PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb 19, 2025--
Aramark, (NYSE:ARMK), a leading global provider of facilities management with operations spanning the education, healthcare, business and industry, sports, leisure and corrections industries was named the 2025 Ed Tech Product Awards winner in the Large Company Campus Equipment and Technology category. Aramark received the award for its AIWX Connect technology platform.
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AIWX Connect is an intelligent platform using IoT technology to identify building and occupant needs based on real-time occupancy, space utilization, equipment condition, and occupant feedback. Insights inform building performance, environmental conditions, and occupant satisfaction levels. These insights are used to proactively improve building services based on actual demand, resulting in operational efficiencies, improved productivity, and higher customer satisfaction.
In education settings, AIWX provides administrators with remote monitoring and real-time insight into critical operations. For example, sensors are used to detect leaks and avoid damage from flooding, refrigeration monitors prevent food spoilage due to falling temperatures, door monitors detect when exterior doors are open, vibration sensors detect failing HVAC equipment before operational disruption and sensors can detect vaping and smoking throughout a building. All this data resides in a single location for easy monitoring and access.
“We are honored to receive this recognition,” said Scott Beer, President and CEO of Aramark Facilities Management. “AIWX technology can align many systems within a school or group of schools and provide data driven performance metrics for better operational and financial outcomes for our clients and customers.”
This year’s awards were held in conjunction with the highly anticipated Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) at the Orlando Convention Center in January. The finalists, selected from hundreds of submissions, represent a diverse range of categories, showcasing the depth and breadth of innovation in education technology.
About Aramark
Aramark (NYSE: ARMK) proudly serves the world’s leading educational institutions, Fortune 500 companies, world champion sports teams, prominent healthcare providers, iconic destinations and cultural attractions, and numerous municipalities in 16 countries around the world with food and facilities management. Because of our hospitality culture, our employees strive to do great things for each other, our partners, our communities, and the planet. Learn more at www.aramark.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and Instagram.
About District Administration
District Administration serves the top K-12 leaders at virtually every school district in the U.S. with essential insights on effectively managing school districts. Through its print and digital platforms, DA empowers administrators with best practices and research-based strategies to enhance teacher quality and increase student achievement. With journalistic excellence and in-depth reporting, DA highlights success stories and actionable strategies to inspire district-wide progress. For further information please visit https://districtadministration.com/
About the Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC)
The Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) has been a leading platform for over 40 years, bringing together thousands of visionary educators, technology leaders, and industry experts to shape the future of K-12 education. Hosted annually, FETC provides cutting-edge insights, hands-on workshops, and networking opportunities designed to empower educators with the tools and strategies they need to drive innovation in the classroom. As a hub for community, collaboration, and technological advancement, FETC continues to inspire transformative change and prepare schools for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow. For further information please visit https://www.fetc.org/.
Aramark takes top honors for AIWX Connect. (Graphic: Business Wire)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A new Tennessee law has eased up on two longstanding financial hurdles for people with felony sentences who want their voting rights back, including a unique requirement among states that they must have fully paid their child support costs.
The Republican-supermajority Legislature approved the Democratic-sponsored change, which now lets people prove they have complied for the last year with child support orders, such as payment plans. The legislation also unties the payment of all court costs from voting rights restoration.
Advocates for years have sought various changes to Tennessee’s voting rights restoration system at the statehouse and in court. They say loosening these two rules marks the biggest rollback of restrictions to voting rights restoration in decades.
“This is huge and this is history,” said Keeda Haynes, senior attorney for the advocacy group Free Hearts led by formerly incarcerated women like her.
Most Republicans voted for it and Democrats supported it unanimously. The law took effect immediately upon Republican Gov. Bill Lee's signature last week.
“I think people are at a point where they want to just remove the barriers out of the way and allow people to be fully functional members of society,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Karen Camper, a bill sponsor.
In 2023 and early 2024, the state shelved a paperwork process that didn’t require going to court and decided gun rights were required to restore the right to vote. Election officials said a court ruling made the changes necessary, though voting rights advocates said officials misinterpreted the order.
Last year, lawmakers untangled voting and gun rights. But voting rights advocates opposed some of the bill's other provisions, such as keeping the process in the courts, where costs can rack up if someone isn't ruled indigent.
Easing up on the financial requirements uncommonly split legislative Republicans. For instance, Senate Speaker Randy McNally voted against it, while House Speaker Cameron Sexton supported it, noting that people aren't getting forgiveness on making their payments.
“They need to continue paying that, and as long as they do, then there’s a possibility (to restore their voting rights)," Sexton said. "I really think that’s harder for people to argue against than maybe what something else was.”
Republican Rep. Johnny Garrett, who voted no, said in committee his vote would hinge on whether “there still can be an (child support) arrearage owed beyond that 12 months.”
For some, backed-up child support payments could reach hundreds or thousands of dollars, and court costs could be hundreds or thousands more, said Gicola Lane, Campaign Legal Center's Restore Your Vote community partnership senior manager.
Advocates credited their narrowed focus, omitting goals such as automatic restoration of rights, no longer tying restitution payments to voting rights, or offering a path for certain people to restore their right who are permanently disenfranchised, including those convicted of voter fraud or most murder charges.
The bill passed the Senate last year and the House this year.
Lawmakers gave the child support requirement final passage in 2006 within an overhaul bill that also created a voting rights restoration process outside of court. Critics said the child support rule penalized impoverished parents.
Democrats were then narrowly hanging onto legislative leadership in both chambers. Republicans held a slim Senate majority but GOP defectors voted for a Democratic speaker.
Last year marked the dismissal of a nearly five-year-old federal lawsuit over Tennessee’s voting-rights restoration system. Free Hearts and the Campaign Legal Center represented plaintiffs in the long-delayed case, which saw some election policy changes along the way.
Roughly 184,000 people have completed supervision for felonies and their offenses don't preclude them from restoring their voting rights, according to a plaintiffs expert’s 2023 estimate in the lawsuit. About one in 10 were estimated to have outstanding child support payments, and more than six in 10 owed court courts, restitution or both, the expert said.
Both Republican and Democratic-led states have eased the voting rights restoration process in recent years. Some states have added complexities.
In Florida, after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring the right to vote for people with felony convictions, the Republican-controlled Legislature watered that down by requiring payment of fines, fees and court costs.
Voting rights are automatically restored upon release in nearly half of states. In 15 others, it occurs after parole, probation or a similar period and sometimes requires paying outstanding court costs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Maine and Vermont, people with felonies keep their voting rights in prison, the NCSL says.
Ten other states including Tennessee require additional government action. Virginia ’s governor must intervene to restore voting rights of people convicted of felonies. In some states, including Tennessee, certain conviction types render someone ineligible.
However, Virginia lawmakers this year have passed a proposed state constitutional amendment to ask voters whether they want automatic voting rights restoration after someone is released from prison. Kentucky lawmakers have proposed a similar change for voters' consideration that would automatically restore voting rights after certain completed sentences, including probation.
FILE - The Tennessee Capitol is seen, Jan. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
