Peabody schools get new computers
Where does the money come from?
By KEN PARRY
Peabody Elementary School Principal
Anyone who has been paying attention to news reports over the past year or so realizes that Kansas has major problems with its budget. Almost every day we read in the newspaper about the shortfall.
Superintendent Tom Alstrom has written several articles in the district newsletter about how the budget cuts at the state level will affect USD 398 in the coming year.
With all of this talk about budget, how can we afford to spend so much money on technology and teacher in-service? The answer is federal programs and grants.
The budget is very frustrating because it seems that we have so much money to spend in certain areas, such as teacher in-service or computers, but very little to spend in other areas.
The district receives money from the federal government that is mandated to be spent only on certain items. These items include teacher training, Title I services, library, and educational technology.
This year, I applied for and the district received a grant for more than $29,000 to be spent on computers. The Rural Education Achievement Grant (REAP) was awarded to us based on our district size and the socio-economic status of the district families with children in our schools.
The grant money was used to purchase 27 new computers for the computer lab at Peabody Elementary. The elementary school had not received an entire lab of new computers for more than 12 years. Even though the lab has been upgraded several times, it was always with used computers or hand-me-downs.
The new computers will benefit the students at PES by allowing newer programs to be run that could not be run on the older computers because of their limited capacity.
The elementary school also will implement an after-school program using the Academy of Reading, a computer program that has been shown to increase the student's ability to read.
A portion of this grant also was used to purchase a mobile computer lab for PBHS. Nicknamed "the cow," it consists of 24 computers on a cart that can be moved anywhere in the building.
With the use of the existing network, as well as a wireless hub, these laptop computers can be used to access the local network as well as the Internet. This allows teachers to use computers more often because the two existing computer labs were being used constantly throughout the day and it was difficult to use the labs for class projects.
Now we can move "the cow" into the classroom, set it up in a few minutes, and any room at PBHS becomes a computer lab.
In the next couple of years, I am sure that we will be asked to continue tightening our belts as a district. The board of education, faculty, and staff will have to look at ways to reduce spending without impacting the education of our students.
It was very exciting to have received a grant to help us upgrade the technology to enhance student learning in Peabody-Burns USD 398.
