Merrimack Education Center
Further education
Info
MEC has always been eager to work closely with superintendents so that we can provide individualized support and services that each district needs, but also those that everyone needs; from special education to transportation, professional development, and technology services. Because we are educators too, we understand the uniqueness of each district and work to provide a wide range of support and services that each district needs, and every district needs. MECnet, the technology services division, was formed over 10 years ago at a time when one computer was the size of a small school bus. Using a collaborative business model concept, today we partner with, and are able to buy in bulk from, several large regional and national vendors, passing the realized savings on to our customers. In order to support the unique technology requirements in each district, we strive to maintain a variety of products and services in our portfolio. For example, Internet service, network security, virus protection, website management, e-rate support, and world-class customer service, just to name a few. We provide a wide range of support and services that each district needs, and every district needs. In December of last year, we became aware of a federal court ruling that refined a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure having to do with electronic data, which includes e-mail. It was made clear that courts are explicitly recognizing that electronic information will be a key element in many legal actions and must be treated as such. In other words, electronically stored information must be disclosed in a timely manner. What does this mean to us, MECnet, and our district customers? It reminds us that e-mail is "electronic data", and the Massachusetts state secretary has clearly stated, and I quote, "All e-mail created or received by an employee of a government unit is a public record". After further research and meetings with several of our peer groups, we collectively concluded that all school electronic data, including e-mails, instant messages, web pages, and even blogs, are public records and must be archived, in most cases, 7 years. MECnet recognized this as a potentially colossal task for some districts and as a result, has developed an E-mail archiving service. As you can imagine, the court ruling created quite a buzz in both the business offices and technology offices around the state and around country. We have been diligent in presenting the facts as we know them on several organizational levels- to technology directors at our March Technology user group meeting, to school business officials at the February MASBO meeting, and now to you here today. In the interest of time, I'd ask that you refer to the fact sheets that we've distributed around the room, and if you have any further questions on this subject, my director of network engineering and operations, Joe DiFonzo, and my director of Sales and Marketing, Sharon Grover-Renda, are here to help you. We have a table set up in the lobby where we'll be during the breaks and we have additional information available there. So to wrap things up, I'd like you to remember that MEC has been around for 40 years, we've had a wonderful affiliation with M.A.S.S. for almost 14 years, and we are here to help.
Industries / Specializations
Further educationMap
101 Mill Rd, 01824 Billerica