Harold Rowe wins CoSN’s 2012 Withrow Award

March 7, 2012—Harold Rowe, associate superintendent for technology and school services, has won the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) 2012 Withrow Award. Rowe was honored for his visionary leadership in leveraging technology to transcend education throughout the district.  
Sponsored by SchoolDude.com, the award is named for Frank Withrow, a pioneer of education technology who served for many years as a member of the CoSN Board.

Rowe has implemented several instructional and administrative technology projects throughout his 21 years with the district. He recently implemented a 1:1 laptop program, which provided laptops to 7,500 high school juniors in 11 CFISD high schools and gave students an online learning environment in their U.S. history courses. Rowe also helped integrate interactive white boards and projectors across the district and a distance learning setup on each campus. In addition, Rowe encouraged CFISD to transition from paper assets to a digital data warehouse, resulting in districtwide cost savings, more efficient data storage and improved access to educational data.

“Customer service is a mantra by which Mr. Rowe leads his team, and his customer is clearly the CFISD student. Equipping students, who are 21st century digital natives with the technical skills and knowledge necessary to be successful in their post-high school endeavors, has been intrinsic to his professional mission,” said Dr. Mark Henry, superintendent of schools. “Passing the test of a true leader, Rowe is always willing to mentor and guide other administrators who mirror his loyal dedication to student success. There isn’t a more deserving recipient of the Withrow Award.”

As co-chair of an instructional technology committee, Rowe helped lead four successful bond elections, where the community supported $165 million in technology bonds to benefit CFISD students. He and his team members also leveraged a web service designed to increase school safety and encouraged the support of a Virtual Volunteer program to help volunteers communicate, manage events and record hours served.

In addition, through a partnership among CFISD, the Cypress-Fairbanks Houston Chamber of Commerce, the City of Jersey Village and Time Warner, Rowe and his team helped establish the 24-hour public access district television station, CFTV.