Hello all!

I'm still on the outside,looking in on the IT field. The constant I have is FOSS.

I have spent the last few months learning Python more slowly then I like, and I'm returning to the core of what I want to do, and I have a few questions. I just want to make sure that I am on the correct path. (if there is such a thing).

What I am most interested in is providing an infrastructure for a school or not for proffit using FOSS/Linux.

Is knowing the ins and outs of your favorite distro/all the following skills enough to start with?

Intermediate server builds of SAMBA/NFS/LAMP/LDAP/DHPC/NAME
security
bash scripting with sed and awk
user management
network management

If not, what things do I need to learn to round out my skillset?

thank you,
Mohtech

Looks pretty comprehensive to me.
You should find these useful: http://k12ltsp.org/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page, http://k12ltsp.org/mediawiki/index.php/K12LTSP.
They've done all that already, so could save you a lot of time / effort.

Its based on http://ltsp.org/

That's a good starting point. The next trick is to be familiar which what different schools need/want. There are a number of educational projects (the French seem to dominate here) so you might have a look at some of the LiveCDs provided by those projects.

The Linux Terminal Server Project was already mentioned; that basically converts a small computer into a terminal which will run software on a far more capable server. Ubuntu has an option to set up LTSP to serve up an Ubuntu image.

Unfortunately having a good setup and good tools doesn't mean they will be used. In Australia (New South Wales) for example, the attitude is that money for computers and computer programs comes from somewhere else, so school administrators generally don't care about good free solutions. I'm hoping the state government announces that the school computer budgets will be cut to 1/3 in the following year ...

So, go ahead and learn and set things up - but be prepared for a long hard fight to get people to use things.

Depending on where you're coming from and what you want to achieve, one of your earliest goals needs to be: "get inside."

My first job consisted of tearing paper off a line-printer and shoving it through the appropriate slot in the wall. I didn't care: I was "on the inside of" that wall.

You are going to learn by doing, and yes, quite often it will "take longer than you like." Learn well, and never make a promise that you cannot more-than-keep. It's not all about just technical skills...