Welcome to Computing Services
Our department is involved in ‘everything technology’ throughout Lincoln Public Schools. We keep the email flowing, computers running and the network humming. As computing technology spreads into other areas, we are there to lend our support.
Computing Services (CS) is comprised of more than 65 staff members grouped into functional work teams. Learn more about our work below.
If you are interested in something specific, please use the navigation at the top to narrow your focus.
Chief Technology Officer
The Administration Team includes the department’s office manager and leadership team. In addition to general administration and budget, this team focuses on project management, device deployment, information security and IT governance.
Kirk Langer
Chief Technology Officer
klanger@lps.org
402-458-3131
Leadership Team
The Educational Technology Services Team is comprised of support specialists and analysts focused on helping LPS staff understand and use the hundreds of supported applications available to meet their needs, as well as planning, training, and communicating district technology initiatives.
Kristi Peters
Educational Technology
Director
kristi@lps.org
402-458-3139
The Information Technology Services team includes our infrastructure team engineers who are responsible for the district’s network connectivity, servers and storage, as well as our data services analysts and developers who create, mine, and report out on student and business data for the school district.
Tim Klein
Information Technology Director
tklein@lps.org
402-458-3126
The Information Security Services team includes system analysts who manage and oversee the use and security of LPS devices, systems, and data. They play a key role in the development and implementation of data security rules and guidelines.
This team also includes the LPS Help Desk which supports the district office and support calls throughout LPS.
Seth Ristow
Information Security Officer
iso@lps.org
402-458-3135
The Technology Support team includes the service managers, field and repair technicians who are positioned across the district to quickly respond in person to technical support needs that require a “hands-on” level of care.
Drew Ramaekers
Technology Support
Services Administrator
drama@lps.org
402-458-3132
Educational Technology Services
The Educational Technology Services Team is the consolidation of a number of roles, including:
- Help Desk Specialists who are available by phone (x1735) during normal business hours to support LPS staff with their various technical needs.
- Educational Technology Specialists who are focused on the use of technology by teachers for instructional purposes.
- Application Specialists who are focused on training teachers, office professionals and administrators to use applications for administrative purposes.
Team members manage specific programs and give voice to district initiatives that include a technology component, a vital role of implementation coordination. This team has coordinated the training and communication around a number of technology supported initiatives, including the Synergy student information system, document management, Google’s suite of tools, Hapara digital classroom management, document workflow, and the orientation of teachers to new laptops and Chromebooks just to name a few.
Technology Training
Training efforts include a mix of face-to-face and video conferencing opportunities, as well as the multimedia resources developed to allow busy educators to time-shift training. This group creates and maintains a vast catalog of web pages offering solutions and strategies for working with the software tools most central to the work of teachers and other support staff. Workshops are offered year-round. Learn more about their services here.
Instructional Tool Selection & Support
Members of this team have played a lead role in the development of an interdepartmental process for vetting Instructional Technology Tools (ITTs) including the development of the review framework, articulation of that framework via a web site known as “the Matrix” where teachers, students and the community can learn what ITTs are used by the district and a submission workflow that escalates requests from teachers to instructional leaders in their school and on to the district. The ITT vetting process is critical in ensuring compliance with regulations, focusing training efforts, reducing the inefficiency of ITT sprawl, aligning curriculum efforts with technology to support it and providing a much-needed opportunity to consider the information security and data privacy implications of each ITT.
Tech Leaders
Members of this team coordinate the efforts of building tech leaders in all LPS schools. This includes ongoing communication on Computing Services initiatives, monthly meetings, and individual and small group consulting on any needs expressed by the buildings.
Information Technology Services
Our infrastructure staff is comprised of engineers responsible for the district’s network connectivity, servers and storage. They manage the district’s Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) of fiber optic cabling, its entry to the more than 70 LPS locations, and the end point ethernet or wireless connections.
Internet bandwidth consumption remains heavy even after school hours as all student Chromebooks taken home at night are directed through the district’s secure web gateway for CIPA compliant filtering.
The Infrastructure group is also responsible for delivering application, file, telephony, database and print services as well as core services including DNS, Active Directory, email & calendaring, printing, Enterprise Content Management (DocuShare), telephones, firewall, Identity Access Management (The Portal), Google Cloud and Workspaces Services and Office365 integration.
Our data services staff includes developers who manage our primary data systems in LPS, CORE and Synergy.
- CORE is Lincoln Public Schools’ Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. This system connects and organizes our most essential business functions like human resources, payroll, time and attendance, ordering, accounting and many others, so that everyone is working with the same data and processes.
- Synergy is our student information and instructional management system for LPS. It allows staff in the classroom, the school office, and the district leadership center the ability to manage and report out on student data for the district.
Our data services staff develops applications to meet specific needs articulated by the various departments in LPS. Each application is documented and implemented by the developers in conjunction with systems and training personnel.
Report development has become a primary function of this team, distributing data packaged to provide decision support. One example is the development of a student “Early Warning System” that provides instructional leaders and teachers with actionable data to intervene on behalf of students with performance indicators correlated to dropping out of school.
When we open a web page, sometimes we forget the physical devices it takes to get the web page to our computer screen. Consider the breadth of the LPS network…
Information Security Services
District initiatives
Lincoln Public Schools was one of the first K-12 school districts in the country to employ a full time Information Security Officer (ISO) in 2016. to lead our adoption of the Center for Internet Security’s Critical Controls framework.
LPS information technology rules (ITR) and information technology procedures (ITP) for staff members describe responsible use and/or expected behavioral norms related to District technology resources. All staff are expected to annually acknowledge that they have reviewed posted rules, procedures and practices. The ISO drafts IT Regulations and Procedures to instantiate the IT and information security governance foundation for the district.
A strategic component of the ongoing data security work in LPS is an Instructional Technology Tool (ITT) evaluation process. Buildings and teachers who wish to use tools that use or store LPS student data must select a previously approved ITT, or request that the ITT committee review the new tool. The ISO provides leadership to the ITT committee.
The proliferation of “social engineering” attacks directed at staff members requires ongoing training on identity access. LPS attempts to provide natural training opportunities for staff about phishing and spam tactics. One way we do this is by delivering our own “phishing” messages to LPS employees that help us learn lessons about these tactics in a safe way.
Device Security
The Information Security Services team includes system analysts who manage and oversee the use and security of LPS devices. Amongst the many efforts in this area are monthly “Software Update Tuesdays” when all LPS devices (Mac, Windows, iOS) are required to run available software updates. This team is responsible for device image development and testing, device security, profile/policy management, and the mobile device management (MDM) for the district.
Student Data Security
LPS cares deeply about protecting students. We go to great lengths to protect them physically. This is evident in many ways; secure entrances, background checks on staff members, regular drills to prepare for dangerous situations like tornadoes, fires, intruders, or other disasters, and much, much more.
It’s important to us that you also know that we also care deeply about protecting our students DIGITALLY. We go to great lengths to make sure that the interactions a student is having online are safe and appropriate, that the data we collect about them as they go through school is securely held, and that we are helping students to continue to make good digital decisions when they are not under our watchful eye. These digital efforts are often less visible than our physical security efforts, so we assemble the following information to increase awareness of these important measures that are happening in LPS every day.
Learn more about the many data privacy efforts underway in LPS at any moment.
Technology Support Services
The Technology Support team is the largest of the Computing Services teams, comprised of service managers, Chromebook repair technicians, and field technicians housed in the LPS high school regional support zone they serve.
This team is responsible for all aspects of device provisioning and support including procurement, image development and testing, implementation training, asset management, device security, software/OS updates, profile/policy management, directory integration, print services, troubleshooting, and one-on-one training.
In the case of Chromebooks, this team is also responsible for the repair and provisioning of “loaner” devices.
The DALI portion of the CLASS plan calls for the maintenance of thousands of devices, broken out approximately as…
