Dist. 300 granted technology loan from state

Community Unit District 300 was one of six school districts from across Illinois granted a low-interest loan from the state to improve technology in its schools.

The Illinois State Board of Education earlier this week awarded $618,000 in loans through the School Technology Revolving Loan Program. District 300 is in line to receive $221,700, the largest slice of the pie from the program.

The program is a 3-year loan with a 2-percent interest rate. Districts may use the loans for a variety of technology investments like upgrading networks, staff development related to the integration of technology into classrooms and purchasing computer hardware.

Eric Willard, District 300’s chief technology officer, said the loan will enable the district to chip away at its long-term technology plan. That plan aims to provide one technological device to each student in the district within the next 15 years, Willard said.

“This lets us finish the SMART Board interactive whiteboard aspect of the plan for middle school and grades 4 and 5,” Willard said.

The district will purchase 63 interactive whiteboards — a large touch-screen display that connects to a computer and projector — for general education classrooms in grades 4 through 8, Willard said.

Previously, the district used loan money to purchase laptops for teachers.

Since the program was introduced in 1999, more than $75 million has been loaned to qualified school districts, a news release from the Illinois State Board of Education said. The loan program was available to districts, charter schools, lab schools, vocational centers and recognized nonpublic high schools in 2011. In 2012, the loan was extended to qualifying districts serving kindergarten through eighth grades.