Technology Services

Our services enhance:

• Student learning through providing technology resources for research, reference, and other learning opportunities.
• Student support by developing, maintaining and supporting the student record system.
• Business and financial support by maintaining, updating, and supporting the district's human resources and financial systems.
• The district infrastructure by designing, maintaining, and supporting the voice and data networks.
• Keeping TUSD connected and functioning by providing a district-wide technology environment to support the district's Mission/Vision/Strategic Priorities and Values. We provide network, computer, student and business records, and web services for TUSD.
• The voice and data network by providing voice services for the district's 8,500+ telephones, including a telephone in every classroom, Enhanced 911, voicemail services, and teleconference bridges, to name a few. Through this network, the district's 25,000+ computers connect to the Internet and to central and site servers using wireline and wireless connections. The infrastructure required to support Tucson Unified's voice, data, and video services requires tens of thousands of voice and data drops, hundreds of thousands of miles of infrastructure, and multimillion dollars of equipment.
• Instructional and administrative computers by supporting over 25,000 computers in labs, classrooms, and offices. Currently Tucson Unified computers use the Windows 10 operating system and run Microsoft Office 2016 and Office 365 and a variety of district-approved educational software. The district's servers supply data, file, and, in some cases, application storage. With Office 365, staff also have access to OneDrive cloud storage. Technology Services also supports the district installation and administration of the Follett library system and the Food Services' computer system.
• The student record management system (Synergy®) by providing principals, teachers, parents, and students with data at their fingertips. 
• Human Resources and financial records system by providing tools that automate the district's day-to-day business activities: from recruiting and hiring staff, to procuring supplies, to maintaining asset inventory, to running payroll, to processing employee benefits. For example, ERP software allows the District to submit, process, and approve requisitions for supplies and services electronically. Automating the workflow and approval process in this way streamlines and speeds up the delivery of goods and services to the District. Employees can also access their own pay information online from any computer any time using iVisions Self Service.
• Support for computer users by providing computer assistance to over 7,400 district computer users within the district. The TS Service Desk responds to over 40,000 phone calls per year, addressing questions about email, the student information system, the Internet, and computer applications. District computer users can also find assistance through online interactive demos and documentation produced by Technology Services.
• The district intranet and internet by serving as a clearinghouse of information and resources for district employees. Hundreds of district forms, the district phone directory, a calendar of events, and department-specific sites are among the resources available through the intranet. The district uses Microsoft SharePoint for its internal web for departments and staff. The district web site receives 6,000-7,500 visits daily. 

"Our drive is to make sure that we're outfitting every one of our schools with the necessary technology that students need to be successful." -- Dr. Trujillo, TUSD Superintendent

All of our areas of support contribute to the department's mission of providing the technology infrastructure and support for the District. 

Information Technology

• Central Operations
  • Service Desk (Help Desk): provides a single point of contact for technology incident reporting, referral, or resolution. They act as liaison for school sites, verifying and correcting student data.
  • Technical Writing: develops technical process documentation and support materials for computer applications that help staff use District technology.
• Field Operations
  • Inventories, Installation and Maintenance: maintains a current inventory of all computers, printers, and other TS technology; coordinates installation of new technology equipment throughout the District; manages parts inventory and distribution for technology equipment throughout the District.
  • Field Support Services: provides support for technology initiatives in schools and other District sites; coordinates and performs the installation of computers, printers, and other peripheral devices at schools and instructional sites; assists with the moving and installation of technology equipment throughout the District.
• Library and Textbook Services
  • Library Services: provides training classes for Librarians and Library Assistants, answering library related questions.
  • Textbook and Resource Services: provides information on board approval process for textbooks and resources, what textbooks and resources have been board approved and available surplus textbooks.
• Network
  • Systems Management: builds and manages all site and central District servers and manages the District email system; creates and manages student and staff user accounts and troubleshoots everything from access to District servers to user workstation issues at the central offices; remotely manages all computers throughout the District; installs Windows and software updates along with anti-virus, and anti-malware programs; monitors the health of District computers; oversees central computer operations, including server backups, network monitoring, Active Directory, virtual servers, Office 365, OneDrive, SharePoint, web systems analysis, and the District’s disaster recovery plan.
  • Data Network: analyzes the network security system and central network operations, WAN and LAN data systems, and District security needs; determines needs and evaluates options for optimization and creates new system designs when necessary; develops plan for upgrades, integration and optimization and implements solutions; reviews special requests for firewall access.
  • Voice Network: monitors and maintains the District Wide Area Network for voice services as well as all site Voice Cabling Systems and telephony.

Information Systems

• Business System
  • Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): provides support for our enterprise software (Infinite Visions) to meet the District's needs for financial and human resources records and transaction processing; supports Finance, Purchasing, HR, Benefits, Payroll, and Employee Self Service.
• Student Information System
  • Synergy®​​​​​​​: provides principals, teachers, parents, and students with data at their fingertips.
• Academic & Business Intelligence
  • ​​​​​​​Data Warehouse: responsible for creating a data warehouse that can provide visual representations of data via a Data Dashboard to give users the ability to make informed decisions based on current data; designed to support user self service so that users can access the information they need on their own without waiting for programmers to develop reports or data sets; data will be integrated from all the data systems across the District; allows users to see a complete picture of a situation for more accurate analysis; users can analyze the success of an instructional program using data across the schools involved that integrates student grades and assessments with cost, employee training, and the technology resources involved.

Educational Technology

• Teacher & Classroom Support 
  • ​​​​​​​Instructional Technology: provides support and training for software systems, applications, and hardware technology for the classroom that has educational or assessment purposes; systems supported include Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Clever, etc.

 

Systems

• Registration
  • Online Registration (thru ParentVUE)
  • Open Enrollment Application
• Student Information System
  • Parent Access (ParentVUE)
  • Student Access (StudentVUE)

To promote the appropriate use of technology at TUSD, the TUSD Governing Board has adopted these policies and regulations related to district technology resources:

• Policy Code EJA, Acceptable Use of Technology Resources
• Regulation Code EJA-R, Acceptable Use of Technology Resources
• Policy Code EJC, Electronic Mail
• Policy Code IJNDB, Use of Technology Resources in Instruction
• Regulation Code IJNDB-R1, Use of Technology Resources in Instruction
• Regulation Code IJNDB-R2, Use of Technology Resources in Instruction - Laptop Usage
• Exhibit Code IJNDB-E1, Use of Technology Resources in Instruction Exhibit 1 (in PDF)

Note:

These policies should be read and interpreted in conjunction with all other TUSD policies and regulations, including the following:

• Policy Code AC, Discrimination
• Regulation Code AC-R, Discrimination Complaint Procedure
• Policy Code CF, Leadership Principles
• Regulation Code CF-R, Leadership Principles
• Policy Code GBEA, Staff Ethics
• Policy Code GBEB, Staff Conduct
• Regulation Code GBEB-R, Staff Conduct