US/ND-2: Thoughts from New York

Thoughts from New York

Preuss, Paul (PPREUSS@Herkimer-BOCES.moric.org)
Thu, 5 Sep 1996 16:33:54 +5 EST 

I am in my 33rd year as an educator - serving as secondary teacher, 
high school assistant principal, principal, superintendent and now as 
an assistant superintendent of a BOCES (intermediate school district).

One of my current assignments is administrative oversight of our 
BOCES LAN.  We have over 50 administrative workstations and an equal 
number of student workstations tied to five servers which are 
interconnected to form our LAN.  Our LAN is - in turn - tied to a WAN 
which covers school districts in five BOCES regions.  

I have briefly reviewed two documents from the index of available 
material at Http://info-ren.pitt.edu        They are:
    
    The comments from the NY State Education Department on the
    proposed rulemaking on universal service
    http://www.info-ren.org/projects/universal-service/comments/html/156.html
    
    and
    
    The comments from NYNEX on the same topic
    http://www.info-ren.org/projects/universal-service/comments/html/160.html
    
 Although I favor and endorse most all of what the NYSED has 
commented on - I also found interesting and valid points expressed by 
NYNEX - particularly their identification of the need for an 
"educational vision".   I recommend both documents to interested 
members of this seminar.

  I also want to express my own views - limited as they are.
  
  1)  I agree with Mary Harcey Kruter and others that we, and the
      Federal Gov't should stick to the issue of providing expanded
      universal service and that the issues of equipment, training,
      internal wiring and other aspects of the total system be left
      to the local school district or organization to resolve.
      We must focus on access.
      
   2) The federal funding for access should be almost invisible to the
      school/organization much in the same way as "state contract"
      prices are negotiated for other commodities.   For example,  if
      a school district wants to purchase a car - it can do so at a 
      universal, pre-agreed upon "state contract" price for the 
      vehicle (in NYS).  Universal access should work in much the same 
      way. Local providers would be bound by the state or federal 
      contract price for specific degrees of services and would 
      receive reimbursement either directly from the feds or through 
      a state based agency.   As a school administrator I want a 
      certain degree of stability in cost and I want to keep the 
      process simple at my end.  This will usually result in the 
      greatest number of students benifitting in the shortest amount 
      of time. 
      
   3) I agree that "universal service" should be defined as broadly
      as possible - in terms on bandwidth etc - but not in terms of
      supporting all types of agencies and organizations.  Let's keep
      the focus on the intent of the legislation while making 
      technological provisions for the future - which in this arena of 
      telecommunications seems to be happening next week. 
      
      If the connections are made for the schools, libraries, etc - it
      will not be long before the same connections are made available 
      to the community at large. 
      
      In our own case - we have chosen to go with a local vendor who
      is installing a POP in our own town.  This will enable many
      smaller towns around us to be but just a local call away from 
      the POP - encouraging people living there to get connected.
         
 Bottom line - let's keep it simple and focused upon the intent
               realizing that there are many "related issues" with
               which we must deal at the local level.
               
               













Paul Preuss
PPreuss@Herkimer-BOCES.moric.org
Phone: 315 867 2007  FAX: 315 867 2024