Welcome to the Greater Johnstown School District's Online Support Page.
We are committed to providing the best support possible by providing direction to staff members to help them perform common tasks and eliminate confusion. In order that we may better serve you, your comments and suggestions are welcome - please make your suggestions through your school principal.

Fixing Common E-Mail Problems:
To view blocked e-mails after they are released:
1. Go to the menu bar at the top of the e-mail
2. Click on "View"
3. On the pull down menu, click on HTML to change the default font from Plain Text

To choose a different default font for your outgoing e-mail messages:
1. Click Tools > Options.
2. Double-click Environment.
3. Click the Views tab.
4. In the Default Read View group box, select HTML if you want read messages in HTML.
5. Click OK.

Contacting the Help Desk with Other Computer Problems
The Help Desk is accessed by the GroupWise e-mail system. It is the same as sending anyone an e-mail. Please follow the following protocol when contacting us, which aids the Information Technology Department in quickly responding to user issues:

• In the subject field of the e-mail type in your building. This is very important because we need to know where you are. Putting your building first helps us to sort the incoming work orders by school and deal with each building’s issues while we are on site. Failure to do so may delay your issue from being completed as quickly as possible.

• Next in the subject field of the e-mail, please type in the location of the problem in your building (such as room 107). This is very helpful.

• Finally, in the subject field of the e-mail, type a short description of the problem.
• Example of properly completed subject field: JHS, Rm 202, Printer Jam
• You may then put as much detail as you would like into the message of the e-mail. This will help us to assess the best action to take. In many cases, we can fix the issue from our own office.

Do not reply to the Help Desk. That will only generate another work order. If you want to say thanks or have a conversation, please e-mail Todd Walker or James Westman directly or call them at 762-5972.

The Greater Johnstown School District has completed the initial upgrade of the Local and Wide Area Network infrastructure (LAN/WAN). The T-1 connections that were linking the schools together have been removed and replaced with a new fiber backbone. Because fiber connections operate at 1000 Mbps, compared to the the 1.5 Mbps speed of a T-1 line, the speed of the network has been increased approximately 667 times. The performance increase is realized by fiber lines using light traveling along glass in the fiber cable. This improvement puts Johnstown in position to take advantage of current and future technologies and to improve the day-to-day functions and capabilities of both students and staff. With the implementation of the Network Operations Center (NOC) at Warren Street Elementary School, the main server and switch location gives the IT department the ability to respond more quickly to issues than they could before the upgrade. As the district moves forward with upgrading end-user equipment, the full benefits of this improvement will be realized.

Current Technology “NOCs” on Johnstown’s Door
The Greater Johnstown School District is keeping up with the latest technology by completing an upgrade of its local and wide-area computer network infrastructure.

“We have taken advantage of federal grant funding that allowed this upgrade to occur,” said Assistant Superintendent Katherine Sullivan. “This is an exciting time for technological advances in our district.”

The district has removed the majority of its T-1 lines that originally linked all of the schools together, and has replaced them with a new fiber backbone in a centralized location — the Network Operations Center (NOC), housed at Warren Street Elementary School.

The NOC allows the IT Department to centrally house all of the servers in the district. “his allows for a quicker response time to network problems throughout the district.

This new high-speed network has improved the speed of the network operations by approximately 667 times. The performance increase is realized by fiber lines, which uses light to travel along glass in a fiber cable. This improvement has put Johnstown in a position to take advantage of current and future technologies that will improve the day-to-day functions and capabilities of both students and staff.

Fiber could also allow for new technology in the future, such as using phones that use the computer network, as well as video streaming.

With the NOC, the Greater Johnstown School District is in-line with best practices. We’re at the leading edge of technology performance.

(top of page)