Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

District Improves Computer Access

For the past five years Prescott School District has been making special efforts to improve access to computer technology for all students, faculty and staff.

In 1995 a group of community representatives and school personnel sat down to develop a technology plan for the district. After several meetings a plan was drafted which was later approved by the Department of Education. "The group had great ideas for our schools and knew what they wanted for their children, but had no idea how to finance the plan," Ron Wright, superintendent of the school district, said.

District funds, competitive grants, donations from patrons, community service organizations, business and industries have now made this plan a reality for the three school campuses, thanks in part to reimbursements through the E-Rate program. "This makes school communication more efficient," Wright said.

Every classroom, every library and all the computer labs are connected to the Internet. Internet service is protected by Bess powered by N2H2' filtering software. "Faculty and staff have had several hours of computer training, appropriate hardware and software have been acquired, but as with most school business, and especially with technology we are never done," he said. "There is always room for improvement."

The major goals of the district technology plan are:

To improve delivery of instruction.

To provide access to resources, people and information globally.

To reduce the teachers' administrative workload.

Meeting the academic needs of the diverse population of the classrooms of today is a challenge for even the most energetic teacher.

"The youth of today," Wright said, "are technologically oriented and schools must provide more than paper and pencil experiences to keep them actively engaged in the academic process."

This past fall science teachers Donna Smith and Kathy Hodges chose to help speed things along by applying for one of the state matching grants for science and mathematics. They were awarded $9,803 for their project to improve the science department through technology software scientific calculators and videos.

In addition they were also awarded $2,100 by the Cabe Foundation for the same project.

It is anticipated that student interest and academic achievement in science and mathematics will be enhanced by these improvements to their learning environment.

"Prescott School District wishes to thank all the friends of our schools who work hard to help us provide the best educational experience for each child everyday" Wright said.