White Hall upgrades school laptops with federal funds
REDFIELD — Much of White Hall School District’s entire second wave of federal Emergency and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds has been allocated toward technological upgrades.
District finance director Doug Brown updated board members during a meeting at Hardin Elementary this week on the use of the $2.2 million. The district has dedicated a large portion of that toward purchasing 2,500 new Chromebooks and their charging carts, new desktop computer processing units, printers, projectors, mobile hotspots and smart TVs.
“We’re trying to bring White Hall schools up to where we can be,” Brown said. “By August, our goal is to have cameras and microphones in every classroom. It’s not a financial challenge. It’s the availability of the supply chain.”
With the additional Chromebooks, the district is removing at least one computer lab from each of its campuses. Superintendent Doug Dorris said each lab had about 25 desktops installed.
“We’re going to start in May, out of the ESSER funds, (purchasing) cameras, microphones and desktops,” Brown told board members. “Mr. Dorris and the principals have decided, since we have adequate Chromebooks, they’d rather use as many cases for Chromebooks versus the labs. So, we’re going to take down — I would guesstimate — 30 to 40 percent of labs. Every elementary will have two labs, high school will have three to four, and the middle school will have two, and we’ll have a lab in the West building. But every lab that will be retained, the CPU at a minimum will be upgraded. Many of the monitors will, also, because of the ESSER opportunity.”
Those tech upgrades, along with the purchase of two new buses (one seating 37 and another 14), a literacy curriculum adoption for elementary schools, a virtual principal and the Bulldog Acceleration and Enrichment Summer School
accounted for 65% of the ESSER II spending.
Installation of water fountains, air purification systems, a middle school freezer and foggers, as well as carpet removal, and covid-19 leave pay accounted for 30%, with the remaining 5% going toward personal protective equipment. School districts are obligated to spend their entire allocations by Sept. 30, 2022 and must utilize all ESSER II funds before going into their ESSER III allocations, Brown said.
White Hall schools are expected to receive $4.9 million in the third wave by June at the earliest. Plans for that funding include completing carpet removal, establishing a salary for a covid-19 point of contact, a nurse stipend for administering tests and covid-19 leave of absence.
“For us?” board member Scott Pittillo reacted. Brown affirmed, adding ESSER III funds must be spent by Sept. 30, 2023.
The district used its entire $550,000 ESSER I allocation earlier this school year, 99% of which went to personal protective equipment and the remainder for Chromebooks.
In other district news, Dorris said district student enrollment is expected to increase from the 2020-21 count of 2,906 students. That enrollment dipped from 2019-20 by 74 students.
“We’re getting kids enrolling every day,” he said. “Right now, we’re exceeding the limit at one of our local campuses because we have people come in and sign up.”
White Hall schools are renewing their contract with Chartwells food management service.
An open house for the new safe room at Moody Elementary is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. May 20.
The district hired Shimorye Hampton and Antoine Luster as history teachers and coaches, Cameron Wells as an agriculture teacher and Christina Beger as an English teacher.
Approved transfers within the district include Allison Riley-Hayes from middle school English teacher to fourth-grade teacher at Gandy Elementary; Jennifer Menard from high school media specialist to district virtual principal, test coordinator, district communications official and fine arts building scheduler; and Jason Mitchell to middle school physical education teacher.