TRC to the Rescue

“Able to save high stakes test in a single visit…”

The heart of technology for our school system is inarguably the Technology Resource Center (TRC); its staff fills many roles to ensure our students, teachers, staff and schools have their ever increasing technology needs met.  These people are often not as visible because they work behind the scenes safeguarding networks to assure that they are operational and seeing that computer hardware and software are operating as needed.  When all is running smoothly these people often don’t get the recognition or fanfare but when things fail (as they eventually will), they work tirelessly to get the systems up and running again.

This week I learned of a situation which is an example of the commitment these team members demonstrate working for our students and our district.  One of our high school students was taking an extremely important high school, high-stakes computer test which would have far- reaching academic implications.  As the student finished taking Part I of the test every student, teacher and parent’s worst nightmare occurred. The computer screen went blank and the system shut down!   The testing software system provides a backup but, since the computer itself appeared to have crashed, the entire test and results were likely lost.  The testing coordinator, Melissa Zaniewski, contacted the TRC and Instructional Technology Director, Dr. Mike Geddes, to get one of Citrus County School’s own “Geek Force” (a.k.a. Technology System Support Specialist) to look into the problem.

Technology System Support Specialist Craig Fischofer was assigned to diagnose the cause of the problem.  When Mr. Fischofer realized the critical nature of the situation and that a student’s test depended on the restoration of the computer he put his other tasks aside to work on the computer.  Mr. Fischofer took the system apart to determine what might have failed, while at the same time ensuring protection of the hard drive and data on the computer. This would also result in protecting the students’ tests.

What made this data restoration even more significant was that this high school test was another one of those necessary tests a student needs to graduate. The student was most discouraged, but Ms. Zaniewski continued to encourage the student and reminded him that all may not be lost and that TRC was working on it.  Ms. Zaniewski was optimistic as she offered him hope and support. The student continued to be even more discouraged and wanted to start all over.  If the student were to give up taking this test, there would be no chance for him to obtain a high school diploma.

Mr. Fischofer was determined to dismantle the system and resolve the problem as quickly as possible.  He discovered that the hard drive appeared to be working properly but that the motherboard was “fried”.  Mr. Fischofer carefully removed the hard drive from the fried computer and installed the hard drive into another desktop computer and…  Part I of the test was safe. Part I of the test was then submitted and the student was able to move to Part II and subsequently completed the test.

The student’s test was safe and the student’s graduation is now possible because of caring and dedicated people that beginning with the teacher, continuing with the testing coordinator, and ending with an often unrecognized and so valuable department and team, the TRC Technology Team– or as I affectionately and respectfully refer to them– “The Geeks”!

Thank you TRC for all those occasions when we  have  not  acknowledged or shown our appreciation to you when you are out there making sure that things operate correctly, especially at those critical times.

For those “Geeks” that read this I want to just share, “It takes one to know one!”

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