Information and Technology Services

Known Outages

The Information Technology Department is responsible for the administration and maintenance of all technology services within the district. From desktop computers, networks and infrastructure to applications and communications, and everything in between.

The Department is guided by a three-pillar axiom for all staff, students and individuals utilizing district technology.

Our mission — To provide technology services that allow everyone to be aware of the technology, well versed in the technology, and confident in the technology.

To this end, the department strategically leverages open source software to deliver engaging, reliable, and cost effective solutions supported by expert staff who share in this vision.

The department's vision has evolved over the years in an attempt to transition ourselves from a primarily maintenance entity to one that provides services.

Open Source in Education

All of our elementary school workstations run Linux for their operating system. Students and teachers now have a large selection of free open-source educational, productivity, and office software. ��Swag has 33 elementary schools, all of which have a Linux Thin Client lab running Linux on the desktop.

Currently all of our secondary schools use Linux and FreeBSD for virus, and web content filtering. In 2006 Barriere Secondary was the first high school in our district to have all its student, teacher, and administrative workstations converted to Linux. In September 2009 we finished converting our last 3 secondary schools to Linux Desktops.

In 2001 ��Swag started installing Linux and FreeBSD into our server rooms. Now almost all of our our school board office servers also run Linux and FreeBSD. We use Open Source Software for for email, virus-filters, spam-filters, domain name systems, and web servers. Most of our major information systems are web-based: student data warehouse, work orders, assets, transportation, budgets etc.

Some of the benefits to using Open Source Software:

No licensing fees.
Free upgrades.
Fast free support.
Diskless clients allows for instant updates to all workstations within a school.
No viruses.
No spyware.
Great security.
Reliable server uptime.
No pirating illegal software: p2p.
Ability to boot multiple customized images/desktops for custom tasks:
- Staff/Student desktop (standardized stable),
- Multimedia desktop (video/audio production),
- Exam kiosk desktop (locked down secure),
- Library search kiosk desktop (easily find books).

Some of the free software technologies that we use include Debian, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Arch, Gentoo, FreeBSD, RedHat, MySQL, PHP, OpenOffice/LibreOffice, Linux Terminal Server Project, Diskless Clients, Dansguardian, Squid, Zimbra, Moodle, Wordpress, Cyrus, Squirrelmail, Blender 3D Animation, Scribus, Qcad, Cycus, kdenlive, xmms, and ardour.

Computer Support

The district offers a wide range of technology and technology support. Please visit to get help with with , Report Cards, Thin Client Computers, email, Smartboards, and Open Source Software. You can contact our computer Service Desk at (250) 377-4357 or create a . You can also schedule personal or group training sessions.

Computer Service Desk

The District Service Desk can be reached through the following methods:

via .
via phone - (250) 377-4357
via

The District IT Service Desk is staffed Monday to Friday from 8 am to 4 pm, except statutory holidays.

If you have any questions or issues outside of those hours, please submit your issue via ticket or email. We cannot promise an immediate response, but your question will be looked at.

The District Service Desk can help you with problems encountered on District computers, District Network, and District email.

The District Service Desk cannot help you with problems on your personal (non-district owned) devices. There is the exception of personal devices attempting to get access to District services.

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