Technology Planning: The Role of the School Business Manager
By: Dr. Larry S. Anderson

Every individual associated with a school is of vital importance to the process of technology planning. Certain people at the central administration level, however, have acutely crucial roles to play when the school is making plans to infuse technology pragmatically into instructional and administrative operations. One administrator often overlooked in the technology planning process is the school business manager.

The school business manager (SBM) deals, on a daily basis, with a majority of the aspects common to integration of technologies into instruction. The SBM sees buildings, curriculum, personnel, utilities, grants, equipment, resources and travel as just a few of the ingredients in the smorgasbord of normal operations. These aspects are some of the identical critical issues considered by technology planners. Due to the similarity in efforts, it makes perfect sense that the SBM would be involved heavily in planning for sensible integration of technology for instruction.

When the technology planning committee for a school is formed, the committee chair should ensure that the school business manager is included. Mere input from the SBM could prove invaluable at critical times, so he/she must be named to the committee and given complete information on the litany of items the committee will consider.

Furthermore, this individual, probably, could chair one of the subcommittees to deal with financial, physical or coordination issues.

The SBM has an obligation, both professionally and personally, to ensure that students' welfare is preserved through the administrative and instructional processes. The SBM has an important role to play in several key areas.

Personnel
Some individuals might think that the school business manager has no place in the personnel arena. To many, the SBM deals with financial affairs only. Due to the fact that personnel are so crucial to operation of the school, it makes perfect sense to incorporate the thinking of the SBM in decisions that affect personnel. This is especially true when considering personnel who are involved with technology functions.

The effective school business manager will interact with technology faculty and staff regularly. Because of this, the SBM may provide input to the superintendent and school board with regard to the people they hire for specific technology-oriented jobs. Technologists, at this phase of instructional technology adoption in schools, are engaged in purchasing, maintaining and upgrading large quantities of equipment. Technologists make recommendations about modifications to physical plant facilities so that various instructional technologies can be accommodated. This multitude of common activities demonstrates the close relationship between the normal functions of the school business manager and his/her interaction with personnel involved with technologies.

Physical Plant
A multitude of decisions must be made about physical plant conditions, operations, specifications, renovation, consolidation and liquidation on a continuing, regular basis. These decisions are extremely important because they affect every student, teacher, administrator, staff person and even the community. The SBM, thus, must remain acutely aware of needs, interests and concerns of patrons he/she serves.

Specific technology-oriented decisions with which the SBM must deal include electrical, ergonomic, networking and mapping concerns. As technology devices are plugged in to the school's electrical system, the current drain will increase certainly. Although an individual computer doesn't draw much current on its own, the cumulative effect of all the new technology devices can increase significantly the demand on wiring and electrical panels. Perhaps, if a school reaches a decision suddenly to network and install computers throughout an elementary school that was built in the 1950s, chances are extremely good that a complete electrical rewiring scheme will be necessary, as well. The SBM should be engaged fully in this process, because such important decisions require full knowledge and cooperation from the office level.

As the SBM faces approval/disapproval decisions about placing technologies into students' environments, he/she must remember that new furniture will be required. In this case, an understanding of ergonomic requirements is essential. Many furniture and office supply firms offer specialized computer furniture designed to alleviate physical constraints facing the user. Decisions in this area become extremely difficult to reach when a school serves multiple ages and physical sizes of students in the same computing facilities.

Networking is an area that is changing rapidly. Networking, though, is becoming increasingly pervasive in schools, because this arrangement of devices allows for sharing of resources easily. While costs are falling in some areas of networking, new products and solutions are being developed regularly to solve problems and remove obstacles that existed earlier. The wise SBM will not try to learn all one can know about networking; rather, he/she would be well advised to seek the assistance of an expert consultant with a proven record of networking school resources. The needs of a school are not identical to networking needs in the business world, so the consultant should understand the methodologies desired by educators for meaningful distribution and sharing of voice, video, and/or data within the school. Numerous reports and papers exist, too, that will help the SBM and his/her advisors to understand the successes of and pitfalls encountered by other educators who have attempted the same or similar task.

Equipment Specifications
The school business manager must remain keenly aware of specification requirements for all purchases made by the school. It is particularly important, however, that he/she realizes the special nature of technology devices. Often, as a matter of fact, it is a good idea to seek advice from another knowledgeable person prior to submitting specifications for bid or to ordering equipment.

Software is another area in which specifications are very important. If a teacher has been using a specific software application program with the software loaded on individual machines, but he/she suddenly obtains a network, chances are extremely high that a different version of the software will be required. Such software is known, often, as "network-aware" software. Pricing from vendors will list regular software separately from networked software. To avoid costly mistakes, the SBM must realize this situation or depend upon experts in the area.

Obsolescence
Most technology devices have a finite life span. To assume that hardware will last indefinitely, and will work perfectly all that time, is sheer folly. Just as the hardware has a fixed period of utility, the same is true for buildings and other physical facilities.

Historically, many educators have thought that when they bought computers, these things would just last forever. Hardly any thought at all was given to the reality that the machine might become obsolete in a fairly short time--even it the equipment worked perfectly for its entire life span. LeRoy Finkel, one of the premier pioneers in the field of educational technologies, stated that schools should adopt a three-year obsolescence cycle. Certainly, then, the SBM has a quite significant role to play in this area, as he/she is directly involved in equipment purchase.

Coordination
An effective school business manager will not stay confined in his/her office all day every day. It is essential that teachers, the most direct deliverers of instruction feel that the SBM is in a helping role. When open communications can take place among teachers, administrators and the SBM regarding effective technology infusion into instruction and administration, much good will be accomplished. As the SBM indicates a perpetual openness to these candid discussions, those he/she serves will be more apt to offer help when the SBM needs it. Fewer disputes will arise over minutia associated with purchases and maintenance issues.

In many instances, the SBM can be the key liaison individual between teachers who use the technologies and the top-level administration. This is especially true in schools that do not have a technology coordinator. The SBM can carry messages of need, concern, and celebration from teachers to the superintendent--and vice versa.

Technology planning efforts at the school will be enhanced, with regard to quality, if the school business manager is involved. Even planners at the building level would be well-advised to include the SBM in major portions of their deliberations.

Perhaps this nationwide renewal of interest in planning for technology integration, as it provides avenues for personnel at the local level to spend considerable quantities of time engaged in serious evaluation of their instructional delivery, will spawn new interest in providing and maintaining systematic coordination of efforts throughout all phases of school operation. Technology planning will have brought together many school employees who, ordinarily, do not spend a great deal of time in mutual activities.

The broad scope of responsibilities and opportunities afforded the school business manager should cause all educators to refocus our attention on ways to incorporate these special talents into technology planning efforts. Administrator training institutions, too, face a renewed call to ensure proper and adequate preparation, technologically, for school business managers.

Dr. Larry S. Anderson is the founder/director of the National Center for Technology Planning.