GILROY
– School board trustees want teachers and administrators to use
all the technology at their disposal before investing
ever-shrinking district funds into more high-tech equipment and
software.
GILROY – School board trustees want teachers and administrators to use all the technology at their disposal before investing ever-shrinking district funds into more high-tech equipment and software.
They also want to see more e-mail usage by teachers and principals to communicate with parent and students, even if it means creating a specific board policy mandating it.
At last week’s school board meeting, trustees and Superintendent Edwin Diaz directed technology coordinator David Pribyl to come back to the board with firm numbers showing:
• The amount of teachers with Internet access in their classroom.
• The frequency of e-mail use in schools.
• The number of schools fully utilizing a phone messenger system that calls parents when students are absent.
• The potential for saving money spent on paper when flyers are sent home in two languages. (The district’s new databank knows which language each family prefers, making duplicate flyers unnecessary.)
“I guess I don’t understand what it is that stops us from using these tools fully,” Trustee Bob Kraemer said. “Maybe write the location of their paycheck in an e-mail if that’s what it takes (to get staff using e-mail more often).”
The district wants to see Web page publishing and e-mail usage increase as part of its plan to increase communication with parents and the community.
Pri-byl’s presen-tation was part of an annual report to the board regar-ding the district’s technology master
plan. Although trustees were not happy to hear that Web page publishing and e-mail usage remain low across the GUSD, they applauded other accomplishments over the last year.
Pribyl said Gilroy High School was able to increase average daily enrollment by 15 percent this year thanks to utilizing the phone messenger system. Increasing enrollment is crucial in these tight budget times because the state pays districts based on student attendance.
One of the most significant uses of technology in the classroom is a computerized test known as the Measure of Academic Progress.
The MAP exam indicates student strengths and weaknesses on yearend standardized tests. After students take a MAP test on the computer, teachers can within 48 hours see detailed results of how their children did.
“Teachers can then use that information in the classroom. We’re no longer limited to a stack of papers we get once a year that may or may not impact instruction,” Pribyl said.
Pribyl also announced last week that GUSD secondary schools were awarded a $78,000 grant from Hewlett-Packard. The funds will be used to buy scientific calculators, laptops, digital projectors, digital cameras and other equipment for middle school and high school classrooms.
