Protect that school board at all costs!

Only in his dreams.

But I sure wish Mr. Paquin was a member of this school board and then we wouldn't be dealing with this mess now. A Splost would never have been needed because of poor management. This school board is incompetent that is the bottom line. It has been mismanaged long enough. Why this county saw fit to re-elect this group is beyond me. Wake up people. Do your research on these people running for office, Local, State, and National...It's YOUR MONEY!!!!! The way things are looking we are all going to have to do a LOT with LESS and that is the bottom line. NO on SPLOST....Make do with what you have...

Sure sounnds like it!

Vote Republican

They don't pay nearly enough!
But, maybe you could run... if the one cent sales tax really gets to you- you must sell real estate!
Sounds like you've been BUSH HOGGED!
Vote Democrat!
Wait, I can't speak for Ringo.. maybe that's Dr. DeCotis' alias!

Claude is a critic of the school board's fiscal mismanagement, and because you don't have a response to his charges, you resort to personal attacks and innuendo.

The other bloggers nullified his "concerns" in their factual comments- which they actually researched- I simply added some insight and some humor (I called him Clude..hahah)

Why not try debating the merits of Mr. Paquins argument, rather than a clumsy "shoot the messenger" schtick?

Just calling as it is.

No, bullies like parentforsplost can't speak to the issues because they're bankrupt on ideas.

They want an expensive Wall Street bailout package too. So they want to bully the newspaper to shut the opposition up. They're too dumb to see they're proving Paquin's point!!!

It's all about them baby.

Go look at the Best Buy flyer in the AJC and you'll see what the school board is demanding is way out of line.

Vote Republican

Go look at the gas prices, food prices, water bill, electric bill, college tuition, heck look at the prices of everything + layoffs.
- I already have a computer.
Vote Democrat

I have a few questions that I would like to be included as you try to rebut and dispute the slime and smear tactics of this paper toward our schools.
1. Has the good Citizen ever printed too many newspapers in a wk.?
2. How about too few?
Too many, too few??- CLEARLY MISMANAGEMENT Let's get rid of Cal and staff!
I'm sure that Cal Beverly and his staff prints the exact amount that is needed every wk. (Why, because they give it away!! And that's about all it's worth)
Why have Cal and his staff decided to go to war with our schools?
Cal has always been at war with the public schools of Fayette County.
The Citizen is the reason that the county had to hire a Public Information Officer in the first place. Misquotes and twisting of facts have been have chronic for many years.
I think they should be banished to Clayton County! (This is how it started there)-
Could it be that Cal is bored and he is trying to make some real news (Fayette county losing accreditation, now that would be news, wouldn't it Cal.?).
Maybe you could start charging for your paper if you had some news like that.

Your arguments suck wind buddy. If the Citizen newspaper is poorly managed, they go out of business. But if your chums on the school board have poor management, they keep digging money out of my wallet. There's a big difference crackpot.

You can't seem to list any of those "twisted facts." How about it?

You look like the one knee deep in innuendo and smear tactics. Cough up some misquotes or twisted facts buddy.

Don't you know you can go to Democrat Hell for fibbing.

Vote Republican

Maybe you can answer this question for me as you seem to be so so for our BOE, why did we not hear anything about a splost until the elections were over? Do you not think that they were dishonest in the way they went about this splost? Let's hear your spin on this one.

I yam what I yam....Popeye

Article in Citizen 11/28 2006 " SPLOST or school bond eyed for 2008"

4/30/2007 Finance work session after called meeting

3/29/2008 Planning Institute

For three without much looking. Sad thing is that all of us are guilty of not going to most of these meetings. Appearantly even some of our school board members miss them.

Why do you and jgj keep dancing around the question? When these people were campaigning not a word was said about this, why oh why was that? Your right about something, I don't have the time to go to all of the meetings with the county commission, city council and school board and what not.

I yam what I yam....Popeye

To which election are you referring? 1999? 2007?
The primary this past July?
I believe that they had not announced the need for it THIS year - because the budget was incomplete. Sonny boy and the other Republican'ts hadn't quite finished pulling the rug out from under the school systems. Plus, have you noticed that the economy has just fallen apart in the last few months? Are you paying more for everything that you buy? Well, the school system is too...From gas to wax for the floors to text books (I could go on, but I think that you get it..) All the while tax rev. is down -

Come, come now lets not be obtuse about the question. I believe you know what election I was referring to, you're saying that in the six days after the election the whole picture changed, and yet they had the time to put together the whole splost package. But, lets be clear, out of all the BOE members, not one had an inkling that we needed a splost, until just 6 days after the election, that's your reasoning, that's all you got? It's all the Republicans fault? How many of the school board members do you think are Republicans?

I yam what I yam....Popeye

I guess it wasn't you who told the story on here from back in 1999 and the open house at Flat Rock.. sorry..
I THINK THAT THEY ARE PROBABLY ALL REPUBLICAN'Ts
NOW THERE IN LIES THE REAL PROBLEM.
THEY'VE BEEN BUSH HOGGED!

Finally you've gotten something right, it wasn't me talking about 1999, I'm only concerned about the present, and I feel that we the people were, if not lied to, were at least not kept informed and that the people who were up for election and the people who weren't for that matter, were dishonest about the splost. I also noticed that you never answered any of the questions I asked, although that in itself answered my question. The school board just reaffirmed my decision to vote against the incumbents and to tell you the truth, you don't do anything to help them either.

I yam what I yam....Popeye

1. Has the good Citizen ever printed too many newspapers in a wk.?
2. How about too few?
Too many, too few??- CLEARLY MISMANAGEMENT Let's get rid of Cal and staff!
Cal and the Citizen are private businesses. Should they make mistakes, the taxpayers are not called upon to bail them out
I'm sure that Cal Beverly and his staff prints the exact amount that is needed every wk. (Why, because they give it away!! And that's about all it's worth)
Why have Cal and his staff decided to go to war with our schools?
Because like most people in Fayette county, they have come to the realization that our school board has been not been managing the county's tax dollars wisely
Cal has always been at war with the public schools of Fayette County.
The Citizen is the reason that the county had to hire a Public Information Officer in the first place. Misquotes and twisting of facts have been have chronic for many years.
The reason that Fayette county is one of the smallest school systems in Georgia to employ a full time public relations officer is because Dr. Decotis is an exceptionally poor public speaker. While he is an effective manager, few would call him a "leader". He seems singularly unable to face the public when there is bad news to disseminate
I think they should be banished to Clayton County! (This is how it started there)-
Could it be that Cal is bored and he is trying to make some real news (Fayette county losing accreditation, now that would be news, wouldn't it Cal.?).
Cal is interested in improving our school system, unlike, say, you and your "protect the school board" agenda

To Cal and all the "Calites"- If the school system did their job like you do yours (HALF TRUTHS, LIES, ONESIDED STORIES, HISTERICAL FINGERPOINTING, ETC.) it would be in the toilet with Cla Co. Now that really would sell papers, wouldn’t it?
Dear Tax Payers of Fayette County. It is a one cent sales tax. The tax does not apply to food products. Go to the Wal-Mart in Fayetteville and look at the out-of-county tags… let’s let them help us pay for our quality schools.

Your comments are appreciated. Please allow me this reply.

If our school system has 22,000 students and 5,700 computers, that's a ratio of 3.86, not too far from the 3.5 you indicate is optimal. (I suppose you meant one computer per 3.5 students.)

It is good, even essential, that our students be exposed to the use of computers, including learning how to type (keyboarding). But do these computers need to have a webcam? Do they have to cost $1000 each? Will the computers fall apart the day after the warranty runs out?

Considering how inexpensive computers have become, it ought to be easy to have spares enabling the school system to swap a good computer for a bad one whenever one goes down. (The bad one can then be sent away to be evaluated and either fixed at leisure or discarded.) The brand of computer also does not matter: it is the operating system (Microsoft Windows vs Apple OS) that needs to be uniform.

I have no wish to tell the school system how to run its business. The school board should not insult the intelligence of the public with a PowerPoint presentation telling us computers cost $1000 a piece when the Dell website and stores like Office Depot, Staples, etc. (even Wal-Mart) offer computers for one-third the price.

I run a small business and I'll tell you that computers cost more than $500 when you add in the software and other accessories. I have found that these other costs roughly double the cost as compared to the actual hardware unit, so the the $1000 per computer figure is very realistic.

I knew the past Technology Office at FCBOE and he worked very hard to keep costs in line while providing good service to the system. Things have gotten much better over the last 5-6 years since the FCBOE adopted a more corporate approach to managing their technology costs.

The point that everyone is missing is that most of the items in the SPLOST are already in the upcoming budget plans. The listing of computers in the SPLOST has nothing to do with bad planning, but everything to do with the recent state budget cuts. The reduction in state funds is causing a shortfall in opertating funds that can't all be made up by raising the local millage rate. And since federal and state mandates (like classroom ratios and special ed requirements) don't allow for cuts in many areas (about 75% of the local FCBOE budget) that doesn't leave much room for the FCBOE to move around money.

The SPLOST gives the FCBOE a chance to gain additional funds to help maintain the programs that make our system special (but are not mandated) like fine arts programs. Since SPLOST can't be used for operating dollars, items like technology are being moved into the SPLOST to free up operating dollars to keep fine arts and other programs going in the schools. So while the SPLOST itself says you're voting on computers and such, you're really voting on the future of our fine arts, parapro, and other high value programs in our schools.

"So now you know the rest of the story".

What is scaring people is that so many didn't vote in the summer and now regret it. Either on vacation, or never thought, given a choice, some could win.

Now they are very afraid. Someone wants more money, we don't have any thing to back it up except, "their word". Money is scarce. But worse, are the constant rumors, and that is all anyone knows, constant rumors that 2 years ago, some were told, either support SPLOST when it comes up...or we will send your kids to where you don't won't them to go!

I don't think that is true, but if it is? That would be very scary! And what would be some one's motive to do that to helpless families?

My thoughts are to distance myself from the BOE, and vote upon the given track record of some...

Will they spend this wisely?

Have they spent what we gave them wisely?

Why do we have schools in the middle of no where?

Who would gain from the development of land around these schools in the cow pastures?

Why was land not bought in PTC for their over crowding?

Biggest question in my mind..does the EGO of some? on the BOE get in the way of their judgment for the children?

Is leaving their name on a plaque and a legacy for their heirs...clouding their thoughts?

I wonder how many ... experienced.. teachers put applications with the Fayette BOE wanted to come here, as opposed to someone's kids out of college with a shiney new degrees, that their only leg up was...they were related...to someone in power?

Have we not gotten the pick of the litter because of this?

When DeCotis leaves, who will be in line? The best?..or.. of the most related? I don't know, and I'm sure they wouldn't do that, but does anyone have a guess?

I may be wrong but Claude V. Paquin sounds very much like the above entities.

I think I'm just going to call him "$". It's much easier.
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Caution - The Surgeon General has determined that constant blogging is an addiction that can cause a sedentary life style.

Mr. Paquin, thank you for the clarification of some of your points.

Part of my "day job", if you will, deals with the purchasing of personal computers in bulk. As such, I've got some detailed understanding of the various pricing schemes out there in the computer industry.

You are correct that a decent barebones computer should run around $400 to $500 or so dollars, even in bulk (user "mainframe computer guy" said this as well). I suspect with "bells and whistles" added (primarily software, NOT webcams), the "fully costed" price is around $600 to $650. (Blame it on Bill Gates!).

The devil is in the details, specifically maintenance. On-site, 2-day guaranteed repair typically runs $100 per unit per year, so on a four year lease that would easily make the total unit cost $1000 or so. This is a "set it and forget it" price that deals with hardware and labor. Now this seems a bit high, but remember these are kids that will be pounding the machines on a daily basis and kids simply break their "toys" from time to time. $100 per year maint cost does not strike me as terribly out of line.

Having said that, you probably could shop that to a lower cost local facility, but you'd need to find someone with a track record who has the resources (employees) and who is certified for a particular vendor. Computer repair facilities come and go with some frequency nowadays so I'm not sure the "lowest bidder" would necessarily save significant dollars should the contract need to be re-bid every year or so.

Your idea to have "hot spares" available for quick computer replacement has been tried in various organizations and basically found to be cost-inefficient (people store many personal files...reports, website links, etc) and there's a learning curve to restore/replace such files. For example, teacher's email is typically stored locally on a personal computer. Unless the email was backed up to a central server (and I'd bet a month's salary that Fayette does NOT), a teacher might lose all email correspondence with parents should her PC bite the dust.

You are also correct in saying that these computers will not magically fall apart the day after the warranty runs out. "Working without a safety net" is not a "best practice" for a school system, in my opinion.

Finally, you bring up an interesting point regarding ratios. The number of PCs I quoted was classroom computers directly accessible by students. I assume that there are a significant number of PCs dedicated to county staff that are "off-limits" to students. While I don't doubt the need for office staff to have computers, I wonder just how many units of non-classroom PCs we have. Maybe someone on Janet Smola's secret email list could find out (I'm not willing to spend $2000 to learn this).

If Clark Howard, the WSB radio personality and consumer advocate, or Bill Husted, the sensible computer guru who writes a weekly column in the Sunday AJC newspaper, were to tell us that paying $1000 for using a computer for four years is reasonable, I’d accept it.

Even if it were so, the $1000 should be payable over four years. It is totally unreasonable for the school board to want the 2009 taxpayers to fork out $5.7 million right away so the 2010, 2011 and 2012 taxpayers may have a free ride. An annual cost of $1.425 million is easier to absorb than a full $5.7 million. Paying in advance for future services also has an element of danger, in case your service provider goes bankrupt.

We’re told these school computers take quite a pounding and thus need repairs.

The main parts of a computer that can take a pounding are the keyboard and the mouse. These two parts are extremely cheap to replace and are very very seldom repaired. You unplug the old one, toss it out, and plug in a new one.

Computers do not have a lot of moving parts. Essentially, a computer consists of a central processing unit (CPU), a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse.

Monitors are like TVs. They last a long time.

The CPU has essentially only two moving components that can fail. The main one is the hard drive, and the other is the power supply, which includes a motorized fan. After a few years they can wear out, and they are fairly easily replaced.

Most CPUs include a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and some of them have a plastic tray that slides in and out of the unit. In a school environment, one might expect that to be used only to load new software onto the computer, and supervisors, not students, should do that.

As all CPUs have USB 2.0 ports, a portable CD-ROM drive could be plugged in when needed to load new software from a CD-ROM disk. (For people who still have or use the old square floppies, there are portable floppy drives that can also be plugged in.)

When it comes to software, consumers are a lot more in the driver’s seat than they used to be. The entire Microsoft Office suite can be replaced, free, with the Open Office software. Or else, the older Microsoft Office software can be reloaded onto the new computers, as the purchase of the original software license has indefinite duration.

Software is different from computers. Some of it might be focused on certain school grades and subjects. Then it can be like textbooks and should not be part of the computer budget. Of course, computers that do the teaching improve teacher productivity and may lead to the need for fewer teachers or teacher aides.

Let me say a few words about our kids.

These are kids who use iPods, X-boxes, iPhones, Blackberries and what not. They are not stupid, and in fact they may be light-years ahead of many of the teachers. Depending on their age, many of them explain to their parents how things work.

When I have gone into our high schools, I have been distressed to see students who put their head down on their desk in an attempt to catch up on their sleep. There’s a reason for it. Many of them go to work in the evenings for fast-food chains and restaurants, trying to make a few bucks so they can support a car, get a bit of money for college, etc.

While they are being pressured by their employers to be “closers” and stay up late, they often struggle to keep their grades up and even, as I have said, to stay awake in class.

What I would like to see is an initiative by the school system to hire some of our computer-smart students to help out with computer training and maintenance. They could be paid, given only sensible hours to work, and provided work that would be much more meaningful than the fast-food stuff.

At $200 a year for computer warranty work, we’re talking $1.14 million a year for 5700 computers. I am positive there is not $1.14 million’s worth of computer warranty work a year to be done in our schools.

These students would soon teach their teachers and junior students how to use a $20 flash drive (which fits on a keychain) to store or back-up their files, so they could use any school computer. That would also make it possible to swap a good computer for a bad one in the unlikely event of a breakdown.

Of course, the people who supply computers to school systems and cultivate the educators’ helplessness to preserve their own jobs won’t like my suggestion, and neither will the fast-food operators. But the kids would be better off, and the taxpayers would be better off. And it’s for them I speak.

No wonder taxpayers are having to shell out $700B

“An annual cost of $1.425 million is easier to absorb than a full $5.7 million.”

YES, let’s put this on our credit card so we can pay it off over four years. Did you happen to take into account that now on top of the actual cost of $5.7M there will be interest to pay? Something in the neighborhood of 5% - 10%? It depends on many factors including the bond rating of the school system in question.

Talk about being light years behind. “As all CPUs have USB 2.0 ports, a portable CD-ROM drive could be plugged in when needed to load new software from a CD-ROM disk. (For people who still have or use the old square floppies, there are portable floppy drives that can also be plugged in.)”

How about just loading all software, that’s not the operating system, on the server and have this thing called the “NETWORK” allow access to it as needed? One copy, one configuration, no CDROMs.

You can easily have multiple configurations based on the user access level via a utility called a “Policy”. As far as floppies are concerned, NOT. You have all computers come with what we in the industry call a “core” image and everything else is done via the network. All software “maintenance” is now done one place and one place only, on the server, period.

As far as hiring students to do the maintenance is a nice thought if it weren’t for the fact that doing so could VIOD several of the hardware and software warranties. Again, like I tell my child, “Do your homework” before you go out to play.

As far as “OPEN OFFICE” is concerned, forget it. It’s better than it used to be but it’s still “JUNK”! Please, do just a little research before you go off the deep end. Unless you plan on having a team of software/application developers on call 24/7 stick with MS Office 2008 and call is done.

“While they are being pressured by their employers to be “closers” and stay up late, they often struggle to keep their grades up and even, as I have said, to stay awake in class.”
I would suggest you and the parents of any child consult the GA Child Labor laws if you think a minor is being abused in their job.

“Of course, the people who supply computers to school systems and cultivate the educators’ helplessness to preserve their own jobs won’t like my suggestion, and neither will the fast-food operators. But the kids would be better off, and the taxpayers would be better off. And it’s for them I speak.”

Based on your lack of expert knowledge in the areas of economics, computer system architecture and Child Labor law I would prefer that you not attempt to “speak” for me, my child, the FCBoE or anyone else except yourself in the future.

Your heart might be the right place, but it’s your brain that concerns me.

bad_ptc, I agree with you on one point and disagree on another.

Regarding maintenance contracts for PCs, virtually all vendors have an imputed cost built in and can and do accept maintenance contracts paid seperately on a yearly basis. When they get an unsophisticated school system that offers to pay all maintenance up front, they don't discount, they just smile and say thank you. From what I have been able to read, based on some sketchy reporting back in 2003, that's exactly what Dell did. Paying in advance for something that could be paid for on time payments with no interest is not good fiscal stewardship. And history will repeat itself if the SPLOST passes.

Secondly, in theory your core image process would be an excellent solution for the school board. In reality it absolutely will not work. From what I've been able to ascertain, the school system's network bandwidth has not been upgraded since 1998. There is absolutely no bandwidth to do this! The school system does NOT have an infrastructure to support a decent LAN, much less a MAN (metropolitan area network, i.e. school-to-central-office) to do this. In a perfect world, you'd get Norton Ghost and slap an image on each PC via the MAN. In 2003, the bond referendum had a provision to upgrade the pathetic network to do just that.

Unfortunately, networks don't vote. Smola and Smith re-appropriated that money for other pet projects (I believe the McIntosh auditorium was one). Interestingly, when they WANT to re-appropriate money (network improvements), Smola and Smith do so without hesitation. When they don't want to re-appropriate money (i.e. NOT build unneeded schools), Smola and Smith whine about how their hands are tied and they HAVE to spend that money and CANNOT re-appropriate it. Put another way, we COULD have upgraded the network easily...and paid for new computers...with money that instead went to fund the unneeded Fayette loop school. But that would have made Smola and Smiths real constituents (developers) unhappy.

What was truly disgusting was watching Smola, Decotis and comptroller Laura Brock smirking about NOT spending money to upgrade technology at the July 28th SPLOST begfest. "Tee hee, we could have, but we didn't! Tee hee"

From what I've learned, the school system bandwidth chokes on email backup and traffic, a huge red flag that indicates they probably have something like 56K lines between schools (essentially dial-up speeds, shades of 1996!) That's pathetic in this day and age.

Sniffles is indeed correct in that the biggest problem facing the school system from a technology standpoint is a 10 year old infrastructure that isn't what I would call a "network." I wouldn't even say that 10 years ago it was worth much either. Technology is the bastard stepchild in the BOE that has had far too much put off for far too long. Now the price has to be paid. Right now, the alleged network cuts way down on options and the BOE HAS to basically run and administer machines where they sit. I don't care how many staff people you have, that's a very inefficient use of resources and having a decent service level is next to impossible.

As far as $1000 computers and whether or not to get Dell service contracts, you can make an argument for either side. In order to make it worthwhile to pay for hardware/software support, you have to negotiate tough with companies like Dell. If you don't, they will screw you in a second. Like most products, extended warranties can be a bad thing if you're not very careful.

As far as a good PC costing $1000 after being loaded with software, I question where anyone who thinks that's a good figure is living. That's too much, period. You can get educational licensing from MS at a third of the cost of standard retail. You have volume licensing opportunities with MS and any other software you need. Even with a flat screen monitor and extended support, $1000 is too high for a school workstation PC. Still, it's a nice round figure for a budget:)

If you want Dell to really discount their price on PC's with Gold service, just tell them that you are talking with HP and they look very good. Dell has a lot more margin to play with than most people realize, even those who have been in IT for years. Presently, they will go rock-bottom on pricing to keep HP from establishing any kind of foothold in an organization. The cheaper solution is to buy clones and no service, but I don't think that is feasible at all right now with the BOE setup. They need to stay very standardized because they don't have the network or the personnel to do otherwise.

Sounds as if you are instructing School Administrative staff in how to do business!
That won't fly!
For a buyer to tell 2-3 computer makers to pre-install all of the software needed by the school system, and to do it for free since they would be letting the company leave their name on the computer, is not heard of in school business dealings!
Chances are the software would be donated anyway if they could just tell the student, "see how good this software is?"

Also send copies to reputable organizations to see if they want to donate the computers and a service plan as a trade for students and others being made aware of the gift.

My, my, wouldn't that be something NEW in business?

Why don't you cut Mr. Paquin some slack here.

Isn't there a difference between computers and servers? Don't servers use workstations? Didn't the school board talk about replacing computers? At $1000 a piece? Until you two chimed in, the discussion seemed to be about computers and the reasonableness of the school board's claim it is in desperate need of $5.7 million right away.

Mapleleaf, your another another example of someone speaking on a subject who doesn’t know what there talking about.

If you’re going to spend the money to do, do it right the first time.

Most large corporations, Federal government agencies and recently a good number of medium and small businesses are going the route of a single server controlling everything for the very reasons I mentioned, maintenance/support costs.

“Seat Management” is nothing new and for all intents and purposes it’s the only way a “Systems Staff” can manage resources effectively with a system as spread out as the one in the FCBoE.

Not having the background in how these things need to be done, as exampled with Mr. Paquin’s suggestions, is exactly why the FCBoE finds itself in this position now. Apparently the FCBoE doesn’t know any better either.

The last thing we need is the FCBoE adopting suggestions like Mr. Paquin’s because they themselves are so far behind the times they don’t have a clue as to how to accomplish this task.

Yes, there is a difference between servers and computers. There is also something referred to as “client processing”

In the scenario I described the client, in this case the computer, is forced to download the necessary software when a user logs on, at least once. This method places the burden on the infrastructure/switching part of the network.

Even easier, only the executable is downloaded into the computers memory and all the configuration and support files stay on the server. This method acts more like a traffic cop allowing or disallowing certain things from happening.

In both cases the “processing” when you tell Excel to sum a column of numbers, is done on the local processor and NOT the server.

With a “workstation”, dumb terminal, ALL the processing is done at the server level. That’s why they’re call DUMB.

In any event, the goal is to provide the tools to the students with the least maintenance cost per unit.

I'm curious. Did you ever actually talk to anyone at the school system about the computer issue and why they propose to handle it the way they do?

I know why this post is written as a footnote and not part of the article because I doubt the Citizen would have put into print your insinuations that our teachers are looking at porn during on their jobs. You mention "at the risk of sounding nasty", that is nasty and insulting. If you REALLY need a lesson of what our students are doing with 5,700 computers please feel free to walk down the hallways of any school. You obviously know how to use a computer because you post insulting comments here regularly. You were not in school obviously when the computer age began. But our students now have access to a world we could never have imagined. Students can ask a question in class and teachers can actually get an answer in a timely manner by researching something on the internet. With the introduction of LCD projectors and the internet in classrooms they can watch important political and social events happening in real time instead of just reading about it in a book. Do I need to go on? Why shouldn't the school board spend money to update technology when other school systems do also? Do we not want our students to have access to reasonably new technology? Schools in other counties have had LCD projectors for years and now some of our high school classrooms are just getting them. It is a competitive world out there now. Before you make anymore comments like you did in your last post, maybe you should actually know what you are talking about.

Smile, you're on Candid Camera!

Parentforsplost, do you know what a webcam is?

It is a little gizmo attached to a computer monitor which takes your picture and can send it to others over the internet.

This particular teacher was performing a sex act. He wasn't looking at anything, he was having some women look at him.

This is so gross you couldn't figure it out, could you?

What I was wondering about was why the school system equipped some of its computers with webcams. We taxpayers pay for these webcams. What need is there for webcams on school computers?

You tell me.

of not knowing what he's talking about. Claude Paquin, do you know what a lie is?

Again, the school system doesn't equip computers with webcams. We taxpayers didn't pay for it. There is no need for webcams on school computers.

This gross event is ancient history and you are trying to use it to justify a false argument today.

That's just gross.

By the way, I got this information with a simple phone call. No Open Records Request required. Why don't you try it before spewing your misinformation over the internet?

Is there any truth to the story that's been going around for several years about two fcboe members engaging in said acts. And as a result, one of them resigned from the board and moved out of town?