Jessica Wu
News Reporter
After the Newton South administration announced the proposed social media ban earlier this spring, the outrage that followed clearly demonstrated the lack of communication and understanding between students and the IT department.
Newton Public School’s Information Technology Department claimed the blocked streaming and music services in order to free up more bandwidth space for standardized testing.
After many students publicly displayed their anger over the decision, the IT department reached out to Denebola hoping to shed a light on the daily routine of this commonly forgotten group.
Director of Informational Technology & Library Services Eileen Keane also wanted to explain the IT department’s rationale for enacting this ban.
Keane explains that the department always prioritizes the needs of the students and thus tried to strike a balance between maximizing bandwidth for online testing and hindering students’ classroom experiences.
According to Keane, the IT department refrained from “restricting things that students rely heavily on” and only blocked websites that were not deemed as “crucial.”
In the future, Keane divulges that the department will not implement more extreme restrictions to free up bandwidth. After all, she sees that “the job of the IT department is not to block, but to educate people with resources online.”
The IT department hopes their actions allow students to take advantage of online resources and make the most out of the resources the internet offers.
Thus, when a misunderstanding of the department’s justification for their actions arose, the IT department knew that many in the South community were unaware of what they do to make everyday life easier for students and teachers.
According to Samuel Mayanja, a member of the Networking Team, the IT department plays an integral role in streamlining activity that occurs throughout South every day.
Mayanja explains that the IT department controls “the phones, the wireless and wired devices, the internet, printers, security cameras, servers, and even more applications” that students and faculty use on a day to day basis.
Beyond controlling bandwidth and devices, the IT staff also manages the amount of hardware such as laptops and iPads in each school.
According to Keane, every year, the IT department publishes a classroom standard configuration where they decide how many devices and of what kinds are needed for each grade.
Usually, in the middle schools, the staff allocates two carts per team, and in the high schools one computer per every two students is needed.
Oftentimes, departments away from school grounds, like the IT department, are easily forgotten or glanced over, yet the IT department plays an integral role in the daily function of all Newton Public Schools according to another member of the Networking Team, Joe LaMarcia.
LaMarcia supports his claim of the IT department’s importance by stating that “all the resources that the schools use come through the [IT department].”
