Dist. 200 board OKs technology spending

The Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 board of education approved several large technology purchases Wednesday that will bring noticeable changes to schools across the district next year.

Every classroom in the district will now have a projection device, thanks to the board's unanimous approval of the purchase of 50 Smart flat-panel displays.

The displays, which cost a total of nearly $48,000, will be distributed to 43 remaining classrooms in several schools that were lacking projection devices, Executive Director of Technology Rodney Mack said.

"They're flat-panel TVs ... but they have Smart apps. It's not 'Smart' like a SMART Board where it's interactive. It has those Smart apps across the bottom, like a web app - Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, things like that. The teacher can just click on (the apps) without having to have a computer connected to (the screen)."

The displays don't have bulb replacement costs like LCD projection devices and typically last eight to 10 years. District staff members said the extra seven units will be available in case any old projection units elsewhere in the district need to be replaced.

In addition, the board approved a three-year lease of 550 laptops for staff members at all the elementary schools and Jefferson Early Childhood Center.

Board member Jim Mathieson, who has done work with one of the computer companies that put in a bid for the project, abstained from the vote to avoid a conflict of interest.

The units will replace the classroom desktop computers used for four years.

"Those are under lease and have to go back," Mack said, adding that switching to laptops gives the teachers more mobility.

In conjunction with the laptops, the district will lease 360 desktop docking stations, which will give staff members an opportunity to connect their laptops to wired network connections and multiple items, such as full keyboards, printers, monitors or speakers.

At the end of the lease period, the laptops will be returned and the docking stations will be purchased by the district for $1 each. The total annual cost of the lease is about $150,000.

The largest purchase approved Wednesday was new wireless access points for Wheaton North and Wheaton Warrenville South high schools. The district's technology staff will do parts of the project to reduce the cost, which totals to nearly $271,400.

The current access points at the school are in good condition, but greater bandwidth is needed, Mack said.

"(The upgrade) really increases the amount of access we can get at the high school level, where kids are bringing a lot of their own devices," he said. "It's no longer one device per person. Some kids have two on them, and then we hand them one of ours - we just kind of need more throughput."

The used access points will be reused at the elementary level, Mack said.

Next year, the plan is to replace all the access points at the middle schools too, and again, the used access points will be passed down to the elementary schools.

Mack said all the upgrades will help further embed technology in the classroom on a daily basis, without obstacles.

"The access points, the flat panel TVs - they all go toward making sure we can match our vision of really embracing using technology as a tool, and integrating that into everything we try to instruct now," he said.