Technology Report #1
Dear Parent(s):
This is the first of several Technology Reports being provided as a means of keeping you informed of the instructional technology status of our school. Right now it is not a pretty picture, however, our hope is to improve the situation through community effort. This report does not cover student access to technology such as computers in the classroom, media center, or other areas. I expect to send home additional reports throughout the school year covering many different areas.
A fully technology equipped instructional classroom, according to district policy, consists of the following: laptop computer, projector, document camera, Smartboard, class response system, airliner tablet and audio enhancement system. We have 64 instructional classrooms at Celebration School. All teachers have computers in their rooms. However, only 50 rooms have projectors, 18 with document cameras, 8 with Smartboards, 8 class response systems, and 7 airliners. Approximately 12 rooms have an older audio enhancement system. The cost to fully equip a classroom is approximately $4,300, not including the audio enhancement system. New schools are being built with this system installed right along with other basics such as electricity and air conditioning.
The "Welcome Back Carnival" raised $3,500 towards technology. Recently, 5th grade held a read-a-thon and raised $4,000. Their funds are being used to purchase 6 document cameras for the fifth grade classrooms. Many others small activities are being planned to raise additional funds. The first question someone might ask in this situation is "why can’t the district supply the money?" Well, the district is operating on $30 million less than 20 years ago. The State is also having funding issues and the amount of money they send to the district has decreased accordingly. Last year we received $12,000 for technology which was used to purchase projectors and document cameras. A source of revenue some schools receive is Federal dollars though the Title 1 program. This program is for schools that have in excess of 50% of the students on free or reduced lunch. Our school doesn’t meet the criteria so we do not get any of the funds. Another means to obtain funds for technology is through grant money. However, there are few grants which are available for schools which have scored ‘A" the past 8 years, have a high socio-economic community base, and whose ethnic diversity is below 50%. We have had some local technology awards due to the individual efforts of some of our teachers.
Therefore the only way we can reach our goal of providing the teachers with the technology they need to enhance instruction is to raise the funds ourselves. Tuesday night there was a meeting for anyone who was interested in developing a plan to raise $240,000. The number one strategy developed by the group was to do a pledge drive. This will consist of a phone call to every resident asking for a donation. A second meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 20, at 7:00 p.m. in the Great Hall to develop more definitive plans. More details will be forthcoming after the meeting. The meeting is open to anyone who is interested in working on our goal of upgrading instructional technology.
Our theme is "TECH UP for K-8; Bringing Instructional Technology to the Classroom." We hope everyone will be a part of this exciting fundraising event. I truly believe $240,000 is an achievable goal in Celebration, Florida.
Sincerely,
Dr. Kennedy