Lindsey Scott

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All the computer carts, computer towers and the school wide Google apps that all teachers and students utilize are installed and maintained by the MHS technology team. Five men strong, the tech team services the entire school, teachers and students alike.

“When I was a teacher here before, I used to teach A+ computer repair. (I) used to teach some of those classes when I was here before. So, I mean it’s something that was new to me, and so I had to learn everything, but then it became kind of interesting. So when I got the opportunity to come back and do this job, although I didn’t know too much, it was something of interest and something I wanted to learn more about. So with the job you have to keep (up) with technology, you have to keep up to date on everything. Every day, every month, things change, so that’s the part that intrigued (me),” said Technology Coordinator Ryan Masaki.

The technology team has many responsibilities that they delegate to all the members of their team. “So we have two technology coordinators, (and) my role in the school is to (take) care of all the computer equipment, the networking, which means the internet and basically we service the teachers. So whatever technology needs or services or help that they need. (We) order, we do research, we help them purchase things, get them the best pricing. If anything goes down as far as connections or if something’s wrong with the computer (that’s) one of our jobs. And then the other technology coordinator handles all the professional development with the teachers. And you know Google Classroom, (and) all the online stuff, that you guys use (like) Gmail and Classroom, he helps train on that side,” said Masaki.

Because the tech team only consists of five people, servicing the school presents a big challenge for all of them. “I’d say, I don’t know if there’s really anything challenging about this job whatsoever. Normally whatever happens we can always get done,” said PPT Rylen Iwasaki. “I guess the biggest (challenge is) having too much stuff to do at one time (because) we don’t have enough help around here sometimes, so it’s kind of hard to get everything done and then teachers get kind of upset because we can’t help them yet. I guess it gets (overwhelming) sometimes, but the new two people that just joined (are) stress reliever. So I guess that’s the most challenging thing, but nothing super difficult.”

If students are interested in entering the tech field, the technology team encourages students to take advantage of classes offered at MHS. “We have (a) pretty good networking and tech program here with (Hanagami), so I would say, if they’re interested, they can start their freshman year. That’d be good because (they) can take four years of it. And what we try to do here is during their senior (year), they have directed studies. So what we do is the directed studies (students) come to our department and help us during whatever period they have it, so, at that point they can learn. And what we try to do is, (when) they graduate and we have open positions, we try to hire those students first,” said Masaki. Iwasaki added, “If they’re taking classes already from Hanagami, the A+ teacher, I would seriously recommend them to pay attention in class and read all the free handouts that he has because they’re actually very helpful. And always try to get into one of these programs. We have a directed studies program that we do here.”

MHS’ technology team not only takes care of everything computer related at MHS, they also continue to offer chances for MHS students to get hands on experience. Their contributions to MHS are felt all over campus and their role at MHS will continue to be an important one.