FARMINGTON – Mt. Blue Regional School District board members voted to table a policy debate on a protection plan for student laptops, after a board member and parents raised concerns.
The plan would allow a parent to pay $50 annually, potentially less for a student receiving reduced-price or free lunch, to cover potential issues throughout the school year, such as accidental damage, destruction or theft. With the plan, a damaged laptop would be replaced with a $75 deductible from the student’s parent.
The potential costs are not inconsiderable. At an earlier meeting, district Technology Director Angel Allen noted that even simple mistakes and mishaps could be expensive.
“A cup of coffee dumped on an iBook is $900,” she said.
Some parents and Board Director Scott Webber however, believe that the state has said it will replace damaged laptops, rendering the district’s protection plan superfluous.
“It was brought to my attention that the state will pay for repairs,” Webber said, noting he checked with state Department of Education representatives.
Allen said that she had been informed, throughout the program’s existence, that each school received a certain number of “buffer replacements” on a four-year cycle. For instance, Mt. Blue Middle School’s next four-year cycle begins next year, allowing them 12 replacement laptops for that period of time. This state program is taken advantage of, Allen said, but doesn’t cover the school’s losses. Last year, she noted as an example, 19 computer screens were broken along with other damages.
“We would absolutely use the buffer pool for everything if we could,” she said.
She went on to calculate that $15,000 was spent on laptop repairs by MBRSD in 2008, with $3,900 of that recouped through billing students’ parents. The protection plan, which was generated as a way to mitigate some of those costs on the district, was based on similar programs at other schools in Maine.
“I get concerned that these fees keep getting slipped in,” MBMS student parent Bill Crandall said. He added that the protection plan could represent a now multi-year prospect, as the middle school laptop program has been extended through the senior year of high school.
Forty percent of MBMS students’ parents have currently opted into the protection plan. Roughly 30 students’ parents have instead told school officials to simply keep the laptops in school at all times, rather than risk bringing them home.
The board voted to table the discussion for two weeks, in order to allow Allen time to get the state’s replacement/repair policy in writing, prior to debate on the protection plan. Should the parents and Webber be correct, Mt. Blue Middle School Principal Gary Oswald said several other school systems could be affected.
“That would be quite an eye opener,” he said.
Anyone who had already sent money in for the plan, Superintendent Michael Cormier said, could ask for a refund or wait to see what the final dispersion of the protection plan is. Should the plan not move forward, he said, the money would be returned anyway.
In other business, the board passed a cell phone policy which requires electronic communication devices be off during classes. Teachers could choose to confiscate the phones of students who violate the policy.
The board will also be welcoming student directors in the near future. Amanda Hall, a high school student who has appeared before the board in the past, spoke in favor of the addition of a junior and senior student to the board, in non-voting positions. Citing statistics from other communities in Maine, Hall said the change would allow a new perspective and allow students to feel their opinions were valued.
In other business, the board approved further work by a pair of MBMS teachers who are attempting to put together a trip to Alaska in 2010. Teacher Tim Shumway, who spent two years teaching in the Alaskan “bush,” or extremely rural area, called his time there a “defining experience in [his] life.”
Shumway proposed taking eight to 12 middle school students to Alaska in the late summer and early fall of 2010, after a year of fund-raising and a series of seminars studying educational aspects of the trip; from ecology to language arts to geology to geography. The students would stay with two teachers at a middle school in the Bush, interacting with the tiny student population and conducting what Shumway termed an “interdisciplinary study opportunity.”
Directors were impressed with Shumway’s preliminary plan, approving future development. The trip would require school board approval.
“I’m extremely impressed,” Director Mark Prentiss of Industry said. “I applaud you for the energy you want to put into this.”
The board also approved a $45,000 contract with Investment Engineering to serve as the Mallet School project’s Commissioning Agent. The agent’s, who acts as an overseer for contractors installing energy-related systems, salary is included in the bonded school project approved by the MDOE and voters of MBRSD.
Why are these laptops so important? oh yes, myspace and facebook, the education of our children today. Kids don’t even know what an encyclopedia is today, it is sad. Take the laptops back and increase the teacher’s pay so that they are happy to be in schools and want to teach the kids.
Second that notion. Laptops are remarkably overrated. Anyone who spends any time in school knows they aren’t being used for educational purposes at all. They are a complete waste of money and are taking away much needed resources that could be going towards actual education. Technology is great in some areas, but this is one where everyone needs to take a step back, assess the situation from a realistic perspective, and get rid of this ridiculous idea that every middle school and high school kid needs a laptop with them at all times.
Myspace? Facebook? I guess you are not educated the networking of the schools where these sites are suppose to blocked by the MSLN network. I know they are in SAD58 Yep, there are always those teachers who will be slackers whether there is technology in the classroom or not. Perhaps we should not assume that students spend their days gaming and using social networks. I recommend you step into some of the classrooms in SAD58 and see what they are doing. Wonderful things, that’s what! Been there. Done that.
Let’s take the observations of “parentofteens” and “Woodstein” one step further. Let’s not waste time teaching kids how to use computers properly. In fact let’s put them 40 or 45 to a classroom and teach them reading, writing and math. Most of these kids are going to stand behind the counter at Big Apple or become a CNAs anyway. If parents want their children to learn biology, chemistry, physics, or a foreign language, let them hire a tutor at their own expense. As a taxpayer without children, I’m getting tired of all these parents who think society should subsidize their decision to have as many kids as they like. Conservatives have been screaming that they don’t want America to become a socialist country. What do you think school taxes (in excess of $1,000 per year fo me alone) are, what do you think social security is?
Mr. Crandall stands up and says,“I get concerned that these fees keep getting slipped in.” Personally I think school parents are getting quite a fine deal now as it is. MBRSD spends approximately $3700 per yer for each “average” student in the district. How would the parents feel if they had to foot the whole bill for each one of their children they send to school?
As a college student at the University of Maine at Farmington who is studying to become a high school English teacher, the comments on this article that state that computers are only used for MySpace and Facebook are not seeing the potential of these programs. Why are these social networking sites so bad? Teachers have the ability to harness these programs and use them in their classes–wouldn’t your kid learn more if the teacher was harnessing the programs students use everyday? Read the blog of Wes Fryer and tell me that computers aren’t being utilized in classrooms. The potential is there, but kids have to have access to the technology. As print sales decline and more and more people are reading Internet articles, wouldn’t it be nice to have students actually write and post these articles? Technology is growing, and more and more jobs are requiring technology to move forward. Businesses are utilizing vast amounts of software to calculate and efficiently run and profit from their products and services. In a world becoming more and more enveloped by technology, wouldn’t be nice if your students and children could have the training and awareness that our modern world is requiring? Teachers can do this, but they need the parents’ and community’s support.