Our Mission

In partnership with a community that values excellence in education, the Ellensburg School District leverages existing and emerging technologies in order to facilitate communication, provide educational opportunities, and optimize administrative operations.

Ellensburg School District has a significant investment and commitment to technology integration and utilization. The District uses technology to support and enhance the educational process, to facilitate district operations, and to communicate and store data and information at various levels.

Education

An articulated K-12 scope and sequence for technology literacy is being developed to meet both Washington State Technology Standards and the ISTE NETS Standards.  Ellensburg School District technology helps to facilitate the curriculum, enhance instruction, and optimize resources that can be used to meet the needs of our students.  We are working dilligently toward a staff and student plan that will assist  in successfully integrating technology in the teaching and learning process.

Communication

Information Access and Communication through technology is another important facet of Educational and Informational Technology. The District uses technology to enhance communication with parents and the community to help increase their involvement in the educational processes. The school district's web site is a vital medium through which the District provides a wealth of information to community and staff. In addition, the school district is expanding its information services by using a variety of online services and Web 2.0 tools such as Moodle, blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, podcasts and other web applications that provide students and parents with access to handouts, presentations, audio files and much more. Web publishing guidelines and safe blogging guidelines are being developed to help insure a good web experience.

Technology Committees

The district maintains advisory committees composed of staff and community members who are instrumental  in providing valuable information, expertise and recommendations to our department. The District technology committe charter provides a framework for parameters within which they work.

Strategic Plan: Educational Technology Plan / Report

In Spring 2008, the District revisited its Educational Technology Plan through the Strategic Planning Process. Volunteers from the community and the school district worked cooperatively to identify goals, strategies and objectives that will strengthen the district's use of technology to support instruction and curriculum.

(coming soon) View a copy of the District Technology Plan (pdf format)

District Hardware

All 890+ district owned computers located within the buildings are wired for network and internet access. A variety of online, server and internet-based applications are used to support teaching and learning and most teacher workstations are equipped with supporting peripherals such as document cameras, projectors, Smart Boards and more. A district service level agreement has been developed to aid in the underpinning maintenance responsibilities of network devices.

District Infrastructure

The district maintains a high speed Wide Area Network (WAN) and all buildings are connected to the District office via a fiber backbone. The fiber network is a combination of district owned fiber and a shared city owned fiber providing interconnectivity to all district buildings. This WAN allows all staff and students have access to thier district network resources from virtually any location within the district.

The district has a10mbps fiber uplink to the K-20 network. All students and staff have access to the Internet through the K-20 backbone. Currently the district is using Websense Enterprise software for content filtering, a Packeteer Packet Shaper and a CISCO ASA 5500 firewall at the network edge.

Internet Safety

Back in December, 2000, the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2001, Public Law 106-554, were signed into law. The FCC then generated a set of rules regarding the implementation of CIPA which were adopted on March 30, 2001. In order to be eligible for E-rate funding schools and libraries that have computers with Internet access must implement certain measures. Read the Childrens Internet Protection Act information on this page.

Internet safety curriculum for schools: www.isafe.org

Washington State PTA:  www.wastatepta.org\resources\resources

Information to help make wise on-line choices: www.webwisekids.org

Free,interactive internet safety resources from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and Boys & Girls Clubs of America: www.netsmarts.org

Guides for parents to use with children on internet safety www.getnetwise.org

Internet safety help and education resource: www.wiredsafety.org

Information on cyber bullying:  http://stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/index.asp

Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use http://www.csriu.org/

National Association of Elementary School Principals Report to Parents on Cyber Bullying: (pdf.file)

Disclaimer:  The District cannot be held accountablefor content of pages beyond the District website,however the links on this page are considered student appropriate.