Linden-Kildare CISD to purchase tablets for students
By Angela Guillory
aguillory@casscountynow.com
During the short meeting of the Linden-Kildare Consolidated Independent School District trustees agreed to budget amendment #2. Trustees transferred $87,168 into the budget. Superintendent Dr. James Cowley said the district received a large amount of settle up funds from Atlanta for SHARS from the special education co-op with Atlanta ISD that the district elected not to participate in this year. Instead the district formed its own special education department. Cowley said a portion of the funds will be used to purchase 70 Dell Tablets for current freshman students. The remainder of the funds was placed in reserves.
Cowley said this is part of the district’s 1 to 1 initiative for the high school. As part of a pilot program each ninth grade student will receive a Dell tablet for the last nine weeks of school as a trail run. The hope is to continue each grade level as funds allows.
The plan Cowley said is next year in the fall ninth grade students would receive a tablet and the tenth graders would be reissued the tablets they received the last nine weeks of school. The technologies director is installing Wi-Fi infrastructure to support network traffic.
Cowley said there are many obstacles that the district must overcome in order for the project to work including maintenance and reformatting of the devices, content filtering on and offsite.
“I feel that this will have a positive impact on the students at L-K,” Cowley said.
High School Principal Keri Winter was proud to announce that nine student will be representing L-K at DECA international competition in Atlanta, Ga. Also DECA Sponsor Billie Ruth Hankins was recognized for 30 years of service with DECA during the DECA Career Development Conference.
Enrollment is down 10 students but Cowley is really excited that district wide attendance is up. Cowley said he does think the Germ Blast treatment paid off for the district.
Cowley asked if anyone knew the history of the sycamore trees at the baseball fields. A request has been made to remove the trees due to debris falling on the ball fields. No one present at the meeting knew whether the trees were planted by an individual or group.
