Cloverdale School Board approves lease

CLOVERDALE -- The Cloverdale Community School Corporation Board unanimously approved a three-year technology lease with First National Bank in Cloverdale on Monday.

Vice President Donna Fidler and member Daniel Hofmann, being employees of the bank, abstained from the vote.

The lease -- totaling $200,705.98 -- will purchase one cart of iPads for the kindergarten, one cart of Lenovo Google Chromebooks per grade level for grades 1-8, and another of Chromebooks for the high school math department. None of these devices will leave the school.

"We want to make sure we're not purchasing devices just to purchase devices," Superintendent Linton said. "We made decisions based on the belief that this is what the teachers need ... to provide quality instruction for the kids. We should be able to fairly quickly at the start of next year to get devices into the kids' hands."

The lease will also pay for technology infrastructure upgrades -- already installed -- and a learning management system, which allows students access to cloud storage.

Superintendent Greg Linton, assisted by Five-Star Technology Director Steve Ricketts, presented the information on the lease. He said that the corporation's current equipment consists of in-school laptops and two computer labs for grades 2 to 4; in-school laptops, one cart of Google Chromebooks, another of iPads and four computer labs for grades 5 and 6; and computers in language arts and nine computers for the high school. "The reality of it is, really throughout, all this technology is aging, in particular at the high school," Superintendent Linton said, later adding, "One thing this committee (Technology Committee) has sought to do is enhance the infrastructure before purchasing machines."

Director Ricketts and his team installed 15 additional wireless access points in the elementary and middle schools, increased the bandwidth from 30MB to 200MB and upgraded various infrastructure.

Paying the lease would require annual payments of $48,564.16 at a fixed interest rate of 2.44 percent. Funds to make the payment, Superintendent Linton said, would come from general student fund fees, capital projects (a fund used for building and technology repairs), E-rate reimbursement (a government program) and the textbook rental fund.

Superintendent Linton emphasized that student technology fees -- currently sitting at $10 for grades K-1 and $20 for all others -- will not increase in the next academic year.

Director Ricketts said they hoped to have the devices purchased and in teachers' hands before the summer, and to eventually be able to repair the devices in-house with reimbursements from Lenovo on warranty repairs.

In other developments:

-- Secretary Vivian Whitaker delivered an update on this year's Dollars for Scholars funds. She reported that a total of $25,750 in scholarships will go to at least 24 CHS seniors, along with $1,650 going to a graduate. The fifth annual Phone-A-Thon garnered a pledge of $14,622, with $15,232 received as of April 5. Also, the Cloverdale FFA Alumni Association with the Putnam County Community Foundation has said it will award three $500 scholarships this year.

"I would be remiss if I didn't thank everyone here, and especially Sonny (Principal Stoltz)," she said.

-- The board unanimously approved an anonymous donation of $1,000 for the set-up of Clovers Care Hygiene Pantry, an organization started by Cloverdale Middle School teacher Lori Halloran to serve the middle and elementary schools.

-- Superintendent Greg Linton reported that Cloverdale Schools passed the Indiana Department of Education safety inspections "with flying colors." He thanked Principals Brad Sandy (elementary) and Sonny Stoltz (high school) "for the work they do on a day-to-day basis."

He also said there will be no school April 15 and 18 for unused snow days.

-- Jaci Maynard (2nd grade), Josh Bennett (5th grade) and Sincere Gaston (junior) were named April's Students of the Month.

-- The board unanimously approved the following summer school programs: IRead3 (elementary), Snails for Trails (middle school), Credit Recovery (high school) and Driver's Education (high school). The board also approved one certified and one classified teaching position for the elementary summer session, and it also approved two certified teaching positions for the high school summer sessions.

In other business:

-- The board unanimously approved the following hires:

-- Cloverdale Middle School: Brad Stevens (Volunteer Baseball Coach) and Carl Meek (Volunteer Baseball Coach)

-- Cloverdale High School: Shawn Mattingly (JV Baseball Coach); Mike Rossock (Varsity Volunteer Assistant Baseball Coach); Scott Atwood (Volunteer Assistant Track Coach).

-- Member Bobbi Nees was absent.

The next school board meeting will be May 9 at 7 p.m. in the Cloverdale School Administration Building.