Board Meeting

Thank you to the Digital Leaders who came out to support the tech initiative last night. Hopefully the time spent provided you with valuable information. I was particularly happy to see Kevin Anderson applauded for answering to the challenges of putting together such a comprehensive tech plan which included the information the board needs to make informed decisions. This has been a long journey and Kevin has done an outstanding job!

The Board will reconvene in two weeks to continue the tech discussion. Kevin was asked to "cut the fluff" in the tech plan budget and think outside of the box to find ways to put year one in place. Cabinet has been actively involved in crunching numbers and ideas, and the instructional tech staff put several suggestions on the table during our debriefing with Kevin Anderson this morning as well. Now we move forward.

The next step in our digital leader plans is supposed to be conclusion of the testing of Windows 7 this week. I think, for all intents and purposes, this first round of testing can be wrapped up because of the following factors:

• There is a commitment to including Office on teacher machines purchased during year one.
• The current lab machines will run both operating systems. The majority of teachers will use the Windows side with students, most likely, because this will be similar to their operating system and that may be all they need. The Mac side will be available for anyone needing to use higher level tools. This is music to my ears and it does keep our Mac foot in the door. 
• Except for the iLife tools, most of the commonly used software runs on both sides and the purchases were not platform specific. This includes Pixie 2, Inspiration, Kidspiration and Classroom Suite. 
• FYI... Your digital leader machines are capable of running Bootcamp and flipping into a Windows machine as well. I've worked this way and it is pretty handy. If this is something you would like to do, we can ask for it in our list of Digital Leader Incentives for year 3. (Along with other things you have been thinking about.... We can ask...)  Or, perhaps you would prefer a new PC? 

Our group has tentatively set a meeting for the week of April 5th in order to regroup and put our thoughts together before the next board meeting. A few of you have thought about making a public comment, and I believe the next board meeting would be a good time to let your voices be heard.

Please complete the brief survey below at your earliest possible convenience to indicate your preference for a meeting. You can check the results of the survey yourself at any time, in order to plan your week.  Look for an email about the meeting immediately upon return from Spring Break.

Meeting: Week of April 5th