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Montana shows FHS the money — $380,000 for computers |
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by Nancy Natividad |
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School District No. 5 will receive $380,000 of the $12.5 million approved by the last state legislature to help pay for technology in the schools. “We should receive the money within days,” said district technology facilitator Ryan Overbeek. “There’s a lot of paperwork for the state.” Every district in Montana had a chance at the pot. There were four ways that districts could use the money — building and maintenance, textbooks, library materials or technology. District 5 chose to use the money for technology. The legislature will distribute the money at the rate of $76 per student. District 5, however, had to match the money from the state. “We have an estimate of the number of students,” said Overbeek. “We’ve been able to budget from those estimates.” Under District 5’s five-year technology plan that has been around for about three years,, all schools will be linked electronically. The new money could speed the process up. Under the plan, computers will be integrated into all departments, and a goal is to provide each staff member with a computer. Also, computers could be used for attendance, grades, and to access automated libraries. “We prioritized the things we needed to get done,” said English teacher Sue Brown, who is on the FHS building technology committee. “The money legislated is being used (in part) for software for the district .” “Hopefully the five year plan will be complete in five years with this one-time appropriation,” said York, adding: “At the rate that the plan was going, we would have probably had to extend the plan.” |
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