Feature Stories

Celebrating Technology Staff

Technology is a critical part of learning and teaching in Minnetonka Schools, and this year has made that more evident than ever. Minnetonka students and teachers have access to technology and online resources that promote excellence and have streamlined online and hybrid learning. The team behind these important resources for students, teachers and families is the District's amazing technology staff.

Technology staff support many different aspects of the District. At middle and high school levels, they provide access to apps like Schoology, Notability and Google Drive—all critical to student learning. Karen Arens, database & network applications administrator, is in charge of keeping the Single Sign On portal and all of its apps updated, functional and accessible to students.

"I take pride in my work and always push for excellence," said Arens. "Especially this past year with COVID-19 and distance learning, technology is at the heart of learning. I believe if I provide students, staff and parents with an effective platform for learning, it will assist in maximizing their potential at Minnetonka Public Schools."

Another staff member essential to keeping District technology running smoothly is Minnetonka's senior internet engineer, Doug Roberts, who is in charge of maintaining strong wired and wireless connections to internet services around the District.

"Most of the work I do is in the background, [on systems] that everybody uses but only notice when they are not working, so I just try to keep the noticing down to a minimum!" said Roberts. "We wouldn't be able to do any of this without our entire team—the Help Desk, building techs, programmers, network admins and support staff—along with the support of the administration, teaching and learning department, teachers and staff. Technology is always changing, and we have to adapt to change."

Paul Rabe, network and software specialist, helps ensure that all Apple products (such as iPads for students and MacBooks for teachers) are working properly.

"I feel my role on the technology staff is to help ensure that at the building, everything just works," said Rabe. "If staff and students are able to show up to school and are able to teach and learn without disruption, we're doing our part!"

Our Technology staff has always been critical to education, but with the shift to online learning last year, the role of technology support staff became more important than ever. As students and teachers were busy learning how to navigate Google Meet and other tools, technology support staff were working tirelessly behind the scenes each day. One of the most important issues that technology staff tackled last year was providing devices to students in younger grades who did not have a personal or home device that they could use to connect to their online classes. By the beginning of the 20-21 school year, the District was able to achieve "1:1" technology access for grades K-12, in which all students have a school-issued iPad to use for learning.

"My role has changed to be more fluid and responsive," explained Arens. "Being able to rethink, rework and recreate processes multiple times through this past year has been critical to meeting the needs of an ever-changing environment in class scheduling and COVID-19 restrictions."

Rabe added, "We've come to take technology for granted, and when things don't go just right, we realize how reliant we are on working technology. I feel the technology department has a big role in ensuring students get equal access to resources across the board, and help ensure they have a positive learning environment."

This week, make sure to thank your school's technology staff members for their incredible hard work and dedication to supporting students and teachers everyday, especially during online learning. We truly could not do it without them!

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Celebrating Technology Staff

Minnetonka Schools's amazing technology staff members are dedicated to supporting students, teachers and families, and they play a critical role in the District every day. We truly could not do it without them!