Technology and the Purpose-Driven Mission

The American public education system is bracing for seismic change. Best-fit technology that improves learning environments, supports educators, and enables schools to meet their goals may be a bulwark against uncertainty. Colorado’s Eagle County School District is ahead of the challenge thanks to a meaningful IT transformation journey.

Public educators constantly navigate red tape, standardized testing mandates, and shifting policies dictated by people who have never set foot in a classroom. They adapt to new curriculums, funding cuts, and changing political landscapes, often without a say in the decisions that directly impact them and their students.

The untold story of people who choose a career in public education is one of quiet heroism, personal sacrifice, and deep resilience. While teachers are often praised in broad strokes, the daily realities of their work — the emotional weight, the systemic challenges, and the unseen victories — rarely get the attention they deserve. Perhaps most importantly, educators are driven by purpose.

Jack Donnelly

In Eagle County, Colo., an innovative school district’s technology organization supports their critical educational mission. “At Eagle County School District (ECSD), technology is more than just infrastructure,” said CTO Jack Donnelly. “It’s a vital enabler of learning, connection, and operational excellence in our schools and community.”

Best known for its world-class Vail and Beaver Creek ski resorts, Eagle County is home to approximately 55,000 residents. Their district serves approximately 6,500 K-12 students and provides early learning for 300 preschoolers, plus an additional 50 infants and toddlers.

ECSD includes eight elementary schools, five middle schools, four high schools, one charter school, one early learning center as well as an online learning academy to support diverse educational needs. “Our mission is to provide safe, engaging learning environments where students develop creative and active minds, compassion for others, a passion for lifelong learning, and the courage to pursue their dreams,” Donnelly added.

Through grassroots support, strategic leadership, and technological advancements, ECSD enhances both student and teacher success while navigating funding limitations and systemic challenges. Grassroots organizations like the Education Foundation of Eagle County (EFEC) are essential pillars of support for the district, bridging funding gaps, addressing critical needs, fostering change, and enriching the educational experience.

In 2024 alone, EFEC’s efforts had a $2 million impact on ECSD. However, EFEC and other grassroots organizations do more than bridge funding gaps. They create meaningful opportunities for students, ensuring that every child has access to quality education, enrichment programs, and the support they need to thrive.

Climbing to the cloud

Donnelly joined the organization in 2023, shepherding an IT transformation that touched every aspect of the district’s work: embracing cloud technology.

The journey included the technology that powers classroom instruction, the Student Information System (SIS), and the core systems that keep the district running smoothly. The project’s objectives included strengthening the security of mission-critical information assets, increasing uptime by hosting the applications in top tier data centers with redundancy built in wherever possible in their infrastructure, and cutting IT operational support costs by reducing servers, storage, backups and related software license costs. The transformation enabled the IT organization to focus more on strengthening the work culture as well.

Improving their InfoSec organizational skill set, EDR, user training programs, and IT operational processes significantly advanced their information security posture. “We were able to renew our cyber insurance policy, while many other public education organizations have been unable to,” he noted, adding that the effort increased coverage and lessened their premiums.

“Each of these investments played a vital role in modernizing our IT operations, enhancing security, and improving our ability to support students and staff. They also demonstrated the strategic value of IT in driving meaningful change across the district.”

Eighteen school buildings serve approximately 6,500 students, all of whom use a district-provided Chromebook for nearly every subject or class. “An internet outage takes a school out of business. Even a 10-minute internet outage during the first hour of school will have deleterious effects throughout the day.” Implementing SD-WAN significantly advanced their information security posture. During the 2023-24 school year, ECSD suffered approximately 93 outages, 473.13 hours of downtime, and the destruction of 56,186 student/classes. The upgrade reduced outages by 80%.

The shift lowered telecommunications costs by 15% while dramatically increasing internet availability. The savings were used to fund MSP support to enhance the IT team’s skill building efforts, leading to better utilization of mobile device management tools, and implementation of new network equipment.

The transformative power of IT

“Our team has focused on improving the organizational culture, improving our cybersecurity posture, improving school safety, and improving internet uptime in our schools. To foster a positive work environment, we’ve emphasized team building, strategic hiring, and performance management,” Donnelly said.

Of course, school safety is a top priority. To that end, the team expanded video security and building access control system coverage while implementing targeted alerts that request immediate response for critical facility vulnerabilities. Improvements to their content filtering solution are helping to prevent student access to harmful material and flags browsing patterns that may indicate risks of harm to self or others.

In addition to migrating their SIS and ERP systems to the cloud, ECSD chose the Island Enterprise Browser solution and CrowdStrike’s Falcon Complete managed EDR solution, investments that had a pivotal role in enhancing security, operational efficiency, and responsiveness across the district.

“In the summer of 2024, we successfully engineered and deployed a secure mobile access solution for our SIS. Previously, administrators could only access student data by logging into the network with a district-issued laptop — a process that posed challenges during after-hours emergencies when immediate access to information was crucial. Our investment in Island delivered immediate and significant impact.” Beyond its functional benefits, this solution strengthened organizational support for the IT team.

CrowdStrike’s Falcon Complete solution was equally critical in strengthening ECSD’s cybersecurity posture. “While we were already using CrowdStrike’s Endpoint Protection, we lacked the internal resources to consistently analyze and act on potential vulnerabilities,” he revealed. “Partnering with CrowdStrike’s managed security experts provided us with continuous monitoring and rapid response capabilities, closing a crucial security gap and giving us peace of mind to focus on other strategic initiatives.”

Migrating their SIS and ERP systems to the cloud freed up time and resources for the infrastructure and application administration teams as well, enabling IT to become a more proactive partner to ECSD’s business and academic teams. Eliminating the need for on-premises servers, storage, and software licenses was a terrific cost saver.

“Building momentum for transformation is always the hardest part. It takes courage, persistence, and a willingness to disrupt what’s familiar. Fortunately, we had individuals who long craved changes and their advocacy for them found new life. They were the leaders among the individuals who were brave enough to take that first step. And as they did, others followed. The changes began to gain traction. New team members, eager to integrate into the organization, saw the shift and embraced it too,” he mused.

“At the end of the day, the success of this transformation isn’t about me — it’s about them. The team made it happen. They took the risks, drove the progress, and proved that change is possible. Their willingness to challenge old ways of thinking and push forward is what made all the difference.”

The untold story of public educators is one of love, struggle, and an unyielding belief in the power of education. They are often undervalued, yet they continue because they know that their work changes lives — one student, one lesson, and one moment at a time.

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Eagle County School District is an innovative district of 18 schools serving 6,500 students in the Vail Valley. We have 8 elementary schools, 3 middle schools, 3 high schools, plus 1 K-8 school, a charter academy, and a 5th through 12th ski and snowboard academy. As a district, we are becoming a world-class system by modeling our approach after proven International top performers.

Most importantly, our community supports and respects educators, parents are involved and helpful, and we have unparalleled access to year-round outdoor activities and opportunities for fellowship with friends and colleagues. We are seeking only the best candidates, because we know that the best way to improve outcomes for students is by improving the quality of their instruction. Better teachers, better results.

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Corporate Office

948 Chambers Ave.

PO Box 740

Eagle, Colorado 81631

Phone Number: 970.328.6321

Homepage Link: http://www.eagleschools.net

LinkedIn:    https://www.linkedin.com/company/eagle-county-schools

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