technology design services , and low - voltage construc tion management and inspection services . he can be reached at fbr akeman @ infinit ycomm . com or

(661) 716-1840 .

14 EdTech | Winter 2016

for data circuits were not affected and stayed at 50 percent. Discounts for the data portion of cellular services were eliminated altogether. For our private school friends, if their free and reduced NSLP rate was lower than 40 percent, they lost 100 percent of their CTF discounts.

LANs. Eligible components are conduit, trenching, raceway systems, copper and fiber optic cabling, racks, workstation outlets, patch panels, UPSs, switches, routers, wireless controllers and wireless access points.

In the past, instead of just picking the lowest bidder’s price and then applying for your E-rate discount percentage based on that contracted amount, they changed the funding mechanism to just providing a one-time budget of $150 per student less the district’s E-rate discount. And, if the district’s discount was more than 85 percent, the most they could get funded for was 85 percent (i.e., $150 x 85 percent = E-RATE $127.50 per student). That’s the most E-rate will pay Oh, there have been so many changes. First, for the system ($150.00 x the number of students the good news. In December, 2015 the FCC perma- per site) no matter what the total cost of the system. nently increased the annual funding commitment Starting in 2015, districts could use that budget any from $2.40 billion dollars to $3.90 billion plus dollars time of a five-year period starting in 2015. You could plus it goes up each year to keep up with inflation. use it all at one time or any time throughout that fiveAnd, they announced recently they have $1.5 billion year period. Unless rules change, every five years you dollars left over from moneys not spent in previous years raising the total amount in excess of $5.40- will get a new budget of $150 per ADA. plus billion. For funding year 2016, $3.175 billion The next major change was the addition of the was filed for so all applications that successfully get E-rate Productivity Center (EPC). In attempt to through the review process will be funded. That’s significantly improve the backend database that runs the good news. the E-rate program and also to centralize where all E-rate information will be stored and accessed, now NOW THE BAD NEWS. all online work including filing of all forms must be Starting in 2015, the FCC completely eliminated done inside of EPC. And, unfortunately for those funding for web hosting, email and paging services. schools and libraries that utilize E-rate consultants, They also eliminated funding for onsite telephone/ now your consultant can’t do 100 percent of the filVoIP and video distribution services. Other telecom ing work anymore. There are some parts and pieces services such as voice lines and hosted VoIP services, that only school district personnel must do per new they started reducing the funding discount amount FCC guidelines. Each district or library must desigby 20 percent each year (i.e., in 2014 a district’s E-rate nate a lead employee who will need to log into EPC discount rate was 90 percent, in 2015 it went down to (1) initialize the District’s portal page; and, (2) to 70 percent, 2016 down to 50 percent, 30 percent then designate the names of individuals either from in 2017, 10 percent in 2018 and 0 percent in 2019). the district and/or their E-rate consultant who are The remaining on premise systems they would authorized to access the portal. The administrator continued on 22 fund was reduced down to funding only Wireless “Dark” fiber was added to the list of services but maintenance, equipment and installation is still ineligible. One word of caution though: if you are considering using a “dark” fiber vendor, make sure they are approved by the CPUC to provide these services, as not all vendors are.

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a d v o c a c y

LEGISLATURE WRAPS-UP WORK FOR 2016:

SENDS BILLS TO GOVERNOR by barret t snider , capitol advisors group

A

fter passing and stopping a number of high profile bills, both houses of the California Legislature adjourned shortly before 2:00 a.m. on September 1, signaling the end of lawmaking business for the year and forcing many members from office due to term limits.

Of particular interest, two high profile education bills failed to pass out of the Legislature: the mandatory union orientation bill (AB 2835, Cooper) and a bill to revise the school district budget reserve cap law (SB 799, Hill). Both measures are of significant interest to labor and management organizations, making it likely that both issues will be back before the Legislature when it convenes again in January.

During the final few days of the Legislate session, the Senate and Assembly held all day floor hearings, sending hundreds of bills to the Governor. The following is a review of some K-12 education-related bills of interest that were passed by the Legislature and are now pending before the Governor.

a health course for graduation include instruction in compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

AB 2016 — ALEJO (D): PUPIL INSTRUCTION: ETHNIC STUDIES

This bill requires the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) to develop, and the SBE to adopt, modify, or revise a model curriculum in ethnic studies, and requires that a school district or charter school which elects to offer a course in ethnic studies to offer the course as an elective in the social sciences or English language arts and make the course available in at least one year during each student’s enrollment in grades 9 to 12.

AB 2329 — BONILLA (D): COMPUTER SCIENCE STRATEGIC IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to convene a computer science strategic implementation advisory panel to develop and submit recommendations for a computer science strategic The full text of these bills can be viewed at implementation plan. Requires the State Department of Education and the State Board of Educawww.leginfo.ca.gov. tion to consider the panel’s implementation plan.

Requires a panel liaison. Authorizes funds from ASSESSMENT AND specified sources to help ensure the plan’s adoption ACCOUNTABILITY and implementation.

AB 2548 — WEBER (D): SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEM

Requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to adopt a statewide accountability system aligned to state and federal accountability requirements.

CHARTER SCHOOLS

AB 709 — GIPSON (D): CHARTER SCHOOLS

This bill requires charter schools to comply with the same conflict of interest requirements as school districts.

CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION

AB 1719 — RODRIGUEZ (D): PUPIL INSTRUCTION: CARDIOPULMONARY RESUSCITATION

Requires that, commencing in the 2018–19 school year, school districts and charter schools that require

16 EdTech | Winter 2016

data that includes personal information, to disclose a breach of the security of the data to a resident of the state whose encrypted personal information was acquired by an unauthorized person and certain capacities were improperly acquired.

FACILITIES

AB 2316 — O’DONNELL (D): SCHOOL FACILITIES: LEASING PROPERTY

Eliminates the authority for school districts to issue a lease-leaseback contract without advertising for bid, establishes a competitive selections process for awarding lease-leaseback contracts, and allows a contractor to be paid the reasonable cost of labor, equipment, materials, and services furnished by the contractor meeting specified conditions if a leaseleaseback contract entered into prior to July 1, 2015, is found to be invalid by a court.

SB 693 — HUESO (D): PUBLIC CONTRACTS: SKILLED AND TRAINED WORKFORCE

This bill consolidates the “skilled and trained workforce” requirements of various provisions of existing law related to alternative construction delivery methods, defines the terms of these requirements, and makes other conforming changes.

GOVERNANCE/OPERATIONS AB 1732 — TING (D): SINGLE-USER RESTROOMS

Requires, commencing on March 1, 2017, businesses, places of public accommodation, or state or local government agencies that offer a single-user toilet facility to be designated as an all-gender toilet facility, and authorizes an inspector to inspect for compliance.

AB 2536 — CHAU (D): PUPIL DISCIPLINE AND SAFETY: CYBER SEXUAL BULLYING

Adds to the definition of bullying via an electronic act “cyber sexual bullying” and requires the California EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY Department of Education (CDE) to include inforAB 2799 — CHAU (D): PRIVACY: mation on cyber sexual bullying on the California PERSONAL INFORMATION Healthy Kids Resource Center Internet website and PROTECTION ACT other appropriate CDE Internet Web sites where Relates to the Student Online Personal Information information about discrimination, harassment, inProtection Act. Prohibits the operator of an Internet timidation and bullying is posted. website, online service, online application, or mobile application that was designed and marketed for pre- AB 2257 — MAIENSCHEIN (R): LOCAL AGENCY MEETING: AGENDA: ONLINE school and prekindergarten purposes to knowingly POSTING engage in specified activities with respect to their site, Amends the Ralph M. Brown Act, which enables the service, or application. legislative body of a local agency to call both regular AB 2828 — CHAU (D): PERSONAL and special meetings. Requires online meeting agenINFORMATION: PRIVACY: BREACH das of specified legislative bodies to be posted on Relates to a breach in the security of the data to a State the agency’s website home page accessible through resident whose unencrypted personal information a direct link. Provides the requirements that exempt was acquired by an unauthorized person. Requires a those legislative bodies from this requirement. person or business conducting business in the State Relates to integrated agenda management. Defines and any agency, that owns or licenses computerized terms for these purposes.

AB 2536 — CHAU (D): PUPIL DISCIPLINE AND SAFETY: CYBER SEXUAL BULLYING

Includes engaging in an act of cyber sexual bullying, as an act of bullying by means of an electronic act for which a pupil may be suspended or expelled from school. Adds such bullying to the list of topics the CDE would be required to provide information on specified Internet websites. Requires the Department to annually inform school districts of information contained in the Healthy Kids Resource Center Internet website.

AB 2843 — CHAU (D): PUBLIC RECORDS: EMPLOYEE CONTACT INFORMATION

Extends the limitation under the State Public Records Act on the disclosure of the personal information to all employees of a public agency. Extends the limitation to include personal cellular telephone numbers and birth dates. Requires that information to be made available to an exclusive bargaining agent and to any labor organization seeking representation rights.

AB 2853 — GATTO (D): PUBLIC RECORDS

Authorizes a public agency that posts a public record on its Internet website to refer a member of the public that requests to inspect the public record to the public agency’s Internet website where the public record is posted. Requires, if a member of the public requests a copy of the public record due to an inability to access or reproduce the records from the website where the records is posted, the agency to promptly provide a copy of the record to the member of the public.

ACR 120 — STONE (D): DATA TRUSTS: AT-RISK CHILDREN

HUMAN RESOURCES

with an operational child safety alert system. Requires local education authorities, or the owner or operator of a private school that provides transportaProvides that prior salary cannot, by itself, justify any tion to or from school, to notify the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) within five days if a driver disparity in compensation. has been found to have left a bus with an unattended AB 2197 — GARCIA (D): pupil on board and the driver’s actions constituted UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE: CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEES gross negligence, which will result in the revocation This bill permits classified school employees to be of that driver’s certification to drive students. eligible to collect unemployment insurance (UI) SB 1143 — LENO (D): JUVENILES: ROOM benefits between school years with or without a CONFINEMENT reasonable assurance of being employed in the next Establishes statutory guidelines and restrictions, to academic year. become operative on January 1, 2018, for confining a minor or ward in a juvenile facility in a locked AB 2393 — CAMPOS (D): SCHOOL EMPLOYEES: SICK LEAVE sleeping room or cell with minimal or no contact Requires classified school employees and commu- with persons other than correctional facility staff and nity college instructors on parental leave to receive up attorneys, as specified. to 12 weeks of differential pay, and clarifies provisions SB 1322 — MITCHELL (D): COMMERCIAL requiring certificated school employees on parental SEX ACTS: MINORS leave to receive differential pay.

(1) Provides that a minor engaged in commercial sexual activity will not be arrested for a prostitution SB 654 — JACKSON (D): UNLAWFUL EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE: PARENTAL offense; (2) directs a law enforcement officer who LEAVE comes upon a minor engaged in a commercial sexual Makes it an unlawful employment practice for an act to report the conduct or situation to county social employer, of 20 or more employees, to refuse to services as abuse or neglect; and (3) provides that a allow an eligible employee to take up to six weeks commercially sexually exploited child (CSEC) may of job-protected parental leave to bond with a new be adjudged a dependent child of the juvenile court child within one year of the child’s birth, adoption and taken into temporary custody to protect the or foster care placement. Also prohibits an employer minor’s health or safety. from refusing to maintain and pay for the employee’s continued group health coverage during the duration WHAT’S NEXT? of the leave.

Governor Brown had until September 30 to sign SB 1234 — DE LEON (D): RETIREMENT or veto legislation. Majority-vote bills signed by the SAVINGS PLANS Governor take effect January 1, 2017. Urgency bills Provides legislative approval for the California Secure (requiring a two-thirds vote in each house of the Choice Retirement Savings Program (SCRSP) and Legislature) take effect immediately. sets forth recommendations and requirements for Aside from any last minute lobbying of the Governor the design and implementation of that program. and his staff, all eyes now shift to the November 8 election.

AB 1676 — CAMPOS (D): EMPLOYERS: WAGE DISCRIMINATION

Recognizes that the Legislature supports the development of safe and secure data sharing between public education, social service, and research entities through the Silicon Valley Regional Data Trust as it pertains specifically to at-risk, foster, homeless, and justice-involved children and youth and their families, in order to better serve, protect, and improve the SCHOOL FINANCE futures of these residents.

AB 2476 — DALY (D): LOCAL SB 1137 — HERTZBERG (D): COMPUTER CRIMES: RANSOMWARE

Provides that a person who, with intent to extort money or other consideration from another, introduces ransomware into any computer, computer system, or computer network, is punishable as if that money or other consideration were actually obtained by means of the ransomware.

SB 450 — ALLEN (D): ELECTIONS: VOTE

BY MAIL AND MAIL BALLOT ELECTIONS

This bill permits counties to conduct elections in which every voter is mailed a ballot and vote centers and ballot drop-off locations are available prior to and on election day, in lieu of operating polling places for the election, subject to certain conditions.

GOVERNMENTS: PARCEL TAXES: NOTICE

Requires local agencies to provide specified notice of a new parcel tax to non-resident property owners.

AB 2738 — OLSEN (R): SCHOOL BONDS: LOCAL SCHOOL BONDS: INVESTMENT

Prohibits a school or community college district from withdrawing proceeds from the sale of bonds for investment outside the county treasury.

SCHOOL SAFETY

SB 1072 — MENDOZA (D): SCHOOLBUS SAFETY: CHILD SAFETY ALERT SYSTEM

Requires, on or before the 2018-19 school year, that school buses, other specified buses which transport students, and child care motor vehicles be equipped barret t snider is a partner with the capitol advisors group and can be re ached at barret t @ capitol advisors . org .

17 EdTech | Winter 2016

f i s c a l

Everything You Need to Know About

IT Relevancy in Education by jason eatmon , development group, inc .

WHY IS IT RELEVANCY IMPORTANT?

this article was provided to cetpa by the le adership at casbo

( california

association for school

business official s ). cetpa and casbo are working closely together to strengthen a partnership and cre ate a dialog to enhance the resources provided to both member bases . the individual s involved include jason e atmon , vice president de velopment group inc ., casbo partner ; molly mcgee , casbo e xecutive direc tor ; and tatia davenport, acsa

( association

of california school

administr ators ) deput y e xecutive .

18 EdTech | Winter 2016

NOT ACHIEVING OBJECTIVES

You’re often asked to come into a project that’s in progress to provide technical expertise that will solve organizational problems that no one has fully explained to you. No wonder technology fails under these circumstances! If your team is included from the start, and you help to facilitate a discussion about what your stakeholders and organization want to achieve, you are better able to consult about IT’s contribution to those desired outcomes.

NO MORE IMPOSSIBLE IT PROJECTS

DGI is passionate about making IT relevancy a In fact, you won’t have any more IT projects at all — goal of every school IT department. What is IT at least not in the sense you are familiar with today. relevancy?

That’s because there’s really no such thing as an “IT It’s really about a shift in purpose. Instead of K-12 IT project.” Because every single solitary activity that departments being seen as black-hole cost centers your team undertakes is for one purpose: to help your that are responsible for putting out technical fires and organization achieve their mission. By starting with closing trouble tickets, IT staffs are really an integral the actual business goal and reverse-engineering the part of contributing to the overall mission of their or- solution, you are ensuring success not only for your ganizations. If there’s one point we want to get across team but success for your organizational objectives to IT departments it’s this: the only reason for your as well. existence is to serve the mission of your organization.

Let’s take a look at what you (and your team) will get MAKING THE SWITCH TO IT RELEVANCY Now that we’ve discussed why it matters to your IT out of making the switch. team to move toward your goal of IT relevancy, it’s time to discuss how you can start to make the switch JOB SATISFACTION Let’s think about why IT professionals are unhappy. to relevant contributors toward district objectives.

Your team comes into work, and you know the first You need a comprehensive strategy in order to make (and maybe only item) on your to-do list for that day the shift from a tactical K-12 IT team to a relevant part of student success. Here’s how you get started: will be to solve IT issues. Then they spend countless hours doing work that is behind-the-scenes, and the 1. OBJECTIVELY ANALYZE YOUR only sign that they were successful is that no one INTERNAL TEAM talks to them. Wouldn’t they enjoy their work more Before you decide what additional resources to bring if your end-users saw your team’s contribution to in, you need to determine if your team is efficient as is. the organization all of the time, and NOT just when There is likely a work overload, but you may also be exacerbating the issue with unnecessary redundanthere’s a problem?

cies and gaps in your internal structure. Starting from the inside will help you to get more out of the resources you currently have, and it will definitely help you discover where you actually need more resources.

2. EVALUATE YOUR NEEDS Once you’ve tightened the ship, you can determine what else you need for success. Make a prioritized list of resources that would help you achieve departmental goals more quickly and effectively. Put those goals into a report that you can discuss with decision-makers, and (this is key) tie them all back to your district’s organizational objectives toward student success.

3. PRESENT YOUR REPORT TO DECISION-MAKERS Start by reminding them of how many projects your team handles. Then share the steps you’ve taken and your analysis of opportunities you would have to contribute to the organization if granted additional resources. But remember, in order to be seen as a relevant member of the overall business, you will need to speak in terms of strategy and business goals.

4. START WITH ONE PROJECT AT A TIME Start with the next initiative your district establishes/requests. Instead of talking about the tactical aspects, discuss why they’re making that request and how it will contribute to the objectives they’re trying to achieve. Review those objectives and projected outcomes during every step of the process. By committing to those objectives, you are proving to the rest of the organization that you have the ability to contribute to district success.

STOP THINKING OF OUTSOURCING AS A FOUR-LETTER WORD

One of the biggest mistakes we see, even in IT teams who have adopted a strategic and relevant model, is that they still get buried in the tactical activities necessary to complete projects. Those teams define success by the projects they complete instead of the business objectives of the district they contribute to. Remember what we said at the very top of this article: IT teams exist for the sole purpose of serving their organization.

A lot of functions of IT will actually strengthen the contribution to your organization. Whether it’s cloud application management, monitoring system performance or installing infrastructure, handing off tactical pieces of your strategy is an invaluable step on the path toward becoming a relevant, purpose-driven IT department. It gives your team something they desperately need: time.

Time is probably the most valuable asset when it comes to adopting IT relevancy.

You need time to build strategy, align that strategy with your organization’s business objectives, find the best vendors to help you execute that strategy, and develop the tactics necessary to implement your changes.

By embracing the philosophy of IT relevancy and implementing the necessary changes toward achieving this in education, you can transform your K-12 IT team into a valued part of your organization.

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

Your team will reach its goal faster if you can anticipate challenges and know what solution to pull out of your back pocket when you need it.

1. AN ORGANIZATION RESISTANT TO CHANGE THE HURDLE

Many K-12 organizations have difficulty when it comes to implementing structural or strategic change. Leaders in other departments might not be receptive to inviting IT into planning sessions about business objectives.

THE SOLUTION

The first step is reminding your organization that district objectives are your objectives. Walk in talking about their strategic initiatives and how technology can contribute to those initiatives. For example, if one goal is to increase enrollment, share with them how video in the classroom, a safer campus, etc., may contribute to the increased marketability of your school or district.

2. AN IT TEAM RESISTANT TO CHANGE THE RESISTANCE

Your internal team might also be struggling to accept the changes you’re proposing. Many IT teams are so used to the break-fix model that they define their success by how many trouble tickets they close and can’t imagine working any other way.

THE FIX

It’s about setting specific goals tied to organizational objectives. Set your objectives for each project ahead of time and revisit those objectives at each phase of the project. The important concept here is to replace a measurable objective (number of trouble tickets closed) with another measurable objective (specific objectives to achieve at each stage of the project).

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19 EdTech | Winter 2016

c u e

v i e w

MANAGING CHANGE IN SCHOOL CULTURE by rick rubino , superintendent, pleasanton usd

IN

1915, the famed educator John Dewey wrote a book entitled Schools of Tomorrow in which he groused about the conventional public schools of his day. Dewey believed that education needed to adopt new instructional approaches which emphasized freedom and individuality in response to the changing world he saw emerging. He also contended that failure to do so would be detrimental to our young people. In one of his most widely-quoted commentaries, Dewey predicted that “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.”

emphasizes the development of the “Four C’s”— with Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Critical Thinking—in our students. As Dr. Tony Wagner, esteemed author of Most Likely to Succeed, Creating Innovators and The Global Achievement Gap, states, “Well the world no longer cares about what you know. What the world cares about, what the competitive advantage is, is what you Sadly, in many classrooms across the country today can do with what you know.” this educational system, required by the industrialists of the early 20th century, still persists. In many class- Dr. Wagner’s words inform us that, to prepare rooms nationwide, students, seated in rows of desks, students for the 21st century, we must embrace “sit and get” passively while teachers, often unwit- substantive changes to the aforementioned status tingly, fill “empty vessels” with memorized content. It quo in public education. In order to navigate such is for this reason and more that we now have a moral changes it’s critical that districts understand how to imperative which cries out for educational systems manage this change in their school organizations and change which more accurately aligns learning with cultures. To that end I offer, for your consideration, the 21st-century skills that our students will need for the following six principles that are leading our work jobs that, in some cases, have not yet been invented. in the Gridley Unified School District: and Vanderbilt had demanded an educational system which produced students who would become obedient, compliant, and productive workers. Dewey knew it was not their intention to produce critical thinkers and creative learners but, instead, to turn out young adults who would be well-suited as laborers on their assembly lines and factory floors.

Writing this a century ago, Dewey never could have imagined the digital world and expanded learning networks that are available to our students today.

Nevertheless, he did know that, as the age of compulsory education in schools was dawning, darker forces were designing how and what our children In the Gridley Unified School District, where I Make the Case for Change: These days, school were learning. He knew that the wealthy industrialists was superintendent, we made the case for a change districts have access to a wealth of information to of the time such as Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, toward 21st-century teaching and learning which review, including data on student achievement,

20 EdTech | Winter 2016

English Learner growth and the closing of achievement gaps, student attendance, graduations rates, and much more. If, after your data review, you determine that your results are exactly where you want them to be, simply do nothing. Nonetheless, I predict that in 99.9 percent of the schools and school districts can still be found a plethora of areas where student improvement is needed. Remembering Albert Einstein’s famous definition of insanity as “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” reminds us of the inevitability of systems change. On a positive note, in California, the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) has provided school districts with opportunities for the sharing of these critical data and the inclusion of stakeholders in the process of addressing new ways of operating as an organization.

Collaborate around the Change: Necessary change will never be fully accomplished from the top down.

In a school district, central office administrators, site level leaders, teachers, classified staff, students, and parents must all be engaged in the need for change and the change process. The more opportunity and encouragement these constituents are given to review data and provide input, the more they will feel a part of the change and the more school-community engagement in the change effort will take place.

Research shows pretty clearly that a greater sense of ownership is more likely to lead to a more successful change implementation within any organization.

Additionally, in our district we’ve created Professional Learning Community (PLC) Leadership Teams at each school site and provided an annual paid stipend for its members. Trained by Rich Smith, formerly of Sanger USD, our PLC Leadership Teams have learned how to analyze data with their grade level and department colleagues which then communicates their instructional adjustments back to the site PLC Leadership Team in a continuous cycle. In this way, the strategies for change can be coordinated at the site level and in some cases consolidated into an articulated effort.

Provide the Necessary Training: As our district has moved in the direction of 21st-century teaching and learning, the one thing we’ve heard the most from our staff is “We need more training.” Whether it’s the implementation of Common Core Standards, the Integration of Technology into Instruction, Strategies, Structures and Scaffolds for English Learners and Students with Disabilities or the strengthening of Professional Learning Communities, teachers and administrators in our district have told us, “We want to do these things well, but we need more training.”

This is why we have invested in Common Core train-

ing from Doug Reeves’ Leadership and Learning Center, and the English Learner Group from Fresno, and have sent a substantial number of teachers and administrators to CUE conferences and CUE Rock Star Camps. Additionally, Gridley has the distinction of being only the second district in the State of California to hold its own CUE Rock Star Black Label in October 2015.

The Principal Leads the Culture of Change: From as far back as 2002 Michael Fullan of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto has been saying that when principals lead the culture of change at their sites, in collaboration with teachers, it guarantees deeper and longer-lasting reforms. Those of us who have been in education for some time recognize the changing role of the principal in public education. This role has changed from principal as “plant manager” who supervised facilities, supplies, safety, and discipline, to one of Site Instructional Leader. Principals must now be conversant in all facets of learning, including being able to not only lead staff through instructional initiatives, but to also model and coach teachers in effective classroom instructional practices.

The District Leadership Team Embraces the Practices of Systems Leadership: In many school districts the district central administration and principals still spend their time focusing on “administrivia.” While there are certainly many important school district logistics to be discussed, the focus of the district leadership team should be spent on more crucial practices such as continuous data review, the implementation of effective instructional practices, the establishment of a district-wide, coherent instructional program, and the fulfillment of district mission and goals using a Professional Learning Community design.

Start With What You Want Students to Be Able to Learn and Do: A true Systems Leadership approach must always begin with what we want students to be able to learn and do in the classroom at every level and grade. Whether it’s a second grade ELA lesson or a high school AP Calculus class, we should always be able to define what specific outcomes we’re expecting from our students. Once we’ve identified these outcomes, we can then determine what specific supports teachers need to achieve those outcomes with their students. By moving through the school system from the bottom up, principals can then determine what they must do to assist teachers in achieving these desired student outcomes. It then becomes the role of the district office to find meaningful ways to support the principals and the specific actions and services that have been determined at each site.

The Gridley Unified School District is proud to be one of 15 districts across the State of California to be selected to participate in the Association of California School Administrators System Leadership Collaborative. This systems leadership training brings together school and district leaders from all 15 districts to work collaboratively with Michael Fullan and Mary Jean Gallagher from Ontario, Canada; Jay Westover of InnovateEd; and Lyle Wells of the Flippen Group to focus on research-based frameworks and proven leadership practices for building capacity of district systems. The goal of this two-year training program is to foster the implementation of effective practices that positively affect both the classroom and student achievement while defining a strategic focus, establishing organizational structures and developing high performing school cultures. While in Gridley we recognize that we still have a long way to go, we’re encouraged every day that we are on a defined path to continuous improvement.

rick rubino is the superintendent of the ple asanton unified school distric t. pre viously, he was superintendent of the gridle y unified school distric t, only the second distric t in california to cre ate its own cue rock star camp bl ack l abel . rubino served for eight ye ars as the assistant superintendent for human resources for the martinez usd and as direc tor of certificated personnel for the mt. diablo usd for three ye ars . he al so served as a principal for a combined

13

ye ars in both the

san le andro usd and fremont usd . he was a cl assroom te acher for 11 ye ars and considers himself, first and foremost, a life - long le arner . he can be re ached at rrubino @ ple asantonusd . net.

21 EdTech | Winter 2016

C A LIFOR NIA

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J O U R NAL

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e-rate and cft changes

continued from 14

can designate the level of access each district staff person or E-rate consultant can have within the system. A word of caution. While we have been told it may change in the future, currently, the lead District employee (Account Administrator) MUST log in at least every 90 days and change their password.

ANOTHER NEW CHANGE. THERE ARE STILL TWO WAYS TO RECEIVE YOUR E-RATE DISCOUNTS.

DIGITAL SCEPTER (888) 299-3718 digitalscepter.com.................................19

SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION (209) 468-5924 sjcoe.org/cedr.........................................4

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EdTech | Winter 2016

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These are the biggest and most significant changes to the CTF and E-rate programs in the last year. To keep up to date on both of these programs, we suggest you check out these links on a regular and consistent basis, California Teleconnect Fund http://www. cpuc.ca.gov/ctf/ and the FCC E-rate program at http://www.usac.org/sl/.

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The other method is called the Billed Entity Applicant Reimbursement (BEAR) method. In this case, the district pays the service provider the full cost of the service each month or once the equipment is installed and then seeks reimbursement for the portion E-rate would pay. In the past, USAC would not send the check directly to the district but would send the check to the service provider and then the service provider was required to send those monies to the district within 20 days. Now, once the BEAR is filed, those monies are sent directly to the district via an electronic funds transfer directly to the district’s checking account. Since these monies are going directly to the district’s checking account via an electronic funds transfer, now the district must file a form 498 to provide banking and routing information to USAC before funds can be sent. At the time this article was written, there were several bugs within the filing system and it was taken 30-plus days for USAC to approve these forms, so it’s our suggestion you file your form 498 as quickly as possible.

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E-rate directly for the portion E-rate will pay, put that discount on your monthly invoice and then bill the district the balance. This is called the Service Provider Invoice (SPI) method. No changes to this process.

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