Sorry for not posting for a few nights but I have been encountering some strange problems with the security system we have implemented at the Chartertech High School. We keep having files deleted from some student folders. This could happen a number of ways and I am slowly and I repeat slowly making progress in shutting those avenues down. We give the teachers the right to look at the student folders since there is a need for them to peruse the files every now and then for control purposes. This is going to change shortly. I have been alerted to the fact that in the past certain teachers have given out their passwords to students for a variety of reasons. Mostly to get things accomplished more quickly or if a teacher needed something done while they were out of the room for whatever reason. I am going to take this feature away for the near future since it represents a gaping hole in the security of the system. If a student has gotten ahold of a teacher's password we really have a problem. If the teachers don't have rights to the student files then nothing can be deleted except from the teacher's folder itself. I am also going to change the teacher's passwords this weekend as well. If they give them out again I will recommend that they be written up for it. I asked John to change the administrator's password and that has taken place. I have been performing the backups every night as well as to minimize our exposure for deleted files. We have also had to change some selected students passwords this week as well. Yet there is one student that seems to keep getting files deleted and that indicates that a student has a teacher's password since no one has the new administrator's password. What this represents is a subtle form of harrasment towards the student that has had their files deleted and trust me when we figure it out we will try to first remove the student from the school as well as possible prosecution of these kids. This is troublesome at the least and has really caused us quite a bit of angst in the process.
Spoke to Dell today about its new line of Fujitsu printers and while I am skeptical about buying anything but HP on the laser side I will give the new printers a chance this spring. My hope is to effectively remove from service all of the HP Deskjet printers from the district over the next three years and that will require a substantial investment in the replacement printers. The new Dell printers look as if they will cost $500 or so and they come network ready as standard. I've said it before and I will say it again the proof is in how effective they are in the classrooms. If we can improve service and cut the ever increasing expense of ink cartridges we will pursue this course. Next weeks post will be project updates and more info on some of the new software systems that I have been looking at. Till next post
11:01:47 PM 
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