Information Resources Department

History

In March, 1982, the School Board established a department dedicated to the support of district administrative computing activities. The department officially began operating district-owned computer equipment on July 1, 1983. During the ensuing years, the department has evolved into a comprehensive organization that today is providing a variety of support services to members of the school district family. From its inception, the department had five main purposes:

• To provide equal access to computing services for schools and departments within the district,
• To exchange information rapidly and effectively within the school district,
• To assist teachers and administrators in recordkeeping and information reporting activities,
• To provide and support a variety of automated services to the user community, and
• To budget centrally the costs for district-wide administrative data processing services.

Organization

The department, part of the Human Resources Division, is currently organized into three major sections:

• COMPUTER SERVICES

  • Application Support:
    Database design, application development, application maintenance, and consultation.
    A major feature of the department is the formation of project teams that are assigned to work full-time under the auspices of major administrative divisions. Wherever feasible, these computer support personnel (computer system analysts and programmers) are actually housed with members of the user community. This has been very instrumental in our rapid development of computer systems. Currently there are four project teams:
    Business Services
    Human Resources
    Facilities/Transportation
    Student Support
    Systems: Hardware/software installation, systems generation, systems tune-up, troubleshooting, consultation.
    Operations: Job setup, processing, printing, scanning, archiving.
    Microcomputers and Networking: Network configuration, network analysis, installation, maintenance, moves/changes, LANS, microcomputer hardware/software, controllers, terminals, cash registers, consultation.

• VOICE COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES

  Planning, installation, and maintenance of telephone systems districtwide; operation of parent-contact services (FoneHome, HomePhone, telephone newsletters, field trip audio announcements, etc.); research and development activities associated with communication systems. See the Voice Communications Home Page for more information.

• STUDENT INFORMATION SUPPORT

  Applications liaison, information center, management information services, data collection, forms management, reports management, records management, user training, support, consultation.

Network

The School Board operates a county-wide metropolitan area network (MAN) of ISDN, frame relay, and T1 point-to-point digital circuits connecting token-ring local-area networks (LANs) in all school sites and administrative locations to the district central office. This network provides intra-district connectivity for IBM SNA (3270-type terminals), TCP/IP, Windows NT, Novell, and Appletalk server devices, and is connected to the Northeast Regional Data Center via SNA/NJE protocol and to the Florida Information Resource Network (FIRN) via TCP/IP (T1 circuit) for Internet applications. In addition, there are modems for asynchronous access for work at home by staff and other authorized users. The School Board has a World-Wide Web (WWW) server at http://www2.sbac.edu/. This district, on November 1, 1991, became the first in the nation to have district-wide Internet connectivity for all schools, through an agreement with the Southern University Research Association Networking Project (SURAnet).

Applications

GENERAL USE

• Electronic Mail
• Ontime Calendar System
• Central Word Processing
• File Transfer for mainframe to/from PC, PC to PC, and mainframe to mainframe

• Academic History
• Attendance systems (both daily and period)
• A/V Materials Scheduling
• Book loan system for the Instructional Materials department
• CICS screens (250+ screens within the "SS01" menu)
• Discipline history
• DOE Reporting (26 formats)
• Dropout Prevention data
• DYNIX Library System Student Maintenance
• Entry/withdrawal history
• ESE information
• Exceptional Student Education Achievement Evaluation
• FASTER (Automated Transcripts)
• FoneHome selection programs
• Grade Reporting (elementary, middle, and high)
• Head Start - On-call for software and hardware problems
• Infinite Campus - New student system
• IMS (Instructional Management System)
• Laser printer applications (honor roll certificates, etc.)
• LEP/ESOL data
• Micro-Film Cross-Reference (student records and ESE)
• MIS systems (forms management, records storage and FTE)
• Other Standardized Testing (SAT, ACT, HSCT, GTAT, DRP, FWAT, AP)
• PREP tracking
• Scanner application (kindergarten screening, surveys, etc.)
• School Climate Survey Reporting
• Security system for our school and district CICS users
• Standardized test score reports for curriculum
• Student Demographics (official address records)
• Student Demographic Information (health, address, etc.)
• Student Registration and scheduling
• Student School Assignments (Zoning, Exceptions)
• Textbook orders and inventory
• Title 1 student data
• United Way referral reports and scan programs

• Staff Development Information System
• Inservice Education Needs Assessment
• Human Resource Management & Development
• Professional Orientation Program Information
• Crown Consortium Staff Development System
• Personnel Recruiting, Selecting, and Appointing
• Fingerprint/Criminal History Reporting and Tracking
• Teacher Certification Records and Reporting
• Position Control System
• Budgeting for District Staff
• Bargaining Information
• Maintenance to the Personnel Master File
• Salary Schedule Maintenance
• General Personnel Information and Statistics (Personnel Directory, Statistics Screens)
• D.O.E. Staff Data Base Reporting
• Dynix Library System (SBAC staff records)

• Payroll System
• Employee Benefit Processing
• Management & Financial Information Systems
• Budgetary Control
• Accounts Payable
• General Ledger
• Fixed Assets Inventory
• Supplies Inventory
• Food Service
• Budget Proposals
• Cost Reporting
• Internal Accounts
• Automated Food Service (CAFS)
• DOE Finance Data Base

• Energy Management System
• FuelPro/Gas Boy System
• Vehicle Maintenance History System
• Maintenance Work Orders
• Maintenance Inventory
• Transportation Inventory
• Project Tracking
• Fla Inventory of School Housing System
• Bus Routing
• Preventive Maintenance System
• School Boundary Planning (Ecotran)
• Transportation Repair Order System
• Bus Transportation Field Trip System
• Substitute Driver Pay
• Safety Inspection System

• File Transfer of Student, Staff, and Finance Information to DOE
• Access to Teacher Certification Files
• State, University, and Community College Library
• Resources
• Florida Career Information System
• Internet Access
• Florida Occupational Information System
• Plus many other applications

For more information contact:
Jim Utley, Chief Technical & Information Services Officer
Information Resources
School Board of Alachua County, Florida
620 E University Avenue
Gainesville, FL 32601

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Last updated May 13, 2008.