Much of the past six months I spent searching and hiring new staff members for my department. In what felt endless at times, we hired a Lower School Technology Coordinator, a Technical Support Specialist and an Administrative Assistant. The second two of these positions were new and/or redefined as well. They both add to the service side of our Technology Department, and move me into a position of Technology Integrator in our Upper School. A change that I am very excited about.

Here’s what the department organization looks like now:

All of this change has been hard work. So far, the results are great. I’m feeling that we have a strong team in place. Everyone is getting what their job is and moving learning quickly. All of these new hires were the strongest candidates and we did due diligence on the search processes.

Now that the people are in place, we need to reflect on and adjust our procedures so that we can provide first class support for our users, while providing more robust professional development in order to utilize the technology to its fullest potential. We need to communicate better with the faculty, staff and students at the school and share our goals.

Speaking of goals, here are the department goals that we agreed upon last Spring:

1. To provide reliable and consistent access to technology to the school community
2. To develop technology skills in students, faculty and staff that support the curricular goals of the school

Not the most glamorous, but clear, core goals.

Over the next few months, we will be assimilating these new staff members and creating new technology integration goals for our school. We’ll be publishing our updated AUP and doing our best to bring all of our communications into one place.

I’m learning a lot about managing, providing clear goals and coming back to these goals often. A blend of Getting Things Done, Good to Great, and Now Here are your Strengths. Our school leadership is doing a wonderful job providing clear goals and honest feedback. Leadership is critical for healthy organizations and I feel very lucky to be in the position I am right now.