Building Foundations: Behind Hoover City Schools’ IT Vision

When Wes Wilbanks talks about building reliable infrastructure for Hoover City Schools, he’s talking about the same Alabama classrooms where he learned to read and write. The district’s Director of Information Technology is a Hoover graduate himself, and his wife works there too, which gives him a different perspective on what’s at stake when technology fails.

His route to IT leadership wasn’t conventional. Wes spent 20 years in the district’s facilities department, working his way through roles in HVAC systems, building automation, security infrastructure and the Assistant Director of Operations before making the jump to technology. Today, it’s that background in facilities and physical infrastructure that shapes how he thinks about networks, cloud computing and technology in the classroom.

He says: “My background has given me a deep respect for the physical side of infrastructure and how all these systems connect, how environments function and how small details in the design phase of any project can make or break the long-term performance.”