After 24 years at the Tyrone Area School District, Technology Department Assistant Tim Walk will retire at the end of this school year.

Over the course of his career, Walk has helped classrooms at TASD upgrade from CRT televisions and VHS players to Smart Boards and one-to-one student Chromebooks.

Walk began at the Tyrone Area School District in 2002 after being laid off from C-Cor, a local technology firm. He was the first person Tyrone Area School District Network Administrator Glen Drager hired when he started at Tyrone.

Together, they have worked through many changes and advances in technology for education.

“I just remember some of the early days when we had less support and many things were done manually, which was much more of a challenge for the two of us,” Drager said. “Tim would take it all in stride, whether it was moving heavy equipment between buildings, setting up network drops, or touching every classroom to do some manual update.”

Early in his career, Walk was responsible for much of the district’s audio and visual equipment and for setting up the auditorium for events like school musicals and graduation.

“Before the auditorium’s renovation, Tim was the main person responsible for setting up the AV equipment for the concerts, shows, and any other events,” said tech department staff member Bryce Bauer.

In his first few years, Walk had to install and maintain televisions in every classroom. They were hard-wired for cable TV, and each TV had a VHS player/recorder and later a DVD player.

Computers were mostly limited to teachers’ desks, and several computer labs were scattered around each building. There was no wireless internet, and no students and very few staff had district-issued laptops.

One of the biggest issues the technology department faced in Walk’s early days was scheduling, as teachers had to reserve a computer lab for their students weeks or months in advance.

The department later added rolling carts of laptops, which could be signed out by teachers and delivered to classrooms by Walk.

Today, every classroom in the district has a Smart Board with internet access, and Tyrone is a one-to-one Chromebook school that issues a laptop to each student.

One of Walk’s main responsibilities these days is to prepare new Chromebooks in the summer before the school year begins and to repair broken Chromebooks throughout the year.

“The school has changed throughout the years because the technology has improved, and it makes it so we can repair things at a faster pace,” Walk said.

Walk can put a new screen or keyboard on a Chromebook in just a few minutes.

In fact, Walk said repairing computers and laptops is his favorite part of the job.

Walk also assists by monitoring students’ online activity, making sure they follow district policies, and alerting administrators when issues arise.

“The funniest thing about the job was watching what some students looked up on Google,” Walk said.

Walk said he would like to be remembered for the help he provided to students and staff, whether it was fixing a tiny mistake or a big one.

“Tim has had a big impact on the school community, especially for those involved in any events in the auditorium throughout the years,” Bauer said.

One thing everyone in the technology department will miss about Walk is his stories and jokes.

“Tim always has interesting stories to share, and many of them come out of left field,” Drager said. “You just never know when the next incredible story is coming.”

After dealing with some health issues in recent years, Walk said he plans to focus on improving his health in retirement.

Drager said he will miss Walk and wishes him the best in retirement.

“We tease Tim a lot, but he is good-humored, and we will miss his contributions. He has helped make it possible to manage and maintain the thousands of devices in our purview,” Drager said.