Background
SHF began years ago with a small Apple computer lab on the third floor of school. This lab was provided our students with the best capabilities at the time. As computers go, this equipment quickly became obsolete and did not provide much capability for the upper grades. Through a lot of hard work, fund raising, and donations, the PC lab was born on the second floor with 30 new, networked computers with Internet access. This provided the extended capabilities for grades 3 through 8 and the Apple lab was still used for K through 2. Once again, after many years of good service, the PC lab was also becoming old and obsolete. Replacing old computers was becoming difficult as fund raising was not keeping up with obsolescence and replacement of old equipment extended many years into the future. In addition, after the PC lab was created, the last major project to make it all come together was to wire all classrooms for network connectivity. Along with the PC lab, we can’t forget about the Apple lab which services our K-2 classrooms and was using equipment that had been abandoned years ago and was in desperate need of replacement. With old and obsolete computers in the PC and Apple labs, no school network, obsolete computers in the classrooms, and not much money to pay for any of it, the future of the SHF computer program looked bleak, until a miracle happened…
Donation Rebuilds PC Lab
SHF received an early Christmas present this year when an anonymous donor presented the school with enough money to replace all of the old computers in the PC lab. From this donation, 16 new computers were purchased for the lab. It would have taken SHF 5 or more years to replace these computers and by then, the other half would have needed replacement. Now all of the computers in our PC Lab are 4 years old or less, with half of them brand new. This donation not only replaced these computers, but had a huge effect on everything we needed to upgrade since we could now use this money for other projects.
The All-School Network
The primary goal of the Technology Committee since the inception of the PC Lab was to network the entire school. The cost of this project was beyond anything we had funded before and seemed out of reach until 2005. With the help of another generous donation, donated hardware, and local business, every classroom was wired for phone and network connections. Now each classroom has their own phone and a network connection to the Internet and the entire school. This project would never have been possible without the help of several local businesses donating their labor and material for this project. By no means was this project free, but with the help from the computer donations, Technology could afford to contribute to the cost of this project.
More Donations Help Classrooms
Now that we have each classroom wired for the network, we also needed a computer for each teacher to access the Internet and their email from their desk. The computers in the classrooms were the oldest in the school and would not be capable of using the network unless upgraded. Once again, a local business donated their used computers so that each classroom could have a new(er) computer. These computers were in great shape and provided the teachers the capabilities of accessing the Internet and email from their desks. In all, about 20 computers were setup and installed in each of the classrooms.
Technology Keeps Growing
With the new school network and computers, SHF is now current or ahead of most schools in our area. This could not be done without the generosity of our parishioners and businesses in our community. Of course, let’s not forget the volunteers who install and maintain our hardware and software and create and maintain our website. We now support over 80 computers and 2 servers in the PC Lab and the classrooms and 15+ in the Apple Lab. In addition to the hardware, don’t forget the software that runs the network and all of these computers which requires constant maintenance. All of the hardware and software would be useless without this human support from our volunteers. THANKS!
Reminder about donations
Please don’t drop off used computer equipment at school without first checking with the Principal or email the address below. While we appreciate all donations, much of the old computer equipment will not support our newer software and storage of this equipment is very limited while disposal can be costly. Thank you.
Questions for Technology? Please email: Shftc4kids@shfschool.org
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