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BOE holds ESPLOST Priorities MeetingTue, 03/31/2009 - 5:58pm
By: sniffles5
Minutes Committee members met at the Fayette County Board of Education's Central Office at 7:00 p.m. Dr. John DeCotis, Superintendent, welcomed the new committee members from the construction committee to the meeting, and Dr. DeCotis stated that the presentations would be more detailed than the previous meeting, delving into the specific areas in which SPLOST money would be most effectively used. He stated that technology for teachers and students is the main focus of SPLOST. Mr. Campbell, Director of Safety, presented a Powerpoint on emergency operations and the RSVP (Room Status Visualizations Program) that we are implementing in all elementary schools in the Spring 2009. The RSVP program is already implemented in the high schools. He stated that a safe school This cost is not covered by SPLOST money because only hardware is covered by Mr. Campbell continued his presentation with a discussion about security at the elementary schools. He reminded the committee that since Columbine everything has changed and we have to do "safety planning for the worse case scenario." He discussed implementing "Electronic Access Control" in all schools, over the course of several years. He stated that this is our first priority because it is not very expensive and therefore is an efficient use of SPLOST money. The cost for the elementary schools would be $528,500. Furthermore, the principals and teachers want the electronic access control. A North Fayette parent, present at the meeting, concurred that the system was great and that it gave him peace of mind for his child's school. Mr. Campbell stated that we Mr. Campbell and Mr. Cearley then discussed an Emergency Notification System and explained how this is software that is added to the new student information system we are installing. They explained that it is a web-based parents' outreach system in which parents can be contacted via email, text or phone in case of an emergency, school closings, etc. The plan is to implement this in 09-10. However, due to the fact that this is software, SPLOST money Curt Cearley, Director of Technology, presented a PowerPoint about the technology in the schools and how the SPLOST money could be used to improve our technology. He stated that our new student information system will be "Infinite Campus" and that it is a lease program in which the vendor manages the database and we provide the connectivity. The new system has a gradebook program, a parent program and the emergency notification system that we just discussed. In regards to classroom technology, our goal is the have every classroom be a We have approximately 2200 classrooms in our school system. Some classrooms are already 21st century. These include most classrooms at Whitewater High School, Inman Elementary School, and Bennett's Mill Middle School. Approximately 1000 classrooms in the county do not have 21st century technology. Mr. Sam Sweat, Assistant Mr. Cearley then discussed the refresh schedule for the county's leased computers. He explained that we are changing to a June refresh schedule because December is difficult. Computers will be refreshed in June of 2011,2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Other technology plans are to continue domain consolidation in the summer of 2009, virtualization in FY 2011, student information system in FY 2010, Finance and Human Resources systems in FY 2010/2011, Email Archival System in 2011 and modernize technology services department in FY 2011. Mr. Cearley explained the need for larger bandwidth and that this would be addressed in FY 2012-2015. The cost of this, according to Mr. Cearley would be approximately $25-30 million. Mr. Cearley is looking into possible cooperation with other county entities in regards to sharing bandwidth. Dr. DeCotis asked Mr. Cearley to put his PowerPoint on E-Board so that the committee could review it and provide feedback and ask any additional questions that they may have. One of the committee members asked how many school districts have 21st Century technology. Mr. Cearley and Robin Miller both addressed this question. They named Forsyth County, Pike County, Gwinnett County and Lamar County and told the committee to refer to the Georgia Department of Education website for a complete list. Dr. DeCotis thanked everyone for their presentations and thanked the committee members for attending the meeting. login to post comments | previous forum topic | next forum topic![]() |