Doug Evans, Technology Director

Welcome to the Bladen County Schools Technology Services Department.  We provide technical support for thirteen schools and four administrative sites.  Our department consists of the following personnel: (1) technology director, (1) technology technician III, (1) technology technician II, (3) technology technicians I and (1) administrative assistant/help desk operator.  Although we are a small, rural school district in southeastern North Carolina, we strive to provide both proven and cutting edge technology to support a sound educational experience for students and staff.

Thanks to the State of North Carolina, our school district receives a 100 Mb Internet pipe through NCREN.  A five year contract with Star Communications is providing Metro-E WAN bandwidth of 500 Mb for each of our seventeen sites through June 2014.

Every site within our school district has a local area network (LAN).  Each LAN consists of a fiber optic backbone to connect buildings and Category 5/5e/6 copper cabling within the buildings.  Cisco 10/100/1000 switches provide connectivity and management for all network wiring.  As of January, 2013, we are replacing the Cisco network switches with Enterasys equipment.  Two other projects, funded through E-rate and Race to the Top dollars, have been completed and provide 1:1 capacity wireless connectivity in every school using Cisco Clean Air technology.

Students and staff have access to Windows-compatible computer hardware and peripherals in Bladen County Schools.  There are approximately 5,000 computers available for use.  Microsoft Office Professional is provided on those units.  Servers are Novell, Windows and Linux based.  With a few Windows Vista exceptions, most desktop and mobile computers operate on Windows XP Professional.  Students also use virtual desktop stations provided through nComputing XTENDA technology.  The X550 product enables a single computer to share its resources to six users without any reduction in speed for any user.  The virtual desktop technology is used in some of our media centers and CTE computer labs.  A suite of LANDesk products is currently being implemented to provide a remote computer management system which handles Windows updates, software deployment, hard drive imaging, along with a host of other capabilities.  The technology will allow our small IT department to work on computers remotely, saving travel time and expense.

Software offerings provided by the Technology Services Department are listed below:

• Deep Freeze - student computer operating system protection 
• Google Apps for Education - email and productivity services for staff and students
• Learn360 - video streaming website
• Rosetta Stone - staff development in Spanish
• SchoolinSites - our website host
• SimpleK12 - online staff development for technology/technology integration
• SynchronEyes - computer lab management
• AVG Business Edition - antivirus/antispyware

I hope this welcome message has shed some light on technology in Bladen County Schools.  Please visit us again.