The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
School board OKs laptops for middle school
By Edward Freundl, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: May 15, 2008
The Chelsea School Board agreed Monday to give Beach Middle School students the same chance to benefit from the highly successful laptop computer program that sixth-graders have enjoyed.
Advertisement
The board voted to spend $91,296.80 from technology bond funds to purchase approximately 430 Hewlett-Packard laptops for grades seven and eight.
According to Superintendent David Killips, the majority of that money is being transferred back into the tech bond fund from another bond account known as FFE, or Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment.
"We took $80,000 from the tech bond to pay for security cameras and we continue to do quite well with our investments, so we're putting back the $80,000 plus using about $11,000 to do both seventh and eighth grades," Killips said.
The technology bond was also tapped for two more major purchases at Monday's meeting: an HP Storage Area Network (SAN) for $88,002; and a Cisco 6509 core network switch was purchased for $22,779.
"That switch is the main switch for our technology center," Killips told the board.
Responding to Board Secretary Rob Turner's inquiry, Killips said the new switch is not just a replacement but a scheduled upgrade. "(Technology Director) Scott Wooster planned for it all along," Killips said.
Addition of the SAN, which was also planned, will greatly expand the amount of usable disc space for the system, Killips explained.
"It will increase the disc space for storage and create decentralized storage for the district," he said.
Before the board went into action items, Pierce Lake Elementary Principal Lucy Stieber gave a short presentation on the status of the district's updated crisis plan.
"This is a very encompassing district plan," Stieber told the board.
The plan includes procedures for lockdowns, fire drills, tornado drills, identifying and caring for special-needs students, etc., and each school will have a copy of all other schools' plans in case of an emergency.
It is a work in progress, but when completed, parents will receive a copy of the plan so they will know what to do if anything happens at their child's school.
Such a plan is required by law, Stieber noted, but Chelsea Schools have had almost too much experience at handling problems. "In the past we've had so many crises we're — unfortunately — pretty proficient at it," she said.
Other board action included some new hires for the coming school year at Beach Middle School.
Kirsten Smart was chosen to teach eighth-grade math, and Ryanne Crawford was hired as a part-time English teacher.
In his Superintendent's Report, Killips offered congratulations to the winners of the uncontested May 6 school board election.
With surprisingly strong turnout, incumbent Board Vice President Steve Olsen won another term on the board with 485 votes, and newcomer Jeff Crowder received 482 votes.
Crowder will fill the vacancy created when Trustee Susan Moore decided not to seek re-election after eight years on the board.
Killips also reported that state school funding will be the subject of Friday's legislative revenue sharing conference. "It looks like they're leaning toward the Senate plan of an increase of $71 to $142 per student," Killips said. "Under that formula Chelsea would receive an increase of $135 per student, but we're still building our budget on $100 per student."
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
Expanded
Web
Coverage
TOP JOBS
