Moving into the 21st century
As another school year begins to come to a close, the Area 30 Career Center Board of Directors is looking forward to the upcoming school year, as several areas will be seeing changes.
As in recent meetings, the board discussed a new technology lease. Director of Technology Ruben Hinners spoken to the board on Area 30's Learning Management System and its connection to the upcoming technology lease.
The initial lease will be taken out for $145,000. This will go toward purchasing hardware of the career center.
After receiving four quotes from different learning management systems, Haiku is the system in which Hinners recommended.
"Students will have the capability to access their school work outside of the classroom," said Hinners. "It also allows a parent to see how things are going."
With the Haiku system students are able to not only view their grades, receive reminders and announcements, but teachers are also able to give quizzes over the system.
"We wanted to teach our teachers and our students more 21st century skills,' explained Hinners. "It's a conduced and collaborative view of all the classes a student is involved in."
Initially, five systems were reviewed before being narrowed down to the top three. In the end, Haiku had the simplest format.
"It has a great online video knowledge base," explained Hinners. "Along with a great simple interface."
Besides adding the Haiku system, the lease will be used for adding a laptop cart as well as updating staff computers.
The board also looked at a first draft of the 2012-13 budget. As it stands now, 371 students are enrolled with Area 30 for the upcoming year.
No decision was made on the draft budget. It is expected that the board will make a decision during the June meeting.
The board also approved an increase in lunch prices for the upcoming year, prices will now be $2.40 as opposed to the $2.25 for the current year.
This price increase comes from the USDA via the Indiana Department of Education.
The board approved seven new courses to be taught at South Putnam High School during the upcoming school year.
Among the courses are Computers in Design and Production, Introduction to Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics, Introduction to Communication, Introduction to Communication, Introduction to Construction, Introduction to Design Process, Introduction to Engineering Design Non PLTW and Principals of Engineering Non PLTW.