Anticipating the opening of classes for the 2017-2018 school year the following day, the Mountain View School Board opened its public meeting on August 28th with the Lord’s Prayer (Anglican version) and the Pledge of Allegiance, followed immediately by a boisterous presentation by High School Principal Robert Presley on everything Google as adopted by his school, focusing on computers called Chromebooks.
Mountain View has already turned over its email system to Google: all district email now goes through Gmail, in common with many other schools (and universities). Google also makes a device called Chromebook, similar to a laptop computer, but dependent on the internet for almost all of its function, much like a smartphone but with a large screen and without a phone. Mr. Presley proposes to distribute these devices to each Mountain View student in grades 9 through 12.
Further, he expects more and more classwork to pass through Google’s “cloud” using an “app” called Google Docs, that offers word processing, spreadsheets and a number of other features.
The Chromebook will be packaged in a nifty protective case – from which students are prohibited from removing the device itself. Mr. Presley claims that the computer is virtually indestructible within its case. The Chromebooks will belong to the Mountain View district, distributed at the beginning of a school year, and collected at the end. They will be configured so that they cannot communicate outside the district’s own email system or the district’s part of Google’s cloud. They are to be used exclusively for school work; only authorized apps can be loaded onto them.
Parents will be expected to sign an agreement with the district, distributed in a document known as the “Chromebook Program” that explains the program, along with the parents’ and students’ responsibilities. He expects 100% participation among the some 320 students in the target population; options will be available for those who choose not to sign up. An optional “insurance policy” will be available at a cost of $20-$30 that will cover one incident of damage to the machine during a school year. There is no coverage for negligence, for a lost or stolen device or its appurtenances (cable with charger, case), or for malicious misuse.
Students (and parents) are warned that there is to be no expectation of privacy in the use of these devices. Students will be expected to bring them to school each day, at which time they can be scanned for content and misuse.
Mr. Presley hopes that the program will save the district substantially – he mentioned a figure in the neighborhood of $100,000 – by eliminating the cost of textbooks, not to mention the replacement of laptops now provided in carts in the classrooms. Displaced laptops can be passed down to the lower grades. Each fully-outfitted Chromebook will cost the district $254. The district has purchased 384 of the gizmos, providing enough for spares.
The High School Principal is expecting great things from this program. He had ready answers to questions from Board members, like: What about students who don’t have internet access at home?; or What about teachers who resist and prefer traditional teaching methods? He said that this is a year to “play” with them, to get used to them, and for the faculty to be trained. He expects to use this school year to work out the “kinks” that he fully anticipates to encounter. He expects them to become part of the school’s culture next year.
The Board then heard a brief presentation by the new Special Education Direction, Dr. Patricia Pasierb. Commending her staff for their outstanding professional performance, she described two changes to the Paraprofessional Support Handbook. A code of dress and behavioral expectations simply asks that the staff look, dress and act as the professionals that they are. They will also be given a few more minutes of late arrival and early departure for emergency needs.
The Board approved reports and motions from committee chairpersons covering routine financial and personnel matters, along with a list of field trips requested by Sheri Ransom.
Members also approved Mountain View’s participation in the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program sponsored by the Federal Department of Education that “supports the creation of community learning centers that provide academic enrichment opportunities during non-school hours for children, particularly students who attend high-poverty and low-performing schools.”
Mountain View will also participate in Marywood University’s Outreach String Program, “an after-school, pre-collegiate string program for students ages 5-18” that offers instruction for orchestral string instruments such as violin, viola, cello and string bass.
They also approved a couple of changes to the district’s policy manual, mostly slight changes in wording. The policy covering “Dress and Grooming” is updated to cover the latest fashions in the way students tend to express themselves sartorially. The full policy manual is available from the district’s website at http://www.mvsd.net.
Board President Michael Barhite announced a meeting for the next day related to negotiations with the teachers. He also reported several executive sessions, without details.
The meeting closed with an extended discussion of the burden shouldered by public school districts like Mountain View for the support of private and charter schools, in particular, the so-called “cyber charter” schools that provide instruction over the internet using computers generally provided by the companies that operate the schools.
District Superintendent Karen Voight reminded the meeting that Mountain View offers its own version of a “cyber” school through NOLA, the Northeast Online Learning Academy, operated by the IU (the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit 19). She claimed that NOLA offers the same courses and services provided by the commercial services, but adds the followup and instructional support that aren’t always available on the outside. She said that the commercial providers cost the district about $500,000 per year (about $11,000 per student), with virtually no regulation or oversight. She also noted that the district is required to provide transportation to private schools located within 10 miles of the edge of the Mountain View district boundaries, of which there are 3 or 4.
Due to disruptions caused by an “irate person” at a prior meeting, the Board has adopted – and expects to enforce – rules for participation in its meetings by visitors. There are 2 periods allotted during Board meetings during which anyone may speak for 5 minutes if prior written notification is provided, or 2 minutes otherwise.
The next public meeting of the Mountain View School Board is scheduled for September 11, 2017. Meetings begin at 7:00pm in the Zick Board Room in the Elementary School. Refreshments are not generally provided.
