Creating a Full-Time Sysadmin Position at a School?

Old_Mountain_Man asks: "I have been working at a K-8 school for the last two school years, as a volunteer through an Americorps program called the Montana Technology Corps. In theory, I am here to teach teachers and students how to use technology, but because of the need and my ability to do so, I have become an unofficial Systems Administrator. We also have a contracted Systems Admin that comes in once a week, and works 30 hours or so a month. After this year, the Tech Corps position will no longer be available to the school, so something needs to be done to keep the IT systems of the school functioning. I am going to propose to the school board that they create an official, full time systems administrator position, and to hire me for that job. Are there others out there that got their jobs similarly? How do you convince a board that they need to start budgeting for this? They have obviously taken the plunge to getting this technology in the school, so how do I convince them that they need somebody here to maintain it?"

"We have about 375 students, and probably 40 or so staff that use the computers. We have a lab of 25 machines, workstations in each classroom, a laptop cart, four smart-boards, six networked printers, and six servers hosting files, applications, Exchange and an Isaserver. In all, this is about 170 machines that need to be taken care of. There's no way the contracted systems admin could keep up with this, while working only 30 hours a month, so I feel the school needs somebody here full time.

What I am looking for is specific information regarding how many IT support people are needed for this kind of setup. I wonder if there are papers/reports that break down how much support time is needed for different systems that I could take to the school board.

In addition any advice on how to shape my presentation to the board would be useful."

Take on more schools

[eln]

That's a fairly small school. They already have a roving sysadmin, which seems like the right approach for a budget-strapped district with such a small number of machines per school. If the roving sysadmin is not able to handle the load, propose that they hire a second roving sysadmin for the district. I don't think you'll get very far offering to work full time as a sysadmin for just one small school.

Explain to them exactly what they really have now.

[ReverendLoki]

Seems to me one of the best things you can do is explain exactly how much technical support they have right now. List out all of the duties you are performing and give ballparks for how many hours you spend on each any given week or month. List separately what the traveling SysAdmin's duties are, and hours devoted to each. For good measure, give a couple of common emergency scenarios, and what it would take to dig out from under them. Remind them that they soon won't have anyone doing your set of tasks. You're also going to have to give an idea how much someone filling that job can expect to ask for compensation, of course keeping in mind that there is a salary gap between the academic and the corporate world. Still, quote both ranges.

Having never made a presentation like this to a school board, I can't give you much advice as far as format goes, I'm afraid. But as far as content goes, it sounds like you've got a good start on it already. Hopefully you'll at least convince them to increase their staff, if not create a full time position. Maybe consider alternative setups - can they get by with a part time SysAdmin, and a full time Asst. Sysadmin, or Operator type position at lower pay?

Good luck with your endeavors...

In Soviet Russia...

[AkumaKuruma]

the school system i used to work for had it solved pretty smartly. the bulk of the elementary schools were divided between admins. about 4-5 schools were the responsability of one admin from the central office. if work became heavy he could pull a fellow admin from another set of schools to help cover/assist. for bigger elementary schools, all middle and high schools, they have a dedicated on site admin. back to the multi-school admins. they usually had someone onsite, usually a media librarian, who had basic tech knowledge to do a preliminary level of service, mostly for stuff like basic desktops, leaving the more serious computer/server problems for the main admin. you wont get an immediate response, but it does lend to a pretty balanced response time with lower budget costs. your best bet is to try and justify the cost of someone who works at the school full time to solve the problems over someone whos there on a very limited time basis

From One Montana Guy To Another

[MTDilbert]

Think about the situation here in Montana:

1. The legislature didn't get a budget out yet.
2. There are still serious questions about school funding; who's paying for what and how much, and if they way they're doing it is constituational
3. Schools are having a tougher time passing levies for operations, so they're really going to be touchy on the bottom line

I'm not saying it can't be done; just that it's going to be a seriously uphill battle.

Wrong approach

[Spazmania]

How do you convince a board that they need to start budgeting for this?

You don't. You watch the tapes of the old board meetings, figure out which board member is most likely to have a clue what you're talking about and then you convince her directly. Bringing along the rest of the board is then her game in which you're just a player.

Paint a Picture

[W. Justice Black]

Disclaimer: I'm the UNIX/Linux SA for an engineering college.

As with presenting to many other types of layfolk, it's usually best to paint a picture of exactly what it is that the person would do and why.

First: What is the before and after picture regarding what you've been doing so far? What improvements in the education experience have you enabled in your time there?

Second: What exactly are the ramifications of not having someone in your position? What falls apart and what gets lost?

Third: Who will vouch for that among the existing teachers/staff?

If you can say something like:

"Before I arrived, there were limited services available in area X. As a result, the educational mission was degraded because the students/teachers/staff couldn't do Y. By virtue of my work, Y is now possible and the educational mission is therefore improved in ways P, Q, and R (as corroborated by faculty A, B, and C).

Maintenance is required to keep Y working, however, and without it Y would degrade to Z, which would have a catastrophic effect on piece J of the educational mission. In addition, as a full timer, I could also enable the needed piece W, which I currently don't have time to do, and we can (eliminate/reduce) the contractor time, saving $D from the budget."

Wow. That was a lot of letters. To put it more simply, you need to put things both in context of the educational mission of the school (improving technical scholarship, easing the teaching of math, reducing the administrative headaches the teachers experience and freeing them up for more relevant work, etc) and reducing cost if possible. Show what has been achieved already, how that work is important, and how it will be wasted and useless if not maintained.

In a very real sense, this position is a high-tech janitor or facilities person in the mind of a school board--a necessary evil (lest everyone be overridden with crap). The more you can make your case that crap is reduced and will return without vigilance, the more likely they are to make the position. As others have noted, saying "district L has one" would help, but ultimately the people on the board have to see the value you bring. If it's not greater than, say, additional Music or PE classes (or other non-core services), you'll have a hard time selling it.

Making the position, btw, is the hard part. Getting the job is easier. Not trivially easy, mind you, but easier.

Julie Amero

[jayrtfm]

Simply give every teacher a printed copy of the details of Julie Amero's case, and mention if a competent full time person is not on staff, this could happen to them. Suggest that they may want to voice their concerns to the school board.

Re:Take on more schools

[Nimey]

$100k, right. There's a high school near me, about that size, who wanted to hire me as a tech/sysadmin for a lousy $20,000 per year a couple years ago. Schools don't have anywhere near that money for technology, which is partly why people like to whinge about how crap their school's IT and sysadmins are.