Computers for students the priority

$625,000 purchase needed early in 2021 for replacements

FRANCONIA » Several additions, including providing computers for all students in kindergarten through fifth grade, were done before the start of this school year, Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Katie Kennedy-Reilly said at Souderton Area School Board’s Dec. 8 committee meetings.

Students in the higher grades already had district devices, she said.

The students in kindergarten received iPads and grades four and five got Chromebooks.

“Our parents, our students, our teachers have done an amazing job to really take that learn

ing curve and to help each other and grow so that we’re really getting educational instructional value out of these new resources,” Kennedy-Reilly said during the Education-Personnel Committee.

About three-quarters of the district’s 6,200 students are taking classes five days a week in district buildings, with the other quarter taking all of their classes online.

Following a sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, the Montgomery County Board of Health directed that all schools in the county go all virtual or remote for the weeks of Thanksgiving and the following week. Souderton Area did not have classes scheduled for the week of Thanksgiving, but switched to virtual for the following week, which was the week before the meeting.

“We began this work last spring to be able to put together the resources and structure that if we ever had to go all virtual, we just do it with the flip of a switch, and this worked masterfully last week,” Superintendent Frank Gallagher said.

The schools also provided virtual learning after having been given short notice in March that all the school buildings in the state were being closed because of the pandemic.

“The virtual learning last week was 300 percent better than it was in March, April, May, and I’m really happy from what I saw when I did my virtual walk-throughs last week. Kids were engaged,” Gallagher said. “Is it ideal learning? No, the best learning happens here, but I have to tell you this is part of our master plan that allowed us to have a very successful week.”

During the Technology Committee meeting, Kennedy-Reilly said the district added 20 to 25 new computer systems, programs or applications to its systems to help support teaching and learning.

“It has definitely been a busy time for the technology department,” she said.

“Preparing as a department to deploy over 7,000 devices for the start of the school year and on time was definitely a top priority for everybody in the district,” she said, noting that Souderton Area was able to do so, while some other districts were not.

“With all these devices, however, we also need to ensure that our connectivity and our safety of our students is a top priority, so we also worked through adding additional access points and upgrading where necessary and also ensuring that our students’ access to the Internet is also filtered and protected as it needs to be,” Kennedy-Reilly said. “Supporting and distributing and also managing and filtering hot spots throughout the district has been a top priority at the department and making sure that all of our students are connected.”

Kennedy-Reilly also said the laptops purchased by the district in 2017 that are being used by 11th and 12th graders are no longer up to the job.

“The device is just past its time and end of life,” she said.

The district wants to replace those devices in the second semester of this school year with 1,000 new ones at a cost of $625,000, she said.

In answer to board member Donna Scheuren’s question of whether the laptops being replaced could be used elsewhere in the district, Gallagher and Kennedy-Reilly said the WinBooks, which are no longer made, don’t have the processing speed now required.

Kennedy-Reilly said the district has checked into selling the devices for recycling and was told it could get $8 to $10 per device.

Director of Business Affairs Brian Pawling said the replacement computers were initially planned to be purchased next year in the 2021-2022 budget, but now will be moved up.

“What we would do is just reduce what we have already allocated for ‘21’22 and accelerate that into this year,” he said, “and I’m comfortable that based on where we’re looking in November, we’ll be able to absorb that into the budget for this year, whether its through savings in expenses or fund balance at the end of the year.”

Gallagher said if there is another federal stimulus package, it likely would include technology funding that could be used for the purchase.

The board agreed to have the purchase put on its Dec. 17 meeting agenda for ratification.

In another matter, Gallagher said Montgomery County schools are expected to get antigen testing for the COVID-19 virus in January.

“That will first be for staff members who may not be feeling well during the school day, and come down to the nurse to do an antigen test, but it will also be for the spot checking similar to what happens in health care,” he said.

Asked about a recent state order for when schools could be required to close because of the pandemic, Gallagher said, “A school shutdown would only occur if you have evidence of school spread or if you weren’t able to contact trace and bioblast and clean that evening.”

That has not happened thus far, he said.

“We’re pretty confident that we can be able to remain open unless there’s significant numbers of contact tracing and, obviously, evidence of school spread, which we have not seen,” Gallagher said. “None of the public schools in Montgomery County have seen evidence of school spread.”