Technology plans pushed forward by Greencastle

In a special session held by Greencastle Community Schools, the school board heard prices and voted on updating technology in the schools.

At the last regular meeting of the Greencastle school board, assistant superintendent Jeff Hubble presented the board with a technology plan and asked for permission to get prices on updating technology equipment to help equip students with one to one electronic equipment.

The board approved the request and Hubble worked quickly to get prices for an upcoming meeting.

Hubble and Director of Technology Cory Hill brought to the school board a layout and prices for what different technologies needed to be upgraded for the schools to go one to one.

Hubble and Hill informed the board that when 5-Star Technology did an original technology audit on the schools it was not what Greencastle desired, so other companies were looked at to do audits.

Several companies came in to look at what would need to be done to upgrade the systems and how much it would cost. The Technical Integration Group (TIG) was determined the best for what the corporation would need.

With a bid of $235,728 for parts and an additional $20,000 for 160 hours of labor the school board approved the funding of the project with TIG.

The start of the implementation of Greencastle technology program will begin with the replacement of cabinets that help feed wireless signals into the school buildings.

"By doing this all at once we (schools) can get away from having so many names." Hill said.

School board member Diana Sigworth backed Hill's statement on redoing all the cabinets by saying that when her husband, Jeff Sigworth, had the job as technology director that he "hated spending money for just a band-aid."

Meanwhile, the replacement of the cabinets in the high school, middle school and central office will take place during fall break. The elementary schools will be worked on during off-hours and in areas that will not disturb students after fall break.

The school board also approved the bargaining agreement with teachers for payment from a grant. The grant is a Performance Grant from the Indiana Department of Education. The $166,437 of grant money will go to salary increases for the 2013-14 school year. $133,000 will be used this school year to fund the increase, while the remaining will be transferred over to the 2014-15 school year.

Every eligible teacher will receive a 1.5 percent pay increase of the current based salary funded by the grant.