New computers approved, bus sought for local schools

Some local students will have access to new computers and may soon be riding to school on an environmentally friendly, yellow bus. Here are highlights of last week's local school board meetings. At the Pioneer Union Elementary School District Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday, Kings County Superintendent of Schools John Stankovich presented a report on services provided by Kings County Office of Education.

The county office put a report together outlining the services offered. The booklet outlines 69 services with an explanation of services, who the service is provided to, funding sources, cost to district and the cost for the county to provide the service. The list is not complete as it is continually changing according to funding and needs of the county. The services listed included professional development for teachers to earn English Language Authorization, Credential Applications and Monitoring, Distinguished Schools, Internet Access for Students, Instructional Technology, Outdoor Education and the Special Education Program.

At the Lakeside Union School District board meeting on Thursday, trustees approved the $30,000 purchase of 30 new computers for the Lakeside School computer lab. District officials said it was a good time to upgrade from the existing computers because of the implementation of new software for benchmark assessments. The purchase was made with Title One funds.

Existing computers in the lab will be distributed among the school's classrooms, so that each class has a minimum of five computers. The trustee action at Thursday's meeting also approved the purchase of laptops for each of the district's kindergarten through second grade teachers. The district's third grade and above teachers already have laptops.

Also at the Lakeside meeting on Thursday, trustees voted to apply for a grant to replace a 1986 school bus with a lower emission school bus.

The Lakeside trustees discussed Thursday potential district board goals for the 08-09 school year, which included increasing parental involvement, establishing a common culture by improving staff collaboration and continuing to improve school facilities. The trustees are expected to approve a final list of their goals for the district at the Nov. 13 board meeting.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2424.

(Oct. 14, 2008)