Mt. Gilead Schools to invest in new technology plan | Morrow County ...

By LeAnne Gompf -

Mount Gilead schools will be mak?ing a major invest?ment in tech?nol?ogy to replace a sys?tem they believe is outdated.

The board of edu?ca?tion voted to accept phase one of the tech?nol?ogy plan, as pre?sented by Ryan Cur?tis at their Novem?ber board meeting.

The mis?sion of the tech?nol?ogy depart?ment is ?to pro?vide a sta?ble, reli?able and up to date infra?struc?ture in which to sup?port and enrich the edu?ca?tion of stu?dents in the dis?trict.? The board says the cur?rent infra?struc?ture is flawed and can?not begin to accom?mo?date the grow?ing needs of the district.

The cost of imple?men?ta?tion for the over?all tech?nol?ogy plan will be approx?i?mately $150,000 ? 180,000, accord?ing to dis?trict trea?surer, Trevor Gum?mere. The major?ity of the cost expended will be to rebuild and make cur?rent the server infra?struc?ture, which pro?vides the foun?da?tion for all com?put?ers and net?work sys?tems through?out the dis?trict. The approved replace?ment plan for the district?s server infra?struc?ture will replace ?stand?alone? servers with a vir?tu?al?ized server farm.

Accord?ing to the pro?posal, ?A vir?tu?al?ized server infra?struc?ture will max?i?mize hard?ware uti?liza?tion; pro?vide redun?dancy and real time resource allo?ca?tion. The resul?tant sys?tem will have a much higher level of scalability.?

The dis?trict will replace all stand?alone servers with three Dell Pow?erEdge R620 servers and begin using VMware soft?ware. This soft?ware allows the servers to vir?tu?ally host embed?ded server soft?ware. The cost of the new soft?ware comes with a three-year main?te?nance plan. The cost of imple?ment?ing phase two was not dis?cussed or approved at the Novem?ber meet?ing but includes a con?sul?tant to assist with the imple?men?ta?tion of the new sys?tem; Cit?rix licenses and lab com?put?ers; and mon?i?tor?ing soft?ware. Accord?ing to the Tech?nol?ogy Plan vir?tu?al?iza?tion deliv?ers a more uni?form and reli?able stu?dent expe?ri?ence. For more infor?ma?tion on the tech?nol?ogy plan you may access the pro?posal which can be found in its entirety on the school?s website.

The board of edu?ca?tion also gave ample meet?ing time to Trans?porta?tion Super?vi?sor, Brenda Legros for her pre?sen?ta?tion and recog?ni?tion of win?ners dur?ing the fall bus safety pro?gram which was Octo?ber 22-26th. She pre?sented a short video that high?lighted events held in pro?mot?ing bus safety and then intro?duced first year bus dri?ver, Stephanie Park.

Stephanie started by telling the board that as new dri?ver she thinks she is more aware of what is hap?pen?ing around her in an effort to pro?tect the stu?dents she trans?ports on her?route.

?I have a new respect for bus dri?vers now,? she said. ?I know more and see more that I did as a casual dri?ver. Peo?ple are impa?tient and the ?com?mon? behav?ior of the aver?age dri?ver threat?ens the safety of our stu?dents. As part of the bus safety week I wanted to make the com?mu?nity more aware of what we do to pro?tect their children.?

As a result, the trans?porta?tion depart?ment cre?ated an aware?ness pro?gram, which included stu?dents in all grade lev?els. The theme for Bus Safety week was ?I see the dri?ver and the dri?ver sees me.? The ele?men?tary stu?dents par?tic?i?pated in a safety draw?ing com?pe?ti?tion. The win?ners were treated to a pizza party with their principal.

Win?ners were Kinder?garten were Kim?berely Sta?ley and Cody Baer; 1st Grade ? Levi Lawhorn and Eli?jah Chafin; 2nd grade ? Colt Hedrick and Mad?di?son Hursey; 3rd grade ? Nancy Linn and Jason Linn; 4th grade ? Jackie Morhart and Autumn Reeves; and 5th grade ? Danika Pow?ers and Macy Atherton.

At the mid?dle school level held a locker poster con?test. The entries were judged and awards pre?sented to the win?ners dur?ing the board meet?ing. Win?ners in this divi?sion were; 1st place Car?olyn Wayne, 4 tick?ets to Fort Rapids; 2nd place Tyler Clark, $50 cash from James Madi?son Insur?ance and 3rd place Heather Emberg, 4 tick?ets to Splat?ter Park from Dale Doty of D and D Lawn?Care.

The high school stu?dents par?tic?i?pated by writ?ing essays. Sophia Friesen wrote the win?ning essay. In part she stated, ?When you see the warn?ing lights blink?ing? do you stop like a respon?si?ble cit?i?zen or go straight through? There aren?t any kids around any?ways. Count?less dri?vers must make this choice every?day. Many of them stop. Oth?ers take their chances and pass through with no con?se?quences. We must do what?ever is nec?es?sary to pre?vent these most def?i?nitely pre?ventable accidents.?

For her win?ning essay she received $100 cash from James Madi?son Insur?ance. Bri?anna Snow, who won 4 tick?ets to Fort Rapids, wrote the sec?ond place essay; 3rd place was Tim Williamson, win?ning a sports bag from Embroi?dery Ware?house and 1?year mem?ber?ship to the Mor?row County Com?mu?nity Cen?ter and 4th place was Tay?lor Whitt, who won 3 tick?ets to Splat?ter Park from Dale Doty of D and D Lawn?Care.

Dur?ing admin?is?tra?tors? com?ments, High School Prin?ci?pal Debra Clauss rec?og?nized long-time announcer and ?voice? for the district?s foot?ball games and school board mem?ber Keith Rogers with a life?time pass for all MOAC for his con?tin?ued sup?port and com?mit?ment to the district?s ath?letic programs.

In fur?ther board busi?ness, the board approved the employ?ment of the fol?low?ing indi?vid?u?als; Melissa Barn?hart, Home Instruc?tion Tutor; Mark Boone and Char?lene Niner, Sub?sti?tute Teach?ers; Mike Wil?son, Full-time Bus Dri?ver. Sup?ple?men?tal con?tracts were awarded to Mike Blan?ton, Mid?dle School Wrestling Vol?un?teer; Susan Delaney, Aux?il?lary Ser?vices; Tom Faux and Ben Saun?ders, High School Wrestling Vol?un?teer; Gerry Harttman, Girl?s JV Bas?ket?ball Coach. Res?ig?na?tion was accepted for Dianna Stevens, full Time Bus Dri?ver and Robyn Meink?ing, Girl?s Var?sity Bas?ket?ball Coach; and leave with?out pay was approved for Lisa Ram?sey for Fri?day, Jan?u?ary 18,?2012.

Due to the recent storm, hur?ri?cane Sandy, the Mid?dle School trip to Wash?ing?ton, DC had been post?poned and was approved fro Novem?ber 27th ? Novem?ber 30th. Addi?tion?ally an overnight trip was approved for the Span?ish stu?dents for their trip to Spain in April of?2014.

Super?in?ten?dent Jeff Thomp?son rec?om?mended (and were approved by the board) the fol?low?ing items of inter?est; MG Dis?trict Admin?is?tra?tive Fringe Ben?e?fits pack?age which will have all admin?is?tra?tors respon?si?ble for any increased cost they may incur with regard to health care; admin?is?tra?tive salaries effec?tive Jan?u?ary 1, 2013; cafe?te?ria super?vi?sor salary effec?tive Jan?u?ary 1, 2012 and the job descrip?tion for the Direc?tor of Oper?a?tions. This posi?tion will be a redis?tri?b?u?tion of assign?ments by employ?ees cur?rently in the sys?tem and will not be an addi?tional cost to the district.

The next board meet?ing will be Tues?day, Decem?ber 18, 2012 at 7:00?pm in the board of edu?ca?tion office. The pub?lic is wel?come and encour?aged to attend.

Source: http://morrowcountysentinel.com/2012/12/mt-gilead-schools-invest-technology-plan/

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