Saint Paul Public Schools

Mario McHenry serves as Executive Director of Technology Services at Saint Paul Public Schools, where he leads enterprise IT strategy, infrastructure modernization, and cybersecurity initiatives. He brings extensive experience in K–12 technology operations, governance, and service delivery to support teaching, learning, and district transformation.

This article is based on an interview between EducationInsider and Mario McHenry. It explores his perspectives on technical debt, infrastructure modernization, governance, and responsible AI adoption in today’s evolving K–12 technology landscape.

Defining Technical Debt in a K–12 Technology Environment

It’s the result of strategic or reaction-based decisions by any stakeholder allowed to directly or indirectly influence IT-related systems and service lifecycles at the local and enterprise levels. It’s not something that can be truly eliminated. Think of it as your shadow: wherever you go, so does your shadow. If you have technology in your environment, you’ll face some level of technical debt. Will the system need to be upgraded? Are tech teams properly trained to manage and support it? Will it grow with your school district or be sunset? How are the parent company’s financials? Will they be acquired? Will your 8*5 SLAs continue to be supported? Etc.

Types of Technical Debt That Impact Instruction and Operations

Dependency on manual, file-based reporting of student and program data from Student Information Systems (SIS) instead of standardized Ed-Fi data exchange and Endpoint Device Management (EDM) challenges, including the inability to standardize known, reliable states for user experiences and device behaviors. Device standardization mishaps, which complicate the procurement process and vendor supply chain commitments, downplaying the impact of neglected peripheral technologies.

Examples include faxing and printing services. You may be thinking of faxing or printing, but when you consider the information that is faxed, you can see why it should be modernized and integrated with your schools' identity management services, which include, but are not limited to, role-based access, justin-time access, password less access, traceability, etc. Similarly, modern printing environments require badges or account information before specific jobs can be released or printed. A job that is not released will be deleted after a period of time.

How Unresolved Technical Debt Limits Responsible AI Adoption

IT support will be too distributed and limited to “firefighting.” If the aforementioned systems are not available for daily productivity, there will be very few resources available to properly invest in AI, including planning, governance, training, etc. Lack of governance, technology usage and safety policies are not maintained or enforced. Change management is nonexistent or in its infancy. Partnerships are vital to having a robust K–12 AI experience. If you’ve invested in a vendor that either isn’t familiar with K–12 needs or isn’t able to adapt to your K–12 needs, you could introduce an AI experience that doesn’t support or engage your students, staff, or families.

“If the aforementioned systems aren’t available for daily productivity, there will be very few resources available to properly invest in AI.”

Practical Steps That Have Helped Saint Paul Public Schools Reduce Technical Debt

Alignment with district mission and vision. Each Board Agenda Item (BAI) identifies the district strategic plan focus area the proposal aligns with succession planning, robust governance practices, which include integrated policies, practical change management, and procurement workflows. Securing pathways for stakeholders to contribute to the planning, implementation, changes, and support of technology. When stakeholders are genuinely engaged, they are more willing to support successful outcomes, involving the Purchasing and Contracts department throughout planning, training, including both vendor-neutral and proprietary approaches.

Lessons for Districts Beginning Infrastructure Modernization

Do everything from a succession planning perspective, as the change may expand over years, including preparation, planning, and aligning funding.

How can I ensure my successor has better experiences than I did? Link historical, current, and future roadmaps. Familiarize yourself with procurement rules.

Familiarize yourself with submitting Board Agenda Items and receiving Board approval.

Develop runbooks and templates as much as possible or invest in management services to assist with this. Don’t view infrastructure technology as individual components, such as servers, wireless access points, or firewalls. Instead, consider the services provided, including Internet services, student information systems (SIS), learning management systems (LMS), inventory management systems (IMS), and Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). Then measure the health of the service, which will eventually address the infrastructure-related components. This will also help reduce the chance of omitting stakeholders impacted by planned or unplanned changes.

Align with K–12 mission and vision and include the reasons in your roadmap and Board Agenda Items. This ensures you have senior leadership approval. Be intentional about engaging vendors with some cadence. Ongoing topics should include roadmap lifecycles, architecture design discussions, managed services options, and vendor mergers or acquisitions, training, including vendor-neutral as well as proprietary training. On several occasions in the past, my entire department took ITIL 4 and Security Plus courses in preparation for where the district and department were heading.