Congratulations to the Fridley Public Schools Technology team, who collectively earned the title of June 2021 Employee of the Month! Throughout the school year, the technology team has worked tirelessly to ensure that students have access to 1:1 Chromebooks, staff are equipped with educational tools, all technological systems are consistently working properly and effectively, plus many more behind-the-scenes tasks that are essential for school and student success. Each member of the district's Technology team plays a key role in the functions of the Fridley School District. Congratulations to the Fridley Technology team on a well-deserved Employee of the Month honor! See below for acknowledgements of our hardworking staff members, written by John Piotraschke, Director of Teaching and Learning and Yvonne Anderson, Director of Technology.
Bill Bade: With the increased use of Google Classroom, Bade was assigned the role of the Google Administrator and quickly became the go-to person for any Google issues or needs. He was instrumental in rolling out the new Clever Dashboard that allows students to login to their Chromebooks, go to the Clever Dashboard and access all of the district software for learning, including Google Classroom and Edgenuity.
Angela McShane: Throughout this challenging school year, McShane has calmly and effortlessly supported several buildings and departments from Fridley Preschool to Early Childhood Education, to Fridley High School and Fridley Moore Lake Area Learnig Center classrooms. In the spring, she played a key role in the distribution of BenQ Boards, the new classroom technology to replace the SMART Boards and also the Juno Sound/Amplification Systems. Through her organization and planning, this equipment was rolled out to all of the high school classrooms in a very short period of time.
Matthew Webber: Webber has been actively involved in the distribution and support of the Chromebooks for Fridley Public Schools students. He works diligently to maintain the devices and ensure that all students have a working Chromebook in order to continue their learning, whether they were a Distance Learner or a Hybrid learner. He also works with students and families that are in need of Hot Spots for home networking capabilities and worked one on one with students and families to be sure they were able to use this critical technology.
Donna Siedlecki: Siedlecki has played a key role in the Chromebook 1:1 program for the district. She maintains an inventory of all of the Chromebooks, cases and power cords using our Destiny Resource software. Siedlecki also assists all of the buildings in the process of labeling, checking out and tracking the devices for each of our students. She maintains the door unlock and lock schedules for all of the district buildings for the school day and after school activities. The schedules allow students to enter the buildings while also ensuring doors are locked when needed to provide a safe and secure learning environment.
Tom Firminger: Firminger joined the Technology team in January 2021 and hit the ground running. His knowledge and experience working with Chromebooks has been a huge advantage as he is able to enroll, deploy, maintain and repair Chromebooks for students. He took over the support of the elementary buildings and many other technology systems, including the wireless network, and is always willing to work on additional projects or assignments.
Nick Fletcher: In his role as Systems Administrator, Fletcher ensures that all of our district systems are up and running. This has been especially necessary with many students and staff working outside the district's network and needing access to all systems. He maintains the accounts for staff and students that are needed to access any of our internal systems. Fletcher is also a mentor for all of the Technology staff and provides many opportunities for them to learn and grow their skills. He has also played a key role in the implementation of PowerBI and our data dashboard.