Technology Handbook

Fairfield Public Schools Technology Steering Committee develops a three-year Technology Plan to outline the district’s objectives for the near future. The District Technology Plan provides the roadmap for the deployment and implementation of technology.

Fairfield Public Schools Technology Plan 2018-2023

Every time you log in to a district computer you agree to the BOE Policy 3543.31 and BOE Policy 6141.321. You must click “OK” to log in and by doing that you agree to the Fairfield Public School policies and procedures for use of technology in the district. See Appendix A of this Handbook.

Director of IT

Provides strategic technology leadership and oversees all IT operations

Central Office Staff

The Central Office team comprises specialized IT professionals who provide district-wide technology leadership and support:

• Application Integration Specialist – Ensures seamless integration between various district applications and systems
• Applications Developer – Designs and maintains custom software solutions for district needs
• Cyber Security Analyst – Ensures network security, data protection, and compliance with security protocols
• Data Analyst – Provides data insights and reporting to support educational and operational decisions
• Database Maintenance and Administration Specialist – Maintains database integrity, performance, and availability
• Infrastructure Engineer – Implements and maintains core technology infrastructure systems
• Multimedia & Google Administrator – Manages multimedia resources and Google Workspace for Education environment
• Network Infrastructure Specialist – Manages and optimizes the district's network architecture
• Student Information Specialist – Manages student information systems and related data processes

School-Based Technology Support

Eight dedicated Computer Technicians provide on-site technology support across the district's educational facilities:

• Two high schools
• Three middle schools
• Eleven elementary schools
• Pre-K/Early Childhood Center (ECC)
• WFC locations

Support Ticket Management and Dispatch

All technology support requests are managed through a centralized ticketing system. The process ensures efficient resolution of technology issues:

• Staff submit all requests via the district's unified ticketing system
• Central Office personnel triage incoming tickets to assess priority and complexity
• Tickets are assigned to the appropriate technician based on location, expertise, and urgency
• Technicians are dispatched to resolve on-site issues when remote support is insufficient

Your initial network login will need to take place in a school building or at Central Office. This process will automatically update your password to all network integrated applications, Google and O365.

• Turn on a windows computer.
•  It will appear with FPS wallpaper.
• Hit the enter key.
• Click OK to accept the acceptable use policies.
• The login screen will now appear.
• Type your complete username (this is also your email address), in most cases, 1^st initial and last name, example jdoe@fairfieldschools.org
• Type your initial password provided by IT.
• A box will appear to change your password.
• Staff will be prompted to change their password every 3 months (90 Days) for security.
  • Passwords can be changed on a device at school by logging in and clicking ctrl-alt-del and choosing ‘change password’ on the screen that appears.
  • Passwords can also be changed by logging into Office.com and navigating to your initials in the upper right and choosing ‘view account.’
  • Keep in mind: changing your password offsite on a school device will not change the device login password until you get the device back on the FPS network.
     
• During distance learning periods the prompt to change passwords has been turned off.
• Staff will receive an automated email reminding them of their upcoming expiring password at 14, 7 and 1 day before expiration.

 

Passwords must include:

• Case sensitive.
• At least 8 characters.
• At least one capital letter.
• At least one number or symbol.
• The past 6 passwords cannot be reused.
• The password cannot include any three consecutive letters of your first or last name.
• Make it something you can remember.
• Do Not Share Your Password! You have access to sensitive student data.

If you need technical support with hardware, our network, and downloading software, you need to submit a ticket using the Atera IT Ticketing System. This system tracks requests and comments from technicians attempting to resolve the issue. You will receive an email notice once you submit a ticket and any updates to the case if they arise. You may update the ticket at any time by replying to emails generated by the ticketing system.

All district Windows and MAC computers have Atera installed. A ticket can be submitted via the directions below if you are on the network or working remotely.

Directions on how to Use Atera:

• Right click on the Atera icon on the right side of your task bar:

• The small menu will list your pc name, manage tickets and create a ticket.
• Choose to create a ticket and you can enter your fairfieldschools.org email when prompted on the page that opens and you will be auto-signed in.
• Fill in the information. The more details you can provide the better we can help.
• If you are on a shared machine in a teachers lounge or lab, look for the ‘Atera Client Portal’ shortcut on the desktop.
• This link should auto login to the same ‘create ticket page’ but be sure reference the machine you are on if possible.
• If you have any issues accessing the portal, simply send an email to tickets@fairfieldschools.org with your info.  This creates a ticket in the portal so we can assist.

 

Off campus tech assistance

Over the summer and during distance learning times, technical assistance can be requested in an email. If your issue cannot be fixed remotely, you will receive a form via email that must be filled out to receive on-site support.

Student Technical Support: reghelp@fairfieldschools.org

Staff Technical Support: tickets@fairfieldschools.org

Fairfield Public Schools has certified teaching staff whose job is to help you integrate technology into your lessons and to help you navigate the various technology instructional applications we have in FPS. FPS has Technology Integration Specialists and Library Media Specialists available at all High Schools and Middle Schools. Each Elementary School has a Library Media Specialist.

Student Data Security Law:  Click here for link

The district must comply with the State of Ct Student Data Privacy Act. This act protects students when an application requires them to login to it, or if it stores student created content. If that is the case, the district must have a contract with the company that states they will comply with the rules of state law.

No software, applications, app, extension, website, or online resource that collects student identity information or student created work may be used without the district having a written contract with the organization stating compliance with the law, and explicitly as a contract between Fairfield Schools and the publisher.

As a guideline, if a student must log in or if a student “creates” ANY work using the application, then you need to be very sure that it is a district approved resource.

All district approved or reviewed apps can be found on the Learn platform. To view the current list of approved applications, click on the Learn Platform app in the ClassLink dashboard.

Any online resource that does not need a log in, does not track via Google login, and/or a student does not create anything stored in the application, can be accessed without district approval. (e.g., An informational website).

Other security suggestions

• Never email student information/data to an email outside this district, including your own personal email.
• Print any sensitive information to secure print, therefore the print job can only be released by badging into a district copier.
• Lock your computer if you are leaving it unattended. All computers that are idle for more than 15 minutes will automatically lock.
• Be careful to handle and dispose of printed documents including student data by shredding them or using shredding bins.
• Do not share your passwords with ANYONE ever.

Each school is connected to a Local Area Network (LAN). For example, a LAN could be a school, the Maintenance Dept., Central Office, etc. The LAN segments are also interconnected to form the Wide Area Network (WAN) of our district. This means that when you are in any of the schools or at the Central Office, you can log on from any district computer and access your drives, email, and print on any printer in the building or district. Your files and folders on the network are backed up every night either on district servers or through the cloud (e.g., Google and O365).

You will have access to many DRIVES on the network servers. Drives are storage areas on the server that have different sets of permissions and purposes.

IT Recommends that you store your files to one of your cloud locations below.

OneDrive – ‘ONEDRIVE – Fairfield Public Schools’ is an online cloud storage service from Microsoft the district provides to staff as their personal files drive. There is a limit of 1TB of cloud storage. This drive is linked to your fairfieldschools.org account. You can use it to create documents and store, share folders and files with other people. OneDrive can also be found on each district device, aside from Chromebooks. Once logged into the OneDrive program on a device, it will synchronize your Desktop, Documents and Pictures folders to OneDrive, so they are accessible from any device through a web browser. You also access OneDrive by logging into Office 365 at Office.com from anywhere. You also will see OneDrive as an option to save to when in Office applications, or in ClassLink. It integrates with Office 365 programs that have been rolled out to district devices.

U Drive – The UNIVERSAL DRIVE. This is a shared drive specifically for staff. Depending on your school assignments, you may see multiple folders in this location. All Staff will see a folder called ALLSTAFF. You will also see a folder for each school that you have an assignment at. Most users will only see the ALLSTAFF folder and the site they work at.

C Drive – Called the LOCAL DRIVE. The Local Drive can also be called Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music, Temporary Files, Downloads, etc. Only Desktop, Documents, Pictures, will be synchronized to your OneDrive if signed into the program on that device. The remaining files are not backed up by the network. They are not part of the network in any way. They exist only in the specific device you are using. Only save files/folders to your C Drive if you are signed into OneDrive (look for the blue cloud icon on the bottom right of your screen, near the clock.) Do NOT save anything on the C Drive outside of folders that OneDrive will synchronize.

Google Drive - Google Drive is an online cloud storage service from Google the district provides to students and staff. There is a limit of 1TB of cloud storage. You can use it to create documents and store, share folders and files with other people. This drive is linked to your fairfieldschools.net account. You may access it directly through the Google apps waffle on Google.com, or through ClassLink.

The district uses various filtering services. The filter stops inappropriate sites or content from being accessible on the network. Not all filters are perfect, so please monitor students’ access and test your instructional sites ahead of time. If you encounter a site that is blocked that you feel is instructionally valuable, please contact your program director or program liaison who will review the request and will contact IT via ticket. If approved, the site will be unblocked. Please allow adequate time for this approval process to take place.

Antivirus software is installed on all district PC and MAC devices.

All schools and Central Office have WIFI available. The wireless network has three types:

• FPS WIFI – For district owned devices. All district owned devices should already be set up to seamlessly connect to the wireless network.
• FPS GUEST – For presenters or guests to our district. Please ask your Tech for this password.
• FPS BYOD – (Bring Your Own Device) – For staff or student personally owned devices like cell phones. Once you choose this wireless network on your device, you will be asked for a password. The password is: FPSstudentWIFI (case sensitive). Once you access the internet, you will be asked again for a username and password. Use your network log in, the same one you use to log in to any computer you use in the building. When moving on and off the BYOD network you may be asked to resubmit your credentials on the Splash page.

Printing from a Windows Device is handled through Papercut:

 Directions for adding printers to your profile on each computer you use:

1)      Upon logging into a computer, the PaperCut interface should pop up, continue to step 2.

• If the interface does not pop up
  • In the lower right near the clock, you should see a printer icon :

  • Right click the icon and select "View my printers"
  • You will need to click sign in and do so with your username (not full email) and password.

2)      On the interface, sign in with your username (not full email) and your account password.

3)      Click "Add printers", and you can now select from the printer(s) at your location that you desire.

To choose a default printer, select the Start button and then Settings. Go to Devices > Printers & scanners > select a printer > Manage. Then select Set as default. If you have Let Windows manage my default printer selected, you will need to deselect it before you can choose a default printer on your own.

In Windows 11, your default can be the printer you last used. To turn on this mode, open Start and select Settings > Devices > Printers & scanners. Select the checkbox beside Let Windows manage my default printer.

Please note: The district pays for EACH page printed. Color printing costs about twelve times more than black and white printing.

Printing from Chromebook:

-              Open the item you want to print.

-              Click the Chrome browser settings icon in the upper right, and then select Print (alternatively, you can press ctrl + P).

-              Select a printer that has the PaperCut icon next to it (you may need to select See more…) and then select Print.

-              Please note: You will be prompted for your username and password. Please use your username by itself, without adding @fairfieldschools to the end.

All buildings have copiers for your professional use. All the copiers are also scanners. You can scan any document into the U drive. The scanned document will remain in the scanner folder for 72 hours (about 3 days). Directions below.

In the U drive, in the school folder there is a scanner folder where all scans are sent, in each scanner folder are sub folders according to grade level or department. On the scanner itself, choose the destination folder the scan is to be sent to and select scan. The document will appear as a PDF, the name will be an autogenerated random numeric file name. From any computer you can open the PDF, rename, and save the file, and save it to the drive of your choice.

The copy center’s primary purpose is to support the large volume copying required by the district offices and the schools. Curriculum, budgets, and other district-related documents require regular copying and places high demand on the copy center. Any large amount of copying should be sent to the district’s Copy Center at Central Office. Use the link below to access directions to submit a copy request. All print jobs require the approval of the school Principal.

  https://copycenter.fairfieldschools.org/

The district provides a variety of hardware for staff and student use. All buildings have desktop computers, laptops, and Chromebooks, printers, document cameras, interactive panels, and multimedia projectors. Although we strive for consistency, each building is a little different in how hardware is distributed. Please talk to your building Tech to discuss the devices available in your building.

Only district approved software can be downloaded on district owned devices. Please do not download any applications from the internet. Put a Kaseya ticket in or talk to your Tech about software on your computer. Click Here for Approved software Link and choose ‘Sign in with Microsoft.’ You can also click on the Learn Platform icon in ClassLink.

All staff members have two district email accounts. Office 365 email can be accessed from any district computer using the Outlook icon on your desktop or by simply logging into Office.com through a browser and selecting the outlook icon. Your Google Gmail account can be accessed by signing into your Google account through a browser and google.com. Click on the waffle to access Gmail.

Email from home
Your district email can also be accessed online. You will also have access to Contacts, Tasks and Calendar.

Your district Microsoft email (Office 365) account is username@fairfieldschools.org   (.org email)

To get to your .org email from home go to Office 365 where you will have access to Outlook Mail and all other office products.

Your district Google email (Gmail) account is username@fairfieldschools.net (.NET email)

To get to your .NET email from home sign into Google.com where you will have access to your Gmail as well as all other products in the google suite.

Chrome is the recommended browser for Gmail and for Office 365 (Outlook)

You may see a list of approved applications via the Learn Platform. The district uses many online applications and other software that enable you to be a productive professional. See short summaries below. Please talk to your Library Media Specialist (LMS), or Instructional Improvement Teacher (IIT) if you need assistance using these applications. You may see a list of approved applications via the Learn Platform in ClassLink.

ClassLink
A single sign on management tool. Log in once and access all our district’s online resources without having to log in to each one every time you use it. This is available to teachers and students. Teachers can also create “classes” within ClassLink to organize resources, links, files and other information for specific groups and classes. This is a powerful tool that streamlines the use of technology into a manageable dashboard and point of access. Your login is the same as your network login. You can access this from anywhere via a browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari)

Infinite Campus
Our district’s student management system. Access to general student information, attendance, gradebooks, assignments, etc. Each building has an IC coach. For teachers, this is an application you will use every day. Your login is the same as your network login. You can access this from anywhere via a browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari). A quick link to the login screen is on the district website splash/main page. Parents and students have portal access to IC, so they can see grades, assignments attendance and communication via their smartphone or through any browser by logging into the app. https://fairfieldct.infinitecampus.org/campus/fairfield.jsp

Office Suite
The Desktop Office Suite is on all district Mac and Windows computers and includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook. We are currently using Office 2016 and will migrate to newer versions when available.

MS O365

Microsoft Office 365 is a suite of cloud-based productivity and collaboration applications that integrates all Microsoft’s existing online applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access) into a cloud service, and Microsoft Teams as the main communication and collaboration applications.

Google Apps for Education
Google Apps for Education is a core suite of productivity applications that Google offers to schools and educational institutions. These communication and collaboration apps include Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, and Sites

Perform
An online application that tracks Professional Development hours and is the management tool for teacher goals and teacher evaluation. You will receive a separate log in. It is not connected to our network log in. Add it to ClassLink, so you can access it easily.

Master Library
School building/room reservation system. Submit work orders for custodial staff.  Staff can access Master Library through ClassLink.  When at the Master Library login screen, choose ‘Login with Microsoft’ and use your fairfieldschools.org email and password.  You will then be taken to a page where you can request a work order.

Finalsite

Each school has its own Finalsite website, maintained by Web Admin(s) at each school. Teachers at each school are listed with their contact information and their personal website. Web Admins login to Finalsite using their network login credentials. The district webpage is managed by the IT department developer.

Destiny Your school library’s cloud-based catalog. Access the library catalog from any computer in the building or any internet connected device, anywhere.

Frontline

Frontline is the SSO (Single Sign-on) for access to AppliTrack, and Absence Management (Aesop).

 You will be provided with access to one or all these applications depending upon your role.

1.       FRONTLINE SIGN-IN PAGE (Click Here for link)
 Frontline also provides the standard sign-in option via a global URL https://app.frontlineeducation.com

From here, you must select the link that says, “Or Sign in with Organization SSO,” enter your FPS email address, and click on Sign In.

2.       DISTRICT SINGLE SIGN-ON APPLICATION PAGE

 https://www.applitrack.com/fairfield/?organizationid=46732

DO NOT bookmark or save passwords to this application as it will cause the application to fail.

Food Service

Managed by an outside Company called Whitson’s Food Service.

Food Services Link - https://www.fairfieldschools.org/departments/finance/food-services

Whitsons Link - http://schools.whitsons.com/ct/fairfield-public-schools

 

Food Services - Online Payment

The online payment system is available through your Infinite Campus parent portal to add or replenish funds to your child’s meal account. There is a nominal 4% fee assessed for using the online payment option.

 https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1574185526/fairfieldschoolsorg/hbi2g6vr5fxlblxpyl62/OnlinePaymentInstructions-updatedNov2019.pdf

Munis Employee Self-Service (ESS)

ESS is managed by the Human Resources department. ESS uses a unique username and password; you do not use your district username and password.
ESS provides online access to your Human Resources information including pay stubs. Click Here for the link. https://fairfieldboe.munisselfservice.com/default.aspx

For information on access click on the user guide below.

FPS Employee Self-Service (ESS) User Guide

For Help and Technical Support email: contactess@fairfieldschools.org

For questions regarding personal information email: hress@fairfieldschools.org

Used for Instruction

Linked through School Virtual Library or ClassLink

Office Suite
The Desktop Office Suite is on all district Mac and Windows computers and includes Office 365 Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and OneDrive.

MS O365
A cloud-based suite of tools, available online from any device, anytime, and are aligned with MS Office, so Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Excel work seamlessly. Also has MS OneNote and Class Notebook, powerful collaborative and instructional tools for teachers and students. Access via Office.com. All faculty and students have an account.

Google Workspace for Education (Enterprise edition)
A cloud-based suite of tools (Google Docs, Sheets, Presentation, Sites, Forms, etc.) available online from any device, anytime.

Adobe Creative Cloud Suite 
Acrobat Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightbox, and Premiere. Photoshop is a powerful photo editing tool. Premier is a video editing and movie making application. Limited name user licensing for certain classes, primarily at high schools.

             

            Subscription Databases – Digital Informational Resources that Support Instruction (paid for by district)

Access through Online School Libraries or ClassLink

Check the Learn Platform via ClassLink dashboard to see approved and reviewed apps.

 

Teachers page on the district website