Cloverdale moves improve technology

Thursday, May 17, 2012

CLOVERDALE -- It was all good news for the Cloverdale School Board at Tuesday's meeting as it focused on continually improving the corporation one step at a time.

Technology Director Steve Ricketts of Five-Star Technologies gave an update on the status of the technology systems, which are currently in place at the Cloverdale schools.

The staff continues to work on the server virtualization project, which allows the corporation to run on fewer servers than it has in the past. This change has cut down on login times for the students, leading to more instruction time during class.

Ricketts also noted that 120 notebook computers were received for the sixth-grade classes, which will act as a pilot program for other classes in the future.

"We're in high hopes that these kids are going to become a foundation," explained Ricketts. "They learn differently then you or I growing up. We are hoping this will help with the curriculum."

There were also 100 Dell desktops purchased for the high school. Although, several of the school's computers are outdated and in desperate need of a replacement due to the lack of funding, the corporation has been forced to scale back.

"We've been hit hard so we had to scale it back," Ricketts said. "The days of school corporations going out and buying 700-800 computers in a summer are gone."

The oldest computers will be the first to be replaced. The memory will then be taken out of the older machines and spread throughout the older models to help prolong their life.

"The change has been very good," said Superintendent Carrie Milner. "We're not focused on what we can't do, we're focused on what we can."

Vivian Whitaker of the Cloverdale Dollars for Scholars Program spoke on the Phone-a-thon which took place Feb. 11-12. The event lasted for a total of seven hours and added more than $45,000 to the endowment.

"You would not believe the professionalism those kids showed on the phones," said Whitaker. "All the money that was promised came in and a little bit more."

The money raised will now go into the endowment fund. Although, all that money is not allowed to be spent, the interest off the funds will be what is used for the $15,252 worth of scholarships, which will be awarded on May 23.

"I just can't tell you how excited we are," said Whitaker.

Cloverdale Dollars for Scholars is already planning another phone-a-thon for next year. It already has 550 potential donors for the next event, which will take place on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 9-10.

The board announced it has received a $10,000 grant for the high school media center. A total of $1,000 of this grant will be used to keep the elementary school library open during summer school.

The corporation also received the Putnam County Community Foundation Kindergarten Grant for $750.

Like most of surrounding area schools, Cloverdale will be raising lunch prices for the upcoming year. The increase will bring lunch prices to $2.45.

The board passed the following personnel items during its meeting: the resignation of Terri Morin; the retirements of Linda Nowling of the high school; and Patty Lien and Bruce Cook, both of the middle school; and the new hirings of Chelsey Meluch as the middle/high school agriculture instructor and Brittany Hughes as the middle school cheer coach.

Ashley Grove, a senior at the high school; Machaela Skaggs, a sixth-grader at the middle school; and Autumn Lewellen, a third-grader of the elementary school, were honored as the May 2012 Students of the Month.

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