The FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (formerly Buildings and Grounds) and TECHNOLOGY departments would like to share an exciting and important change with you that we believe will help make the process of getting facilities and/or technology work items done easier and more efficiently. All employees can now access BISD’s Support Portal, where the work request systems for Facilities Management and Technology are located.

Simply click on the Technology or Facilities Management icon to access the respective work request form(s). Click the red “Submit a Ticket” button located in the upper right corner of the screen. Next, complete and submit the form. Once received, email updates about the completion status of your request will be sent to you from the appropriate department.

You may access the Support Portal at Birdville ISD Support Portal or http://birdvilleschools.net/support.

We look forward to a great 2016–17 school year!

There are at least 3 ways you can access the Facilities Management system:

1. Save this link in your browser or to your desktop: http://birdvilleschools.net/support
2. Click the link on the Staff page of the District Website:
   
3. Click the link on the FM Website:
   

Again, it is our sincere desire to make this process as simple and easily accessible as possible for you. To help with this, requests made to us in-person or by email or telephone will be directed to the work request system to enable the best communication about the item and help us to process through the request appropriately.

Thank you for your help with this as we all work together to make this a great year in BISD!

John Hughes, Director
Facilities Management
Birdville ISD

First, please stick to downloading the app from the major app stores. Do not download the app from anywhere else. Why? Bad guys have taken the app and infected it with malware, and try to trick you into downloading it from untrustworthy websites.

Second, anyone using the app, especially kids, should be VERY aware that they are not lured into a real-world trap, which could lead to a mugging or abduction. Other players can track you in the real world using this app, so be careful!

Third (very important!), there are possible privacy issues if you use your Google account to log into the app. Create a throw-away Google account and use it to log into Pokémon Go.  Do not use your personal or District account.

Last, but not least, do not fall for emails that claim you have to buy an upgraded version for a monthly fee. Pokémon Go is a free app!

As always, think before you click!

Let’s stay safe out there.

Randy Sumrall
Executive Director of Technology
Birdville ISD

The Technology Department is moving the District’s Eduphoria service to a new hosting location.  The system will be taken offline tomorrow at 8 a.m. and will be down for most of the weekend.  The system will be back online by 6 a.m. on Monday at the latest.

A new link to access Eduphoria will be sent out after the move is complete and all of the links on the BISD staff page pointing to Eduphoria will be updated as well.

This change will allow our district to get application updates applied faster and will give us access to data quicker.  Eduphoria applies updates to the districts they host first before releasing updates to districts that host the software themselves.

This change will also allow the Technology Department to remove a bunch of servers from our on-site data center and will shift the responsibility of keeping the system and all of its modules up-to-date to Eduphoria’s own technical staff instead of our own staff.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Dave Lambson
Director of Technical Services
Birdville Independent School District
(817) 547-5604

BISD has changed the name of two departments to better reflect the services provided to the District.

Technology Department (formerly Technology Information Management System [TIMS]) handles all technology needs for the District.
> Technology Department website

Facilities Management (formerly Buildings and Grounds [B&G]) handles all facility and property needs for the District.
> Facilities Management website

Technology questions? We have answers!

BISD’s Technology Knowledge Base was created to assist you.