Infrastructure and Facilities

This service provides support for RIC administration including, but not limited to, building operations and maintenance, administrators, legal fees, business office support, insurance, HVAC, electric, purchasing, and project management.

This is a mandatory service for component districts

• Attend and participate in quarterly tech director meetings
• Send delegates to various infrastructure and endpoint roadshows, demonstrations, and training opportunities

• Facilitate quarterly tech director meetings
• Organize product roadshows, demonstrations, and training opportunities with vendor support
• Revise, maintain, explore, support, and decommission services as appropriate
• Train and support RIC staff for continuous improvement
• Triage and provide first-level support for baseline district technology needs

This service encompasses the RIC Technology Infrastructure, Data Centers, and Network Operations Centers which serve as the foundation for RIC Administrative Technology services.

This is a mandatory service for component districts.

• Attend and participate in quarterly tech director meetings.
• Collaborate with RIC infrastructure staff to ensure a secure and efficient network environment.

• Participate in quarterly tech director meetings.
• Maintain network operations centers, data centers, and supporting controls such as HVAC, backup generators, electronic-friendly fire suppression, surge suppression, and physical security.
• Train RIC staff on best practices and current security protocols.
• Collaborate with district technology staff to ensure secure and efficient network environments.
• Triage and provide high-level support for district technology needs.

• This service provides training, guidance, and support to districts in their implementation and maturation of their cybersecurity and data privacy efforts, as well as facilitation of tools designed to enhance those efforts. This service supports districts in protecting critical data and resources while ensuring compliance with NYS Education Law 2-d.

  Examples of tools utilized through this service include, but are not limited to, specific anti-malware systems, cybersecurity training and assessments, cybersecurity consulting, business continuity and disaster recovery preparedness, regulatory compliance and risk management tools, software and data inventory tools, and event mitigation and resolution. Network monitoring services such as SmartCentre and Network Managed Services as well as SIEM/SOC services are outside the scope of this service and available through 605.540 Network Monitoring

  This is a mandatory service for component districts.

• Core Participation

• Designate a Data Protection Officer (DPO)
• Attend and participate in user groups and cohorts
• Adhere to laws and regulations related to cybersecurity and data privacy

• Facilitate user groups and collaboration between districts
• Contract administration, license tracking and invoicing
• Provide collaborative guidance and resources

The E-Rate service provides help with the process of getting quotes, form submission and fund reimbursement for the federal E-Rate program aligned to federal, state, and local guidelines. This program assists schools with telecommunication costs (category 1) and network costs (i.e. switches, access points, wiring) associated with instructional needs (category 2). This service includes technical support to gather the necessary information needed to make network purchase recommendations and clerical support for electronic submission of needed paperwork. This is a required service if the district is in 605.610, 605.63X or 656.XXX

• Participation in 605.610 Comm-Internet

• Attend annual E-Rate meetings with RIC representative
• Provide RIC with annual hardware requirements aligned to the E-Rate program
• Issue purchase orders aligned to approved E-Rate spending plans in a timely manner
• Implement and place E-Rate hardware in service consistent with federal requirements

• Facilitate annual E-Rate meetings with district technology personnel
• Maintain knowledge of current E-Rate regulations and funding processes
• Develop and organize quotes related to E-Rate hardware procurement
• Assist in service implementation of E-Rate hardware
• Facilitate required forms and documentation consistent with E-Rate funding processes

Technology Services supports facilities and operational maintenance management systems which include work order management and maintenance, preventative maintenance scheduling, facility mapping and planning systems, technology conditions surveys, telecommunications room analyses, paperless office functionality, and operations and maintenance supply inventory.

Examples of tools and resources in this service include, but are not limited to:

• Incident IQ
• Master Library
• Que Center
• Docuware
• rSchool Today
• Brightly

Building facilities control and automation systems and software may be considered through this activity, highlighting that the RIC must serve as the point of contact for coordinating and providing the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of the technology after installation (noted in RIC responsibilities).

• Core participation
• 605.520 Administrative Computer Repair

• System training, administration and usage
• Provide primary and secondary contacts for service
• Identify process participants for testing and feedback

• Planning and project managing support
• Coordinate and participate with vendor demonstrations
• Liaison between vendor and district
• Contract administration, license tracking and invoicing
• Facilitate purchase of required licenses and services
• Inventory management
• Shared technical support
• Network integration support
• Point of contact for coordinating and providing ongoing maintenance and upkeep of installed technology through 605.520 Administrative Computer Repair

This service facilitates server and storage hosting in the Monroe RIC Data center. Servers are located in a secure and climate-controlled environment that integrates 24×7 monitoring with pager alerts, UPS, backup generators, fire suppression, backup job management, and weekly offsite backups.

• Core Participation

• Provide Anti-Malware software on all virtual and physical servers in the Monroe RIC environment
• Facilitate all patching and updates on virtual machines in the Monroe RIC environment
• Provide technical support for hardware issues as needed (physical server and storage array hosting only)
• Maintain configurations consistent with RIC standards

• Provide rack space, power, and network
• Provide UPS and generator power to physical hosts and storage
• Provide AC and fire suppression system
• Facilitate patches to hosts and storage
• VMWare Server Hosting
  • Handle all firmware, patching and software updates on the VMWare hosts and storage
  • Handle all hardware failures of physical VMWare hosts and storage
• Physical Server Hosting
  • Provide server room access when issues arise with physical hardware hosted in NOC (business and after hours)
• Provide notifications to districts related to needs and outages
• Collaborate on cloud-based hosting solutions

The Monroe 1 BOCES RIC Facilities Security Service offers a wide range of technology solutions and options for schools that wish to secure and protect their campus with state-of-the-art security and safety systems, which includes, but is not limited to: IP-based camera systems, door access control, visitor management systems, emergency response systems, fire and smoke alarm systems, and license plate readers.

Weapon detection systems and biometric scanning are outside the scope of any Monroe RIC service. Interconnected mass communication systems facilitating emergency response are available through the 605.440 Emergency Contact System service.

• Core Participation

• System training, administration and usage
• Purchase and licensing of required tools
• Facilitate equipment inventory and asset tagging requirements
• End-user and system-level support leads
• Provide appropriate staff with access to the source systems and procedures
• Comply with all regulations and laws governing use of such systems

• Analysis of existing network infrastructure to support security systems
• Coordinate and participate with vendor demonstrations
• Act as a liaison between vendors and district for initial implementations
• Assist with implementation planning
• Contract administration, license tracking and invoicing
• Network configuration support

The Health Management Service is designed to meet the technology needs of our medical departments such as Nurse Offices. Various IT technologies will help to provide these departments with the necessary tools to manage the integration of technology and medical care for our staff and students.

• Core Participation

• Manage usage and provisioning of tools and resources
• Adhere to all laws and regulations related to use of technologies in medicine
• Return equipment at end of use

• Coordinate and participate with vendor demonstrations
• Act as a liaison between vendors and district for initial implementations
• Assist with implementation planning
• Contract administration, license tracking and invoicing
• Data and systems integration

The Administrative Technology Repair Service provides repair and warranty services for non-instructional technology purchased through the Administrative Technology CoSER (605). Eligible items are identified by the Monroe RIC warehouse asset tagging system, and include items like office printer/copier support, server support, battery replacement and service, etc.

• Core Participation

• Provide notification of needed repair service

• Repair and provide warranty service for eligible items
• Provide best-effort repair for out-of-warranty items
• Provide escalation support for vendor support requests stale > 24 hours

This service provides an additional layer of monitoring, business intelligence and notifications for critical applications and networks. This will help mitigate and/or prevent incidents by providing early warnings, recommending improvements to create efficiencies, and enhancing visibility into real-time data analytics. Monroe RIC in collaboration with districts and vendors will maintain final authority over any Monroe 1 BOCES equipment and supported networks, servers and applications.

Examples of supported resources in this service include, but are not limited to, Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems and services, Security Operations Center services, network managed services, and managed detection and response services.

• Allow network access for RIC monitoring as needed
• Review alerts and notifications for actionable steps
• Participate in system tuning efforts
• Develop event response playbooks
• Maintain district notification recipient lists
• Deploy, configure, and maintain monitoring systems with service providers

• Support system tuning efforts
• Facilitate network access for third-party monitoring as needed
• Maintain RIC notification recipient lists
• Advise on event response playbook formation
• Support device and service monitoring enrollment and onboarding
• Provide troubleshooting and vendor support interface as needed

This service provides technical support for local, wide-area and Internet access for school districts. Support services include DNS, DHCP, switch and router installation, troubleshooting and maintenance, and web proxy. Districts can purchase fiber optic and high speed networking services. RIC expertise is focused on Cisco and Meraki enterprise network products. Other platform support is provided on a best effort basis.

• 605.150 Admin – E-Rate
• 605.120 RIC Administration
• Network communications line to connect district to BOCES through 605.63X services

• Provide RIC with required network and resource access for support
• Identify staff member to collaborate on support, configuration, installation and troubleshooting
• Maintain physical security of sensitive hardware and networking resources

• Assist districts with network installation and configuration
• Assist districts with troubleshooting of network equipment
• Assist districts with DNS and DHCP configuration and troubleshooting
• Monitor network connections between districts and RIC
• Provide notification of known outages and potential issues and needs

This service provides support for CIPA-compliant internet filtering solutions.

• 605.120 RIC Administration
• 605.610 Comm-Internet

• Maintain / manage day-to-day configuration and functional changes
• Contact RIC staff when issues requiring support arise
• Configuration and troubleshooting of products outside of Lightspeed Relay
• Deployment of necessary agents for use of products

• Aid in the troubleshooting of Lightspeed Relay filtering
• Hosting of Lightspeed Relay Rockets for guest traffic
• Assist in setup and configuration of Lightspeed Relay
• Procurement of licensing for Lightspeed Relay, Classroom, Alert, and Analytics
  • Procurement and best-effort configuration support of alternate supported filtering options
• Liaison between provider support staff and district as needed

The Regional Network Connection connects the local area networks (LANs) of participating districts to a regional wide area network (WAN) that is managed from Monroe #1 BOCES RIC. Connection to the WAN utilizes backbone fiber networks that span across the region. As part of this service, the Monroe Regional Network is connected to statewide and other extended networks for access to additional services.

• 605.120 RIC Administration
• 605.610 Comm-Internet
• 605.150 Admin – E-Rate

• Provide RIC with required network and resource access for support
• Identify staff member to collaborate on support, configuration, installation and troubleshooting
• Maintain physical security of sensitive hardware and networking resources

• Assist districts with troubleshooting of network equipment
• Monitor network connections between districts and RIC
• Provide notification of known outages and potential issues and needs

This service provides a firewall for network traffic between the district and RIC core. The firewall protects district networks from access by other RIC core connected networks. Security policy and rule change requests are summitted to the RIC Infrastructure Team by the district tech teams. The RIC Infrastructure Team will provide policy/rule review with district technical staff.

605.120 RIC Administration
605.630 Comm-Reg Network

• Provide accurate requirements for firewall policy needs
• Validate accuracy of existing firewall policy

• Deploy, configure, and maintain firewall hardware and software
• Provide troubleshooting and vendor support interface as needed
• Schedule recurring firewall policy review with district tech staff

This service provides support, configuration and maintenance for district VoIP environments. This includes VoIP hardware (Gateways, routers, servers, and connected VoIP endpoints), VoIP service software (CUCM, CUC, and CER), and related cloud-based solutions.  

Please note that related service 656.000 Telephone Interconnect is designed to assist districts with cooperative bidding and consulting for telephone service as well as support with phone service billing operations.

605.120 RIC Administration
605.630 Comm-Reg Network

• Moves, adds, changes for VoIP phone and endpoints
• Moves, adds, changes for client voicemail mailbox and configuration
• Validate accuracy of carrier services and billing

• Deploy, configure, and maintain VoIP system software and hardware
• Provide support for carrier interconnect services. (SIP, POTs, PRIs)
• Provide troubleshooting and vendor support interface as needed

Couriers deliver mail from Monroe #1 BOCES to all east side school districts and to Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES Technology Services (where Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES manages redistribution and delivery to west side school districts). Mail is picked up from east side districts and Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES, and brought back to Monroe #1 BOCES for next day delivery to appropriate districts. This is a required service for all Monroe #1 BOCES component districts and Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES.

• Core Participation

• Clear labeling of destinations
• Definition and access to pickup and delivery location

• Timely and safe delivery of inter-district and inter-BOCES mail
• Repaired technology pickup and delivery
• Baseline courier visit frequencies
  • Daily visits: district administrative office, high schools, junior high schools
  • Every other day: middle schools and elementary schools

The cooperative Telephone Interconnect Service is designed to provide participating school districts with cost-effective and efficient voice communications. This is accomplished by assisting districts with cooperative bidding and consulting for telephone service and associated charges.  Assistance with phone service billing operations is available.

Please note that related service 605.639 Comm-Reg Network – VOIP provides support, configuration, and maintenance for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) environments, including VoIP hardware, service software, and related cloud-based solutions.

• Identify, detail, and communicate needs to RIC support personnel
• Timely review and payment of service bills

• Facilitate telephone service invoicing and billing
• Facilitate additional services such as line changes (POTs, SIP trunks, PRIs, etc.)
• Liaison for support tickets between district and vendor (as needed)