The first TIG meeting for the new school year 2006-07 was held at the Central Intermediate Unit #10 on October 20, 2006 with new chairman Tom Rowles, IT Facilitator of IU 10. The topics of the meeting dealt with the CPBN (Central Pennsylvania Broadband Network). All of the IU 10's schools has been connected and tested except for State College School District, as the fiber link is still under construction. Techs attending the meeting included the school districts of Clearfield, Curwensville, Penns Valley, West Branch, Philipsburg-Osceloa, and Harmony along with the West Branch Technology Center of CIU-10 via video conference through the regional WAN of Sting Communications.
It was mentioned that each school district will receive video conference equipment of their choice through CPBN budget including the two school districts of Clearfield and Curwensville as they will be in the project by year three.
The group was asked to think of what they would like to have for Professional Development in their district and to let Tom know or to send that information to Mary Mingle of the WBTC.
Tom informed the group that training for Microsoft Certified System Engineer, Certified Novell Administrator, Cisco Certified Security, and Cisco Certification is being offered to the techs of the IU and school districts at the South Hills Business School with funds from the CPBN. The testing will have to be covered by their own school districts budget. This will begin on year two of the project starting January 1, 2007.
Next on the agenda was information on eRate and all techs know what and when their due dates are for submission.
We touched base on the PATI survery that the teachers and principals of the districts are to fill out by November 17, and that Phase 2 should be completed by December 8. All were in agreement of what has to be done.
The next meeting will be on November 17, 2006 at the CIU-10 and again video conference with the WBTC as they will have Magpie there to discuss Internet 2 and what we need training for. By then, all districts of IU 10 will be online with Sting and through the regional WAN can communicate with IU's 8 and 9 and we will have an update on how the connections are and if there is anything else that needs to be done.