YORK, Maine - York’s School Committee has given the go-ahead to a kindergarten through Grade 12 technology system reorganization that would eventually mean no longer having individual computer coordinators at each school.

The committee voted unanimously Wednesday night that Gregg Martin, the school system’s director of information technology services, can begin working with the district’s administrative and technical teams to establish a systemwide technology program to replace the current school-based model.

Currently, there is a technology coordinator and an educational technician at each school - Village Elementary School, Coastal Ridge Elementary School, York Middle School and York High School.

The K-12 technology department calls for one director, one network administrator, one systemwide database administrator, three technicians and three integration specialists.

Yet Martin said there would be no new employees hired, as the new department would reassign the current eight full-time employees to the new jobs with one teacher contract becoming an administrative contract and one educational technician position becoming a professional position.

"There’s nothing really broken about the system," Martin said. "We’ve just come to the conclusion that we believe the school department has reached a plateau using that model."

Under the reorganization, a systemwide network administrator and three systemwide computer technicians would be responsible for "making the system work and keeping it working," Martin said.

The three integration specialists - who are all certified teachers - would be assigned respectively to Grades K-4, 5-8 and 9-12 to best integrate technology in the curriculum.

The systemwide database administrator would be in charge of providing Web support and organizing data being collected separately now at all four schools.

"The whole purpose of this is to get the kids to be more proficient users of technology," Martin said. "That’s ultimately what it’s all about."

It also would require teachers to be more proficient with technology, since there would no longer be an assistant or coordinator full time in each computer lab, he said.

But he noted that the technology department would be available for support and development, while teachers may use computer labs on a more flexible basis rather than the current once a week at a prearranged time.

Martin said he expects the new department will begin taking shape during the next school year, but it won’t be fully in place for at least a year.

"Our game plan is not to steam roll or do this quickly," said Superintendent Henry Scipione. "It’s a slow, steady, focused process."