Schools boot up new technology for school year
By Ben Saylor
Rocky River
Published Aug. 20, 2008

During the Rocky River City School District’s levy campaign last spring, Superintendent Michael Shoaf said the funds generated from the levy would go toward the funding of “teachers, technology and textbooks.” A presentation at the board of education’s Aug. 13 meeting showed the district’s progress on the technology end.

Executive Director of Curriculum Elizabeth Anderson conducted a presentation to the school board regarding improvements the district has made in technology going into the 2008-2009 school year. The district purchased a total of 214 new computers and 12 SMART Boards for the district’s four schools.

At Goldwood Primary School, iBook laptops that had been previously issued to teachers have been replaced with new Windows laptops. Anderson explained that Goldwood is the pilot school in the district’s teacher-laptop program, and that one of reasons for selecting Goldwood is that the computers will likely be more secure at the primary school, Anderson said.

In addition to the laptops, a lab of iMac OS 9 computers are being replaced with eMac OS X computers that came from the high school’s eMac lab. An additional classroom that was created to keep class sizes down will be equipped with four computers, and six additional classrooms will receive SMART Boards, meaning that 12 classrooms at Goldwood have the boards.

At Kensington Intermediate School, each teacher will have a new Windows PC desktop in his/her classroom. In addition, each classroom will receive at least one eMac OS X from the high school’s eMac lab. These will be used for Study Island, a Web-based preparation program for the Ohio Achievement Test. As with Goldwood, an additional classroom will be outfitted with four computers. Finally, Kensington will receive five SMART Boards, bringing that school’s total to 11 classrooms.

As with Kensington, each middle school teacher will have a new Windows PC desktop. In addition, there will be a new 29-laptop mobile cart, and the industrial tech lab will be receiving 18 PCs. The middle school will also receive one new SMART Board, bringing the school’s tally to five.

High school teachers will all have a new desktop PC this year. In addition, the school’s eMac lab has been completely replaced with all-new PCs. The Adobe Creative Suite program will be installed on all of the school’s lab and media center computers, and the school will also have two mobile laptop carts that will be refitted with 21 new laptops. In addition, the media center will boast a 31-seat computer classroom featuring PCs, a SMART Board and a laser printer. Fourteen of the school’s classrooms will now have a SMART Board.

All the new computers purchased by the district have a three-year warranty, Anderson said. In addition, the district is currently in the process of making infrastructure upgrades to boost Internet speed and network reliability.

Anderson also noted the support of the community in obtaining the technology. The Goldwood PTA funded two SMART Boards, and the Rocky River Education Foundation funded one SMART Board at Goldwood in addition to the 10 the organization had already funded at the end of the 2007-2008 school year. In addition, SchoolNet funds helped toward the purchase of the middle school mobile laptop cart.

Shoaf told West Life that he considers it very important that the district follow up on what it promised during the levy campaign. He said the district is committed to setting aside funds each year toward continually upgrading the school’s technology.

On March 4, Rocky River voters passed a 5.9 mil operating levy for the district.