Apache Junction Schools a Linux Hotbed?

[Tom Snell]

The subject of introducing Linux into Arizona schools has been a popular 
topic on the list lately, and I just recently came upon an item that 
came as a pleasant and altogether unexpected surprise.  I lived nine 
years in Apache Junction, and I recall during that time that A.J. 
schools were not too highly thought of by the Arizona education 
establishment (be that as it may, I always felt A.J. did a tremendous 
job investing in infrastructure, particularly in the K-8 level).

I've lived in Scottsdale for 7 years now, but it was just a couple weeks 
ago a techie friend of mine mentioned to me, as we were chatting on 
Linux topics, that the A.J. Unified School District has been heavily 
involved in Linux deployment within the district for the past couple of 
years.  I promptly jumped over to their website to check out their 
technology plan (http://www.ajusd.org/~hellis/techplan.pdf), and sure 
enough, they're already into the third year of converting a legacy 
Novell network over to Linux (the server count is 50/50, maybe more 
now).  They have classes for district employees in StarOffice 6.0, which 
is the district's standard office suite, and they explicitly advocate 
open source software on an equal footing with proprietary products. 
Sample an excerpt from the technology plan, written in 1999:

 >>AJUSD will evaluate products prior to purchase based upon the 
 >>following guidelines:
 >>Does the product work in our current environment of Windows 95, 
Linux, >>and NetWare? Is the product based upon open standards published 
by an >>outside standards organization or freely available 
specifications >>(such as technical data sheets or open source code)? 
Does the product >>work properly with related products being used 
throughout the >>district, other school districts, and the industry as a 
whole?
 >>AJUSD has Linux servers at each site to handle student email accounts 
 >>and web publishing. These servers are protected by a proxy server and 
 >>are monitored by local IT staff members.

The effort appears to be spearheaded by a Jon Castelhano, Director of 
Technology for the district (Instructional Technology Department phone 
number: 480-982-1110 ext. 2041).  This is the only info I've gathered at 
this point....and it's the only concrete example of Linux deployment in 
an Arizona school district I've run into.  I think A.J.'s location in 
the far East Valley may have something to do with the fact I've never 
seen mention of this before, along with their antiquated reputation of 
being a backwater to the rest of the Valley.  Obviously, things have 
been happening since I left!  It might be interesting if Mr. Castelhano 
were approached to speak at a monthly meeting or the InstallFest, as I'm 
sure his real-world experience would be an invaluable asset in learning 
how to approach other school districts.

Tom S.

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  Red Hat 7.3   Kernel 2.4.18   XFree86 4.2   KDE 3.0.0

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One Net to rule them all, One Net to find them,
One Net to bring them all, and Open Standards bind them.
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