Trustees approve technology purchase
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RONAN – Ronan school district trustees approved a substantial technology purchase during a regularly scheduled meeting on June 13. According to Ronan information technology director Cory Fuchs, the purchase includes installing 65 promethean boards and 120 32-gigabyte iPod Touch devices, which will be divided up for the four schools throughout the district. Promethean boards serve as an interactive white board that opens the door to expand learning opportunities for children.
“Student engagement has really increased through promethean boards,” Fuchs said.
Fuchs says the current plan is to equip each school with one unit and then gauge how each school utilizes the technology.
“We want to see how desirable they are at each school, and either order more or bring iPods from other schools that might not use them as much,” Fuchs said.
He also mentioned how much his children enjoy new technology at home.
“My kids want technology,” Fuchs said. “ My son is plugged in all the time.”
Once the boards are installed and the iPods are split up, 10-12 staff members will be trained. This core group will then train remaining staff at a convenient time.
In other business, Chris Lynch read aloud letters from the public praising the school on their academic achievement and pleasant behavior on a recent field trip to Yellowstone National Park.
One of the letters was from Muralt’s Travel Plaza in Missoula, in which Gary Muralt congratulated Jesse Gray and the Ronan Robotics team for their recent success at the FIRST Championships in St. Louis, from which the team brought home the world title. Muralt praised the team, and claimed he was inspired by the teamwork of the robotics program. To further the robotic team’s success, Muralt donated $1,000 to the program.
“It’s nice to get those letters from outside the community,” Lynch said.
According to Andy Holmlund’s superintendent report, things have been running smoothly since school let out a few weeks earlier.
“We’re on a good pace right now,” Holmlund said. “ We’re doing a good job holding back on spending as we move forward.”
Holmlund then thanked his personnel staff for their hard work through the past few months of the school year.
“I commend the administration, they have a difficult task to do and I’m very proud to work with a great team,” he said.
