Howell Public School District has found a possible cure. Through several years of turmoil, the district has faced a steady stream of Freedom of Information Act requests. Until recently, the district IT director used a tedious, manual process to fulfill those requests. Now he turns to his Ann Arbor-based spam filtering service provider for help.

Howell’s IT director, Paul Pominville, has discovered that using outside experts to provide vital—but non-instructional—services can save districts time and worry.

"In a school, we're limited in size and scope.… We're having to do more with less every year. Things like hosted mail, spam filtering—that doesn't help kids learn at all. But it's stuff we still have to support. Let the experts do that, so we can concentrate on the classroom, student information systems, online learning—things that are actually helping kids."

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Source: The Journal, 10/27/09
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