Date: Fri 20-Dec-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

schools-technology-plan

Full Text:

with cut: Technology Plan Accepted, Infrastructure Grant Submitted To State

B Y D OROTHY E VANS

The Board of Education recently took action on two separate but related

fronts, hoping to continue building on the school system's technology

initiative that was begun during the 1970s, when computers were first

introduced into Newtown classrooms.

Of long-term importance, a Comprehensive Technology Plan was adopted at the

board's December 3 meeting. The 70-page document was drafted over a two-year

period by the Newtown Technology Task Force chaired by Dan Lasley. It was

recently revised by Alice Gish, consultant for Education Connection, with

critical reviews by Jan Roman, president of Taunton Press, and Steve

Stevenson, the district technology support person.

School board members also took immediate steps at their December board meeting

toward furthering long-term technology goals set out in the plan.

They voted to submit an application for a $243,960 Technology Infrastructure

Grant to the state to fund wiring the schools to bring voice, video and data

to each classroom. The wiring project would also help interconnect media

centers, computer labs, classrooms and offices throughout the district.

"To get a grant, you must show a pathway," Assistant Superintendent Robert

Kuklis told board members when he introduced both the plan and grant

application.

The technology plan provided a history of where Newtown schools stood

systemwide in technology readiness; it charted a course for the future, as

well.

Receiving any part or all of the infrastructure grant would represent only one

of many steps that must be taken toward achieving the goals laid out in the

plan, Dr Kuklis added. But it would be a significant step forward.

"If we receive full funding, we could wire all the schools for servers,

equipment and hubs. If we only receive $50,000, we would wire the Middle

School only, with no hubs or servers," Dr Kuklis said.

Since all students in the district attend one middle school, priority would be

given to complete the infrastructure at that site, he explained.

If each school building could be wired, a process that Business Director John

Torok called "back-boning the buildings," then server computers could be

installed where needed.

Mr Torok said the installation of servers and hubs is considered a vital "next

phase" for Newtown's computer network because servers provide main computer

systems where programs may be stored. Many computers can feed into the servers

and draw software from them, as well.

A hub is a distribution panel that connects many computers to a server.

"A multi-media system places such high demands on computers that often a disk

can no longer hold all the information," Dr Kuklis said, to further explain

why servers will eventually be needed.

But for now, the all-school wiring project seems most urgent.

"It would immediately impact the students, giving them access to a wide

variety of resources. We could have e-mail communication and the teachers

could network into curriculum resources throughout the country," Dr Kuklis

said.

Eventually, according to technology plan goals, if total wiring is achieved,

there would be home links with students storing their work and communicating

throughout the system. "I'm hoping," said Dr Kuklis.

Even if the entire amount of the infrastructure grant is not awarded to

Newtown, any part will help, he said.

The Comprehensive Technology Plan will be subject to semi-annual review and is

considered an open-ended "dynamic process," where different goals will be

achieved as money is raised and allocated.

"It's where education is going nationwide," Mr Torok said.

"We're going to stay on task with this," he added, noting that for some reason

schools in the northeast were "way behind" schools in other areas of the

country in embracing technology.

Newtown schools are working to bring their students up to date, however,

having just completed a 12-month $450,000 purchase of computer hardware.

Board member Charles Nanavaty thanked Dr Kuklis and all the community and

school representatives that served on the Technology Task Force for their

excellent work, telling them to keep faith for long term goals, as outlined in

the Comprehensive Technology Plan.

"Don't lose sight of it," Mr Nanavaty said.