ECISD works with new phone system
Ector County Independent School District’s new $4 million phone system has been rolling out over the spring semester. And it’s still taking some getting used to.
“I like the caller ID,” Libby Sibert, a teacher at Barbara Jordan Elementary, said. “There are many parts of it I do like.”
But Sibert said she has concerns that the system, which uses voice over Internet protocol from Cisco Systems, shuts down when the power goes out at the school. She said it doesn’t allow for automatic calls to be made to parents, advising them of the situation.
“If the network is out, you can’t do doodly squat,” she said. “I guess you can put a note under the front door.”
But Damon Jackson, ECISD information technology director, said ECISD’s old phone system, which was operated through AT&T, didn’t work during power outages either. And the new system has a battery backup that allows it to work on a limited basis for up to an hour.
Moreover, the new system doesn’t need to be repaired as much as ECISD’s old AT&T Plexar analog system, which Jackson said had 33 days of unscheduled down time, and would regularly fail after storms. And when the old system did malfunction, the district often had to pay extra for marked up parts that had been discontinued.
“That’s if you could find them,” he said. “You never threw anything away. You tried to find somebody who could recondition them.”
In addition, ECISD says AT&T would no longer provide support for the system after the end of June.
Jackson points to statistics from ECISD’s data networking systems team, which is responsible for phones and other electronic systems in the district, that show the team has had 237 work orders so far in 2011. From Jan. 1 to May 31 in 2010, the team had 467 work orders.
“Absolutely, it’s basically cut in half the work orders for the team that was responsible for the analog system,” Jackson said.
Mike Adkins, ECISD communications director, said that those numbers are for all work orders for the crew, which also includes dealing with bells and alarms, data cabling and other devices. Numbers for phone system specific work orders weren’t available.
Jackson said the new phone system is unrelated to problems some in the district are having with slow Internet service, since phone calls do not use the Internet connection. Instead, the phones use Primary Rate Interface lines from AT&T.
Jackson said much of the bandwidth is taken up by teachers using YouTube videos as instructional tools. At times during the day, ECISD reaches maximum capacity on its Internet connection because of the site, with over half of the Internet activity at any given time of day coming from YouTube, which the district links through an internal site called ECISDTube to filter out comments and links to videos that may be inappropriate.
To help deal with Internet issues, ECISD increased Internet bandwidth from to 200-by-200 megabits per second, from 100-by-100 mbps, before the current school year, Jackson said. Before the 2011-12 school year, the district again plans to increase bandwidth to 300-by-300 mbps.
“Internally, we have a very robust network,” Jackson said. “However, maintaining enough Internet bandwidth will be an ongoing battle as instructional tools move to the Web and other resources move to the public cloud.”
Maribel Arando, assistant principal at LBJ Elementary, said the school tried to prepare its parents for the new system being put in place. The ability to leave voicemail for specific teachers has been positive.
“Overall, I think parents have been very supportive,” she said. “They like getting the messages to the teachers right away and not having to go through the office. Overall, it’s been pretty good.”
Along with cutting down on repairs, Adkins said the phone system will “drastically” reduce ECISD’s phone bills since it is tied in with its computer network. He said the district has been seeing savings of $20,000 per month. The district, which expects the phones to last at least a decade, says the system will pay for itself within seven years.
While ECISD is currently grappling with the ramifications of state budget cuts, Adkins said research began on the new system, and money was set aside, in 2009 “because they knew this day was coming.”
“It was not taken out of this year’s budget in any way, shape or form,” he said.
Jackson acknowledges there have been issues with the changeover to new phone numbers, with phone systems in some areas not recognizing the new “456” prefix and giving callers a message saying the number is not in service. He advises anyone that hears such a message to call their phone provider and let them know about the new prefix.
But he says that features like enhanced 9-1-1 services and other emergency notifications make the system worth the glitches.
“If a 9-1-1 operator gets a call for Blanton Elementary, they know what part of Blanton Elementary,” Jackson said of the new system.
