AISD ready to double bandwidth
Submitted by Casscounty1 on
Local election cancelled due to lack of opponents
By Robin Hall
The Atlanta ISD Board of Trustees officially cancelled the local elections set for May during their regularly scheduled meeting March 22.
This was due to a lack of opponents to the four trustee seats up for election.
There are four places on the school board that expire this year. These are currently held by Joel Steger, Charlotte Stanley, Joe Wall and Peggy Harrison.
All four incumbents have filed to run, however no opponents filed to run against them.
The measure passed in three motions, which read that the trustees accepted no candidates were opposed in their races, that the unopposed candidates are therefore reelected and that the May election is now canceled.
Technology Director Ben Rice gave a presentation about his department and some interesting new developments coming to the district campuses.
According to Rice, AISD will be switching to Google Apps for Education to help teachers and students with their classroom learning and projects.
The apps are completely free. Google Apps for Education is free for schools with 24/7 support. There are no ads and data is plentiful.
According to Rice the apps will allow for easy collaboration to create, share, and edit files in real-time. All group members are on the same page and that page is automatically stored in the cloud.
The apps may also be used on any device.
The district hopes to see the same results that other schools have experienced from using Google Apps. These include a boost in parental involvement, improvement in literacy, personalized learning and increased engagement and improved writing skills.
Rice also reported that the district would need to once again double its bandwidth from the current 400mb speed to 800mb.
According to the tech director, Atlanta ISD already has the fiber optic network in place through a grant from Texas A&M.
Grant funding for the district has totaled more than $2.3 million.
“They will just change the rate of speed from our current 400mb up to 800mb. Atlanta ISD has doubled internet bandwidth every summer for the six years to reach this point,” Rice said.
The district’s tech department handles maintenance for more than 4,000 devices. The district has a growth rate of 296 devices per year.
The department is also preparing to launch a brand new website for the district. The site will be completely built and maintained by the district. That launch is scheduled to take place within one week of this publication.
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