Schools' technology detailed at board meeting

At the end of the 2008-2009 school year, Bedford County schools had 2,880 personal computers, with more added over the summer.

Technology coordinator Joan Gray reported on the state of technology in local schools during Thursday night's meeting of Bedford County Board of Education.

The school system has a policy of replacing PCs on a five-year rotation -- it didn't quite replace all of the eligible computers last year but hopes to catch up this year, said Gray.

In addition to the PCs, the school system has 352 video projectors; by next month, there will be a projector in virtually every elementary school classroom. The school system hopes to make increasing use of "ActivBoards" from a vendor named Promethean. These are interactive touch-screen computer displays which are used as whiteboards and to display content.

Distance learning carts are being purchased which include a big-screen TV, a high-definition camera and a microphone. These make possible live video links with teachers or classrooms in remote locations.

"Our technology is outstanding," said Gray.

School board member Amy Martin asked whether the school system has considered a pilot project for a "textless classroom" where students would use laptop computers instead of textbooks. Gray said there are several impediments to such a system right now. Textbook publishers offer no discount for electronic editions of their product; an e-book costs the same as a printed volume. Also, many students have only dial-up Internet access at home. Gray said that a textless classroom may make sense in the future if either or both of those conditions change. In the meantime, she said, the school system is emphasizing "laptop carts" which can be checked out by a classroom for a particular unit of study and which have enough laptops for each student.

The vast majority of the school system's computers use the Microsoft Windows operating system, but the school system would like to increase its supply of Apple Macintosh computers, which have stronger capabilities in some areas such as graphic design.

Cascade High School has had an unusually high number of work orders for repairs to its computer system; Gray said problems in the school's electrical wiring are to blame and need to be resolved.

Gray reported that 460 teachers attended the school system's annual technology conference.

Average Yearly Progress

School Superintendent Ed Gray distributed copies of the Average Yearly Progress (AYP) reports for each school, but a detailed discussion will wait until next month's board meeting. The school system as a whole met its AYP goals. Cascade High School failed to meet its mandated graduation rate. Community Middle School failed to meet AYP goals. Thomas Intermediate School also failed to meet AYP goals last year, but the new Thomas Magnet Elementary School at that location serves a different student population, is considered a different school, and is therefore not affected by last year's results.

The Times-Gazette is preparing a more detailed report on the AYP results for a future issue.

Building program

Architect John Davis reported that he expects $113,000 in budgeted construction funds to be unspent after the completion of the new Community High School. Most of the remaining "punch list" items at the high school, and at the new Learning Way Elementary School, were taken care of during the Celebration break, with a few remaining items still to be fixed under the warranty period.

Chairman re-elected

The board re-elected Barry Cooper as chairman and Ron Adcock as vice-chair. Both elections were by acclamation.