Quimby, Flanagan develop proposal to move IT Department

Date: 7/9/2014

EAST LONGMEADOW – The Information Technology (IT) Department could have a new home in the near future.

IT Director Ryan Quimby and East Longmeadow High School Principal Gina Flanagan have developed a proposal to move the department’s offices to the high school. The School Committee and Board of Selectmen have signed off on the plan and the Board of Public Works must also OK the project.

“We’ve had space challenges at town hall,” Quimby said. “There were a lot of options presented in the past, but none of them offered the solution that people were seeking.”

Quimby explained that the town utilizes more than 60 servers, which are stored at Town Hall, and has six employees that also work in the same small area.

“We’re really tight on space. I’ve been fighting for new space for six years,” he said.

In the proposal, the IT Department staff would be relocated to a room on the second floor of the high school that currently houses a computer lab.

“It’s 60 percent larger than the town hall space,” Quimby said.

The computer lab would be replaced with a mobile technology cart. The town servers would remain in their central location at Town Hall.

In May 2010, the IT departments for the schools and the town were consolidated under Quimby, who received a new five-year contract later that year.

Flanagan called the plan a “huge win” for the high school, explaining that having the IT Department readily accessible to the school would be extremely valuable with the upcoming transition to Apple technology for all teachers and the district’s plan to move toward a one-to-one computer to student ratio.

School Committee member Elizabeth Marsian-Boucher said in addition to the accessibility advantages, the move could allow the school to incorporate some hands-on learning components with the cooperation of the IT Department.

Fellow member William Fonseca lauded the idea and called the concept an example of “two departments that know how to work together.”