
Hearing the phrase, “I guess I’ll have to put another work order in,” from teachers is not uncommon in classrooms at FHN. With Chromebooks, desktop computers and smart panels in just about every single room, there are endless issues to deal with. Adjusting to this new building has been a struggle for everyone, but Trey Lukitcsh, FHN’s designated District Technician, has had one of the biggest jobs to deal with.
“It was crazy at first, but right now it’s currently going smoothly,” Lukitcsh said. “There were quite a few issues with teaching teachers how to use their smart panels and things like that.”
District Technicians deal with things like personal devices the district loans out to students, shared devices in classrooms, smart panels and resetting passwords. While they have basic knowledge of the intercom system and auditorium soundboard, they typically contact outside vendors for help on those. While there are tons of new pieces of technology this year, Lukitcsh was not sad to leave some behind with the old building.
“Projectors,” Lukitcsh said. “I’m glad we’re done with projectors. They went bye-bye. And the old SMART Boards, they went bye-bye too. The AV equipment, too. Just all the old junk around the building is gone now.”
While Lukitcsh is the full-time District Technician at FHN, he has a network of support from others to rely on. Nick Stevens is the District Technician for both Henderson and Harvest Ridge Elementary Schools.
“All the different technicians across the district are split into what we call cover groups,” Stevens said. “Usually, it’s just based on where your buildings are located in proximity to the nearest high school. For instance, North has its own cover group, Howell High has its own cover group, and then Howell Central has its own cover group. Usually each cover group is three to four technicians, so usually we work within those little groups.”
When it came time to put together the new FHN building, Stevens was called up to help Lukitcsh with the big move.
“As far as moving technology over, we did a little bits and pieces of it,” Stevens said. “A lot of it was over the summer, all of us were here helping set up some of the computer labs and stuff, but Trey handled most of it. I’m sure that was a lot for him to handle moving into a completely new building, but I think he did a good job of getting everything moved over properly.”
District Technicians are often overlooked. They have to deal with all of the devices across their building, or buildings, for elementary and middle school technicians.
Both Lukitsch and Stevens have been working as District Technicians at FHSD for around two years now, and despite being spread across different buildings, help each other out often.
“[Nick] helps me a lot,” Lukitsch said. “When I’m gone for vacation or sick or something, he’ll come over and help out, so I don’t come back to a mess.”