MEMORANDUM

TO:
FROM:
SUBJECT:
DATE:
CC:

JASON KLEIN
ARPAN PATEL
TECHNOLOGY PROPOSAL OF BUSINESS
07/13/2016
BOARD OF EDUCATION, DR. KEN WALLACE

After working for more than five years with Maine Township High School District 207, I was
able to grasp and adapt to the direction that District 207 is educating. Maine Township High
School was founded in 1902 and currently serves more than 7,000 culturally diverse students and
offers education to grades nine through twelve through a variety of various ability levels. Maine
Township High School District 207 mission is to Improve Learning. (High School, Maine
Township, 1) District 207 was lacking at improving technology and in 2005 when Maine
Township High School hired Ken Wallace as Superintendent. He was the assistant
Superintendent for curriculum and instruction who was not happy with how district did not
support innovation through technology. He had a goal to change that he began by installing LCD
projectors for the classrooms in 2007. Dr. Kenneth (Ken) Wallace proposed to board to hire a
chief of technology officer. With approval of the board, the district hired Dr. Henry (Hank)
Thiele and there began his long vision of digital learning for district 207 students. Dr. Wallace
and Dr. Thiele both started working on a long term plan to adapt technology across all three
schools because they were behind in technology among other school districts in the area. District
207 was using outdated technology which was not sufficient for their standards of educating
students.
As Dr. Wallace envision to go digital learning. Dr. Thiele was given many challenges to change
the lack of using innovation technology. Dr. Thiele came out with a plan which would include
windows laptops for teachers, launching 1:1 pilots, improve network infrastructure and become
Google first K-12 partner for Google Apps. (Ullman, 1) Dr. Thiele knew that digital learning was
possible with Google Apps for Education which he implemented in 2007 and 2008 to adopt new
system for District 207. Google Apps for Education solved district problem of having to use
outdated technology and move to a more moderate technology. Google Apps enabled district to
upgrade to a new system which is more capable of delivering new features and efficient for
learning in classrooms. Dr. Thieles hard work to become the first Google K-12 partner for
Google Apps which allowed him migrated about 7,000 students to Google Apps in 2007 and
2008. (Maine Township High School District Migrates to Google Apps, 1) By 2010, district had
migrated 1,500 faculty members and staff to Google Apps. Students and faculty members
became heavy user on the Google Apps which includes Gmail, Drive, Calendar and other Google
Suite Applications. With Google Apps for Education it allowed the district to begin their search
for the best device to achieve goal of digital learning. In the meantime, a Pilot program journey

began in 2008 as district leaders were trying to address students whose test scores declined
instead of improving in their four years. (Ullman, 1) As result, district officials re-structures of
curriculum for that group of students. Pilot program started with incoming freshman as they
bought windows and open source Netbooks to test out in classrooms with Google Apps.
According to Dr. Thiele, many departments in district started finding free or low cost, opensource materials, and textbook replacements. (Ullman, 3). Netbooks were given to only certain
group of students to try and teachers got involved in technology as well. Many teachers
incorporate their curricula which supported Google Apps.
After couple of years of testing with notebooks and research of many different devices to solve
district 207 problems with lack use of innovation technology. Dr. Thiele determined that Google
Apps for Education is best way to change the learning environment in the classrooms to buy
affordable equipment that is easy to use and economically efficient to maintain. Dr. Thiele
found Chromebooks as a perfect device for students to use in and outside the classrooms.
Chromebooks are designed to work with Internet-based resources, fast, long battery life,
reasonable price and easy to carry around for students in schools. Therefore, he was able to lunch
1:1 Chromebook pilot program in 2011 after many years of preparation. The transition to
Chromebooks was easy since district had been working with Google Apps for couple of years.
District gained a lot of benefits by going with Chromebooks. One of key benefits it allows to
take advantage of all the Google Apps. Teachers and Students dont have to worry about losing
their work as well because work done Chromebook backs up to the cloud. Dr. Thiele interview
with Google case studies The biggest thing is anytime access to information. Those students
have the worlds resources at their fingertips (Maine Township High School District Migrates to
Google Apps, 1). Chromebooks are very easy to use in classrooms because they boot-up less
than 10 seconds and it limits time for teachers serving as IT technician. Chromebook has
changed the way district 207 students learn in and out of the classrooms. Google Apps for
Education helped teachers and students become more collaborative and utilize time for learning
more effectively. According Dr. Thiele, by implementing 1:1 pilot program for district has helped
saved more than $784,000 over six years. (Maine Township High School District Migrates to
Google Apps, 2) Therefore, Dr. Wallace and the Board was very satisfied with Chromebooks
because it changed the learning experiences and everyone has same access on a sample device at
their fingertips.
With over 3,800 Chromebooks device as part of 1:1 Chromebooks for education program.
District 207 currently has three different brands of Chromebooks that students are using in the
classroom by having three different brands can create problems to customer satisfaction and can
have greater impact to families with more than one child using different brands of Chromebooks.
It is very important for district to go with one brand every year to keep customer service
consistent. Because district started with Samsung Chromebooks, but following year they
switched to Dell. However, this year District has decided to go with HP Chromebooks for
incoming freshman. Offering consistent products/service is vital for district to improve learning

because by changing it every year impact is greater on customer service techniques. In order to
improve customer service techniques district needs to go with one brand product and needs to
work hard at their bids with Dell to keep buying their products. District has been using Dell
products for very long time because Dell offers great quality products. District can have greater
success with buying Dell Chromebooks every year school would improve customer service
techniques and product/service offering. According to Dr. Thiele the Dell models are built more
durably, with students and education in mind. (Ullman, 2) In order to improve learning in
classrooms, district needs to work on customer services techniques and products/service
offerings that will help them with greater success for achieving their goals.
Dr. Wallace and Dr. Thiele proved that district direction to digital learning was possible with
Google Apps and Chromebooks. Therefore, district mission is to improve learning and with
technology resources it made possible for district to achieve that mission. District 207 became
the blueprint for going 1:1 with digital learning technology.

Work Cited
High School, Maine Township. "District 207 - Maine Township High School District 207." District 207 Maine Township High School District 207. N.p., 01 Jan. 2016. Web. 17 July 2016.
Ullman, Ellen. "Redefining Learning in Maine Township, Illinois." K-12 Blueprint. Tech Learning, 11 Feb.
2015. Web. 18 July 2016.
"Maine Township High School District Uses Google Apps & 1:1 Chromebooks for Education for Anytime,
Anywhere Learning." Maine Township High School District Uses Google Apps & 1:1 Chromebooks
for Education for Anytime, Anywhere Learning (n.d.): n. pag. Maine Township High School District
Migrates to Google Apps. Google, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 14 July 2016.

Websites
http://www.maine207.org/
https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/us/edu/case-studies/files/maine-townshiphigh-school-case-study.pdf

https://www.k12blueprint.com/success-stories/redefining-learning-maine-township-illinois