Hoping to Avoid a Technical Knockout

Computer technicians with the Garden Grove Unified School District will not be toasting the New Year at lavish parties this year.

Though the district implemented a year 2000 compliance program more than four years ago, information systems personnel will still be stationed at the district’s Education Center in the hours surrounding midnight Dec. 31 to catch and correct any systems problems that may occur.

Not a very glamorous way to ring in the new millennium, but still necessary, said Rick Nakano, director of business services operations for the district.

“We’re going to be here because nothing is perfect,” Nakano said. “It’s just a safeguard. Peace of mind is what you call it.”

Nakano said most of his private industry counterparts and colleagues will also be sitting around computers on New Year’s Eve.

“It’s just one of those unique years,” Nakano said. “It’s not going to ever happen again. Everybody that has anything to do with technology is either going to be on call or at the office.”

Nakano expects that it will be an uneventful New Year’s and that once the systems reboot after midnight, his analysts and technicians will go to private celebrations.

“Our priority is to ensure that all computer systems vital for basic district services, such as instruction, payroll, food services, attendance, accounting and records are updated and certified as Y2K-compliant,” Nakano said. “Most of these systems have been compliant for months.”

The main focus of the district’s Y2K compliance program is a new $500,000 mainframe computer brought online this spring. The system replaced 10-year-old hardware about to have its system support discontinued by the manufacturer.

“We jumped 10 light-years in technology and other benefits,” Nakano said of the new system, which will provide increased communication among teachers, students, administrators and departments at schools throughout the district. “And it’s many, many times faster.”

Nakano said it was a technology upgrade the district would have made eventually but the urgency was increased because of Y2K.

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Chris Ceballos can be reached at (714) 966-7440.