[November 05, 2010] Ingram looks to make $300,000 tech upgrade Tweet INGRAM, Nov 05, 2010 (Kerrville Daily Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- With many of its current computers aging beyond usefulness, the Ingram Independent School District is looking to kick-start a fundraising campaign to update its current inventory of classroom computers. At a school board meeting Monday, district superintendent J.T. Stroder will challenge the board of trustees to make updating existing computer hardware a priority for the district, noting that a large number of the school's computers are between 7 and 10 years old. "As we've struggled to come up with the financing, our computers have gotten older and slower," Stroder said. Through grant applications and local fundraising, Stroder hopes to replace all the computers gradually in an undetermined amount of time in the near future, setting the stage for computers to be replaced on a continuous, staggered schedule going forward. "I'm going to challenge the board to start by replacing just one computer," Stroder said. "They build from there, and eventually get us to a place where the machines are getting replaced regularly." The district currently has 410 computers in classrooms, labs and libraries throughout the district, according to technology director Juan DeLeon. The library computers were replaced last year with a federal library grant. Two years ago all the faculty and staff computers also were replaced, since their machines had been the oldest in the district. Now the district is hoping to revamp computer labs and see that every classroom is outfitted with three new computers. Stroder estimates the entire cost of updating all computers would be around $300,000, which the district hopes to raise through grants from the state and federal government, in addition to raising donations locally. "It will take an effort, since the competition is becoming more and more fierce for grants," Stroder said. The superintendent said the decision to update computers follows a recent update to the school's data infrastructure funded by the $500,000 E-Rate grant the district received last year. The new data lines, coupled with new computers, would allow the district to better utilize the Texas Virtual School Network, that students at Ingram began enrolling in earlier this year. The virtual school network allows students to take classes online offered by other public schools throughout Texas. The opportunity is ideal for a small rural school like Ingram, Stroder said, which does not have the enrollment to justify offering more select classes on its own campus. About 40 students at Ingram Tom Moore High School currently take classes through the virtual portal. But updating the school's technology appears the main hurdle to fully utilizing the new education opportunity. "The success of the virtual network depends on our students being able to access high speed Internet," DeLeon said. Additionally, DeLeon said access to technology has become increasingly important for all students, noting that many of the school's teaching assessments are now done online and that 21st century jobs are increasingly becoming technology-oriented. "It's going to be a long road coming up with the financing, but this needs to be a priority for our district," Stroder said. To see more of the Kerrville Daily Times or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dailytimes.com/. Copyright (c) 2010, Kerrville Daily Times, Texas Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail [email protected], or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544). [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]