Setting Goals and Priorities for a School District
With an enrollment of over 3,100 students, the Englewood Public School District seeks to nurture a culture of lifelong learning through facilitating an educational environment built on creativity, innovation, and inspiration. Englewood, New Jersey prides itself on having a district that helps its students develop the character, academic mastery, and social skills necessary to be successful individuals within a global community. The district provides a range of extracurricular activities and academic programs that focus on technology, science, math, and creativity to deliver an experience that’s consistent with its goal of academic excellence and the New Jersey Student Learning Standards.
Challenge
Creating a positive learning experience is critical to ensure that students can engage in the collaboration and study needed to be successful in today’s academic environment. To achieve this in a situation in which students may be moving between in-person, hybrid, and remote learning, Englewood recognized that it needed a secure and scalable IT infrastructure to handle the varied demands of the fluid environment.
To do this, Englewood needed to assess the district’s infrastructure to identify capabilities that needed to be updated in order to manage their new reality. Additionally, with the increased reliance on IT resources, Englewood wanted to build a roadmap for the future, focusing on areas of investment (in both infrastructure and services) needed to ensure the best possible student outcomes. The district also recognized that this plan needed to include the tools and training necessary for staff to support a dynamic IT environment.
Solutions
The Hammer Tech team has worked with academic institutions for years, and many successful engagements begin with in-depth assessments of existing IT infrastructure and governance.
Together with Englewood, Hammer Tech’s consultants started by evaluating the technical stack for weaknesses and potential cybersecurity risks, noting observations and recommendations.
Next, the Hammer Tech team engaged the faculty and staff who would use and maintain the technology. IT updates frequently require some degree of training to ensure both proper implementation and maximum adoption.
The gathered information and analysis was compiled into a document that laid out a roadmap prioritizing initiatives based on the impact each would have on Englewood’s students.
Once the assessment was completed, Englewood engaged Hammer Tech’s Interim IT Director services as a means of implementing the agreed-upon plan, creating a modern and resilient IT infrastructure for the district’s students, faculty, and staff.
Results
Hammer Tech’s assessment, coupled with its Interim IT Director services, meant that Englewood was positioned to deliver a high-quality classroom experience to its students. The Hammer Tech team was able to leverage their expertise in education to ensure that Englewood’s infrastructure had sufficient capacity, scalability, and security to continue teaching now while also utilizing the team’s experience to plan projects well into the future.
Englewood continues to rely on the Hammer Tech team as it continues managing and scaling its IT environment.
