Sometimes, schools need IT support in a pinch.
Even the most well-resourced schools can struggle to accomplish all of their competing priorities. From student-led family conferences to back to school night and the demands of remote learning, to basic day-to-day school operations like arrival, dismissal, and lunch, it’s easy to see how certain priorities can fall through the cracks.
School IT contractors can help fill this gap for schools, ensuring that school technology continues to function properly and that high-stakes school IT projects are accomplished, all while preserving the capacity of school leadership teams. When it matters most, school IT contractors can provide time-sensitive support to school partners, allowing them to focus on their core mission of educating students.
The scope of supplemental IT services varies tremendously: from complex school IT projects that take months to complete to shorter, more discrete tasks that nevertheless directly impact school programming.
At CTS, our supplemental IT services can effectively tackle your time-sensitive school IT projects.
Our team has worked with more than 60 schools across the United States to provide robust managed IT and supplemental IT support. Our depth of knowledge in the education technology sector enables us to accomplish even the most complex school IT projects on time and under budget, all while tailoring our partners’ IT solutions to meet their unique needs.
Supplemental IT staff can shift the burden off a school’s in-house IT team.
Schools with in-house IT service teams can also benefit from hiring school IT contractors. Like school leadership teams more broadly, in-house school IT teams constantly juggle dozens of competing priorities. Bringing in an individual or team of school IT contractors can help alleviate this burden, especially before particularly busy seasons, where the in-house team’s time and attention are particularly stretched.
Of course, schools don’t want just anyone handling their technology assets. A poorly executed project can lead to additional problems down the road. To avoid this scenario, schools should seek out supplemental IT services from providers with proven experience serving schools. Armed with a thorough school technology experience, the IT contractor can produce a project plan that accounts for the unique contingencies of a school’s schedule. For example, a school IT contractor with extensive experience in the field is unlikely to perform intensive maintenance on a school’s WiFi network during instructional hours.
For high-stakes events, calling in school IT contractors can ensure school operations run smoothly.
In some cases, schools simply can’t afford for an event to go wrong. School IT contractors can decrease the chance of technical difficulties on, say, the day of a high-stakes state assessment. Here, even where schools have an in-house team, the contractor can add significant value, allowing the in-house team to devote their time and attention to mission-critical items. Simply having more hands on deck to solve any potential IT problems can also provide peace of mind to school leaders.
This is especially true in remote learning scenarios, where many rite-of-passage events like graduation, back to school night, and parent-teacher conferences have been moved online. For these events, having a school IT contractor to assist an in-house team or, for small schools, manage all technical aspects of the event can alleviate the stress and logistical burdens of school leaders and allow them to focus on students’ and families’ experience more directly.
School IT contractors can also provide day-to-day technical support.
Day-to-day troubleshooting can consume an inordinate amount of school administrators’ time. One Chromebook issue here and a broken printer there can quickly turn into two or more hours of troubleshooting. As any school leader knows, every minute of the school day counts. Executing a flawless lunch clean-up routine or car rider pick-up line can allow students and teachers to spend additional minutes learning.
Outsourcing day-to-day troubleshooting to a school IT contractor can inch school leaders closer to their goal of maximizing instructional time and gives them the space to focus on their non-technology priorities. While addressing an issue with a student’s Chromebook may be important, a school leader’s time is typically better spent conducting classroom observations, providing feedback to teachers, and addressing broader school operational issues. Schools that bring in a school IT contractor to manage day-to-day troubleshooting efforts will likely find that their administrative staff has additional time to focus on non-technology priorities. This additional time and space can ultimately allow administrative teams to add value to their school programming, rather than simply keeping the trains running.
