Our technology consortium ("TechCo") first started to form with a simple copier contract consolidation discussion in 2009. We had our first win after successfully negotiating an open DIISD-wide copier contract in 2010. Since then, this contract has grown to include all the copiers in 3 districts and the DIISD. More discussions took place on how we could grow a technology team and still maintain a district identity with different technology needs. During that time, one of the districts was awarded a bond that included technology. They did not employ any tech staff as they had always used an outside vendor as needed. With the bond and the push to get the district to be a 1-to-1 Apple district, they hired a part time on-site technician and contracted with the newly formed TechCo for supplemental support in the spring of 2012.  
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Late 2013 Norway saw the need for a full time on-site person to handle the day-to-day grind and they decided to hire one of the original TechCo staff that knew the Apple platform very well. This was a huge win for Norway as this person purchased the proper iPad management software to wrangle and integrate the iPads with Active Directory, Google Dashboard and the student information system.  When it came to iPad deployment, what used to be a 2-3 month process had been reduced to 2-3 days.
During this time, the TechCo was already in the process of hiring a technician for the TechCo. With a newly vacant position, we decided to take a step back and diversify our team’s skillset. We decided to post for and hire a technician as previously planned in early 2014 and split this person’s time across 2 districts and our ISD. In the spring of 2014 we to filled the vacant position by creating a Classroom Technology Integration Specialist position. This person’s primary role is to work with staff and students to use the available technology in their classrooms to the best of their ability by finding and utilizing free online resources, conducting classes and trainings, and to discover new and exciting ways to integrate technology in the classrooms to aid student learning.

At that point, we felt we were fully staffed and were handling business as we had hoped.  At that point all the districts in the TechCo had gone through bonds that included technology and we had replaced much of the aging infrastructure, staff and student devices. We sought, advised and implemented a common technology platforms across the districts, creating an easy to support infrastructure.  Due to the common platforms, we were able to consolidate some services into single servers, saving costs on hardware overhead.

As the summer of 2014 approached, one of the founders of TechCo received another opportunity and parted ways. This lead to the hiring of a mildly talented, so-so looking and  somewhat charming member in June, whose skillset further added to our diversity. The staffing of TechCo has been very stable since and we can only hope to retain our staff well into the future. The TechCo has been and will continue to be highly involved with the planning, integration and procurement of technology throughout the ISD. The TechCo is a very valuable asset to our districts.