Grinnell-Newburg CSD Logo

Weekly Update, July 7, 2016

• Approve Unite Private Networks (UPN) Contract.  
  • As you may be aware, UPN has started to do work in the district.  This contract was signed by the previous superintendent.   Following our attorney review, the original contract is not binding.  All contracts are made official through Board action and signature of the Board President and or Secretary.  Therefore, I am bringing the contract forward for the Board to officially approve.   Please know that the connection however has been already completed and we are in the testing phase.    Further, after investigating, the purpose of this connection is to ensure faster service with more capacity to support our devices. This connection is coming in to the high school.  We will still need Mediacom service between buildings.    Phase two of the project will have to be decided later in the year.  Phase two is for all of our sites to connect between each other and out to the world wide web. I believe that Fiber will have to be installed.  This is on hold until I can gather further information, cost estimates, rational, etc....  The idea was to support larger band width and speed to support the number of devices in the district.    Amy and Bill will be able to assist us with answering specific questions. We will be sure to prepare the Board with information early on in the process to see if this is a direction that we need to take for the district.   I will keep you posted on phase two.    
• Approve Phase III Bailey Park and Fairview switches upgrade
  • Lisa and I met with IPathways to gain an understanding of the networking switches that we need in order to support our two primary schools.   You will be asked to approve the switches needed for operation.    
• Approve loan from General Fund to Nutrition Fund: We are short in this fund and something we had to do last year. 
• Title I Parent Policy and Compact:  
  • This is a requirement for title school.
• Iowa Valley Contracted Service Agreement:
  • This will be the first time we ask the board  to approve course agreements with Iowa Valley before schools starts.  I met with the Dean of the College in order to complete this early on. 
• Approve Casper Renewal:
  • This is the license renewal in order to upload software and maintain all devices.   I learned that we are three months behind.  Amy has been working with our vendor to get the best deal and quote per machine.