Apache Junction Schools a Linux Hotbed?

[Shawn Rutledge]

This is very cool!

I went to AJHS for a while in the late 80's.  The only student computers on
campus were a few Apple IIe's in a lab.  I took some of the available
computer courses (CS I/II and Fortran I/II, there was also Pascal and Cobol
available but I didn't have time).  There was only one CS teacher, but he
was good.  In late 87 or so they upgraded to Apple IIgs's, in a new lab. 
The "network" consisted of LocalTalk connections to the LaserWriter, which
was kindof new and exciting then.  Also some classrooms began to get single
IIgs's for instructional purposes.

Sounds like they've come a long, long way.

Overall I thought the school wasn't bad.  They had everything they needed
infrastructure-wise.  I took welding and woodshop classes too, in
well-equipped shops.  I hear these days such programs don't exist at most
schools, but I don't know if they still exist there.

On Thu, Sep 05, 2002 at 03:39:51AM -0700, Tom Snell wrote:
> 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.

-- 
  _______                   Shawn T. Rutledge / KB7PWD  ecloud@bigfoot.com
 (_  | |_)                       http://ecloud.org  kb7pwd@kb7pwd.ampr.org
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