It may seem like a simple task, but there is more behind the screen. As one of our many district technicians, Ben Ra keeps our computers and Internet running smoothly and efficiently.

Ben attend college at Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO). He majored in Mathematics and study at RTI International, a technical institute.

He didn’t start off working for the district, he was first employed at Rent-A-Center as a manager for five years. Rent-A-Center is a rent to own furniture and electronics company.

“I had to go into a different profession before I started working for the district,” District Technician Benjamin Ra said. “But it was my first job that I wanted to work in.”

There are 13 technicians that work within the Francis Howell School District. There are two specifically mac environment technicians and the rest work within PC/Windows environment.

As a technician, he deals with pretty much anything electronic from fixing a network issues to fixing a door handle. Yes, fixing a door handle doesn’t involve anything techy but he helped out anyway.

“I have a decent amount of freedom to get my job done,” Ra said, “I enjoy the people. I chose this job because I love technology. My first computer I got was a Gateway and I took it completely apart and then put it all back together again.”

His typical morning consists of waking up, then waking his two kids up, Nolan and Aria. He fixes breakfast for them and gets them ready for school. He then leaves for work.

He starts his day at FHN by ‘putting out the fires’ or emergency work orders. Then he moves on to a more time-consuming task like cleaning projectors and keeping inventory straight. He has done just about anything technology related in our school and yes, that includes the WiFi. He works efficiently in every way possible. He relies on the Work Order system to prioritize his work for the day.

“He is very laid back, funny, very nice, professional and very efficient,” Business Ed teacher Angie Winship said. “He’s really efficient, very friendly, always helpful, always willing to help people out and I would definitely recommend his services to any teacher with any technical issue and problem they have.