As promised this blog will focus on the IT department at DPS or as its referred to “Tales from the Crypt”. The name evolves from the point that the IT department has been buried in the bowels of the Concrete Palace never to see the light of day. It has become the “red headed stepchild” of the administration banished because of real or alleged problems.
Again from the beginning it has been a fiasco. After investing tens of thousands of dollars in the old Schoolfield complex just a few years ago (new AC, new carpeting, upgraded electrical, generator, etc.) the Queen decides to rip it up and transfer it to the Concrete Palace. The former IT head strongly opposed the move which of course sealed his fate and his future. The reasons were very valid since the city ran the fiber optic lines to the Schoolfield site specifically for DPS. But alas the Queen closed the complex so the department had to be moved.
So the department was moved into a space that is roughly half of their former location. The IT techs are lined up in cubicles that appear to have been designed by a very frustrated prison designer. The setting and design smacks in the face of all management principles intended to get maximum productivity. Though warned by the IT head the location was insufficient for the thermal load of the servers the Queen went ahead with her mandate. No sooner had they moved in then the servers overheated and suffered multiple failures. Again the never ending checkbook came to the rescue. A HUGE AC unit had to be added to cool the server rooms- just as they were warned but let’s not ever listen to the people that know!
The next step in the dismantling of the IT department was an assault on its budget. The slash and burn group decided that technological advancement was not in the school district’s future. Why? It was because money was needed to support pet projects of the Queen and her court of merry jesters. Not that the IT department did not need some trimming and tweaking but such surgery requires careful evaluation not wholesale slashing and burning. Thousands of dollars were cut from the budget and funneled to other departments to pay for pet projects. As a result the equipment replacement schedule of DPS started to suffer.
As complaints began to surface the Queen, as usual, began looking around for a scapegoat. Well who better then the IT head? So the palace ax fell on the IT director. On what grounds? A vague case was manufactured accusing the director of taking parts (instead of dumping them on a parking lot) for personal use, and their favorite accusation “working on private ventures on school board time”. No chance was given to the head to defend himself against the accusations; they dismissed the employee while he was out on medical leave! (Can we say coward?) And again the school board supported the decision like sheep. At the same time they put another employee on “revolving door human management”. Despite similar accusations as the IT head this employee was put on leave, brought back, fired, rehired, and put back to work. As has been the habit with this administration employee rights take a back seat. The Human Resource department is about as effective as Kate Gosslin’s birth control pills. IT department employees were threatened with termination if they discussed any of the issues in the department.
As if this wasn’t bad enough the Queen reached into her bag of “stupid ideas” and pulled out the ultimate crappy idea: make the assistant superintendent head of IT! No matter she lacks: a) experience in IT management, b) credentials to run such a department, c) a personality. How completely clueless can the board be?
So what has been the result of these decisions? From school sources the computer programs at the schools have been decimated. No plan of replacement or updating of labs has been developed, no long term plan exists, and the morale in the department is at an all time low. More resumes are being printed at the IT department then anything else. Anyone who could leave has done so for greener or more professional pastures.
To walk into the IT department resembles a visit to a penal institution. The long faces remind you of people serving time. It reminds a visitor of an episode of the “Twilight Zone”. At any minute you expect Rod Serling to step out and tell you its all a dream. The only problem is that you wake up and realize it’s for real. Who will free the prisoners?
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3 comments:
The IT head was not fired for those reasons. That was another IT person who since has regained the job.
The director was fired for legit reasons.
The IT dept is a step child as you say and many stupid things have happened there, your facts are just a little off.
problem is now, that department is slowly becoming corrupted.
Your facts about the IT department are off a great deal.
First of all, the moral within that department is no better or worse than it was when the former head was in charge. Everyone is working hard and trying to do their job effectively.
The former head of the department was not fired because of taking parts and working on his own business during work time, he was caught doing something that was illegal and unethical and should have been let go. And further more, he was not out on sick leave when he was let go. He actually was let go on a day that he was at work, because he was notified, packed up his office, and left.
The labs have been upgraded, in the schools that were due to be upgraded. The reason they had not been upgraded before was because the former head of the department choose to ignore the upgrade plan that was suppose to be in effect and was doing his own thing.
And so far, with the exception of the school district letting go of people that were not licensed to be in the positions they were holding, no one has left the department. Everyone is still working hard to do their job.
Seems that Centurian has the inside scoop on a lot of things here. The former IT head was opposed to a lot of questionable decisions and we all have seen what happens to folks that oppose Themla and Louise. Just think through the many administrators that they have "left" since this dark reign. I can name a lot of strong leaders that did their jobs well but disagreed with T&L and left prematurely. JD, RK, WV, SJ, BL are just a few. Our former Athletic Director was the latest to get it. They like to spin the legit reasons and doing away with position titles but moving someone else to do the job.
Let's check the morale of the department pre-red head and post and you will find that when IT progression was moving forward the morale was high but then when red came in and killed the IT budget, almost immediately two or three good IT people left and morale died with the budget. I remember before the last IT head came along what that department was like.
Jack is right about another IT person being the vague case that Centurian described and did indeed regained their job. Wearry seems to suggest that the former IT head did something illegal which is crazy as you would have heard about it in the papers and usually means the law gets involved, neither of which occurred. Anyone remember the food services fiasco.
The former IT head created and shared an upgrade plan for machines and the district and community technology meetings had discussions of such plans along with the hardships with no budget to do them. I've sat a few of those meetings.
Ever wonder why all of a sudden when the scapegoat gets the axe, now the hiring of 2 positions with licenses happens immediately when those 2 positions got put on freeze when red come into town and when other folks are losing their jobs? Not all folks there are in tact. They did lose someone other than the 2 without licenses.
The poor inmates in the Crypt of the Concrete Palace are in for a rough ride with Thelma and Louise driving. Love the Kate analogy! Keep bringing the truth Centurian.
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