HELP ME convince the governors!

[CM786]

 

I may be able to help with some spare parts - I'll PM you.

 

Cheers I'd appreciate that!

[GrumbleDook]

If you do go the leasing route you need to make sure you have a 3-5 year plan for funding for IT Infrastructure to make sure you will not only have the money for the lease each year, but still have some money to do the annual refresh of machines.

 

There is no point being given £15k to spend only not to have that next year ... and the year after.

 

If you do go for leases then limit yourself to a max of £7k per year (and try and make sure you have a scheme that allows for a minimal final payment fee) ... that way you still have enough to by the other bits you need too ...

 

PM me if you need details of leasing agents that are very good and will make sure you don't overstratch yourself (even to the point of telling you not to lease if it isn't appropriate) ...

[CM786]

GUTTED!!

 

After spending all last week and this weekend finding quotations and getting the best prices and setting up accounts with suppliers and making promises; I go to order today, and I am about to hand everything to the secretary when the headteacher turns round and says that she doesn't think she has enough money for all my improvements!! :twisted: 8O

 

Apparently she didn't realise that the whiteboards they have bought (nothing to do with me!!) have to come out of devalved capital too! Now please don't suggest buying less whiteboards or leasing etc I have tried... :oops: The were seperate before. The Deputy/old IT Co-ordinator is not in either which makes things worse because she was talking about using a portion of ICT in Schools they have remaining or something like that.

 

Feel like I have been kicked in the teeth. espcially after getting suppliers to pull strings for me so that I can get things here for the end of the week and negotiating time to work during the summer.

 

This should really go in the FFS section! ARRRRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!

 

I am also ill and feeling run down to make matters worse! :?

[alan-d]

Aaahhh - the mystery of the moving goal-posts

 

I think that happens in every school - might even be in the JD if I look closely enough with a microscope

[ChrisC]

It really does happen pretty much everywhere....

 

Chris

[CyberNerd]

as much as we hate it, this is the sort of thing BSF will fix.

[MkII]

Aaahhh - the mystery of the moving goal-posts

 

I think that happens in every school - might even be in the JD if I look closely enough with a microscope

 

Lol - groans in agreement!

[Guest]

So sorry to hear that fella. Same thing keeps hapening at one of my schools. 3 different projects and counting. Now if asked i just give ball park figures for costings. Then if they can afford those then surprise them when you can get more for the money.

[CM786]

Think I am going to email the chair of governors again. I mean what was the point of the finance meeting last week otherwise??

 

My sore throat and headache are worse too.. 8O

[OutToLunch]

Heh, it won't make you feel any better, but I did mention in another thread we were extremely pleased to find we had been given a 20k budget out of the blue, spent quite a while planning all the things we needed over the year, took our spending plan in and were told we could only order 1 PC a month...

[GrumbleDook]

It has taken 2 years but I am now in the situation that when all other budgets are put together anything vaguely technical (computer, audio/visual, etc) gets put onto my budget.

 

Since departments tends to get prices from currys or comet for things and I can get them cheaper (actually, Stehpen does the legwork) it means that I end up with a it more in my budget than I should have ...

 

The Business Manager is aware of this but is happy because when goal posts are moved I can usually absorb things without her having to worry ... and anything left over at the end of the year she can pilfer for things that have gone over.

[NetworkGeezer]

That's just so sweet. Oh to be SMT /sigh

[GrumbleDook]

Started that running before I was SMT ... within the first few weeks of me starting I began to try and claw back funds into my budget.

 

By the end of year one I started doing it this way ... and then became SMT and just let it roll ... and this year it is down just as good practice with even the auditors being happy about it... and that tools some doing!

[CM786]

Right...

 

The Yo-Yo project now seems back on.

 

Apparently they realised they cannot meet Ofsted requirements without the upgrade (alliluyah - finally!) so after some witchcraft they now have the money!

 

I have until early next week to get everything in school so that suppliers can be paid before the summer! lol!

 

Lucky me!

[CyberNerd]

....only to find the suppliers have a 2-3 week delay whist they order stock. Suffering from that here atm. We'll be half way through summer before we have all the bits we need

[CM786]

....only to find the suppliers have a 2-3 week delay whist they order stock. Suffering from that here atm. We'll be half way through summer before we have all the bits we need

 

Exactly mate!

 

I have just rung them to make sure they order everything today! Nobody was there so a voice mail message has been left. I did speak to the head this morning and also told her to get everything ordered

 

The place I buy my things from is a local computer place and for an order of 15K they will have to order things from their suppliers, but they can't do this until they get the purchase orders from the school.

 

All I can do now is wait.............

[contink]

Lordy... this is like a soap opera geek style... well I dunno about anyone else but I've got my popcorn ordered in and my fingers crossed in the hope it all goes through ok...

 

I've been there.. oh have I...

[CM786]

Lordy... this is like a soap opera geek style... well I dunno about anyone else but I've got my popcorn ordered in and my fingers crossed in the hope it all goes through ok...

 

I've been there.. oh have I...

 

Next exciting installment... of this soap.

 

Deputy has decided that she needs a new laptop because her PC (2 year old Acer Aspire 1355XL - rock solid) is too slow for her new software. She is using Target Tracker so says she needs a machine able to run it - guess where the money is coming from?

 

Thankfully, I managed to persuade her to buy 2 x 512Mb DDR SODIMMs instead to up her system memory to 1Gb which should be fine! I did have abit of money left, so the £70 odd quid for that is no problem. phew..... If I'd had to buy a new machine for her too - then I'd have been stuck.

 

£70 and the jobs a good'an, instead of spending almost £500 on a new machine.

 

Also..

Still chasing up suppliers, that are chasing up their suppliers that are chasing up their suppliers! 8O

 

The PC manufacturers seem to have a problem sourcing their motherboards which won't get to them by Tuesday. And the old PCs that I wanted to upgrade to 512Mb PC133 might be a problem, having a look on the crucial website shows only 256Mb PC133 DIMMs for the PC as being compatible!! Thankfully I can take the PC to my local PC shop and they said that they would test their 512Mb PC133 Ram for me - hope it works!

 

Also deliberately ordered PCs with 3.5" Internal Card Readers instead of floppy drives. I HATE floppys and this way staff will have to use their USB memory sticks. Each member of staff was bought a USB pen drive last year so they have no excuses... I already have a USB Floppy drive if anything on a disk is really urgent!

 

Oh the power.... :twisted:

[alan-d]

Wait till you get the 'Electrics need upgrading due to higher demand of the new PCs and it will have to come out the IT Budget '

 

 

 

Yes it did happen here New kit installed but only half could be switched on before the trip went

 

Needed a quick rewire job as the sockets were also out of date

[CM786]

Wait till you get the 'Electrics need upgrading due to higher demand of the new PCs and it will have to come out the IT Budget '

 

 

 

Yes it did happen here New kit installed but only half could be switched on before the trip went

 

Needed a quick rewire job as the sockets were also out of date

 

Your on to something actually, because the school was due to be rewired 2 years ago, but they couldn't afford it!! So its only a matter of time...

 

Apparently its would cost something like 10 - 15K for the school to be rewired 8O 8O .

 

All quiet on the western front so far...

[eean]

She is using Target Tracker so says she needs a machine able to run it - guess where the money is coming from?

 

 

Oh, don't get me started on Target Tracker. It's a shocker of a program (if you can call it a program, more of a mish mash of vba macros) even by educational standards. NOTHING will make it run quickly, slowness is inherent in the design. You could stick it on Blue Gene, working at 135 teraflops, and it would still run like a dog (a very sick one, that only has 2 legs and a gammy knee).

[col214]

And the old PCs that I wanted to upgrade to 512Mb PC133 might be a problem, having a look on the crucial website shows only 256Mb PC133 DIMMs for the PC as being compatible!! Thankfully I can take the PC to my local PC shop and they said that they would test their 512Mb PC133 Ram for me - hope it works!

 

 

You're in Tameside right ?

 

So does that mean these old machines are the Elonex boxes ? With the Intel i810 motherboards ? The ones that only take single-sided ram (...the expensive stuff!!)

 

 

col

[CM786]

And the old PCs that I wanted to upgrade to 512Mb PC133 might be a problem, having a look on the crucial website shows only 256Mb PC133 DIMMs for the PC as being compatible!! Thankfully I can take the PC to my local PC shop and they said that they would test their 512Mb PC133 Ram for me - hope it works!

 

 

You're in Tameside right ?

 

So does that mean these old machines are the Elonex boxes ? With the Intel i810 motherboards ? The ones that only take single-sided ram (...the expensive stuff!!)

 

 

col

 

Not in this case. The Machines are NEC PowerMate VL3 MicroTowers.

[ChrisC]

i HATE the build quality of NEC powermate's they have to be the cheapest i've had to encounter.

 

Chris

[CM786]

i HATE the build quality of NEC powermate's they have to be the cheapest i've had to encounter.

 

Chris

 

I would use a word beginning with S and ending with T to describe them.

 

All the machines are on to their second Power Supplies, since they kept failing and thankfully becasue we had a 3 year warrently they were replaced a few years back. 5 out of the suite of 19 have also had new motherboards..

 

These machine are P4 1.7Ghz (Socket 423), 128Mb Ram. I'll get more info when I am back at the school.