Much needed technology improvements could soon be coming to the Carle Place School District thanks to the state’s Smart Schools Bond Act.
The state recently allocated $424,135 to the district, funding that Technology Director Rich Greenberg said was easy to figure out how to distribute.
“We’re planning on concentrating our expenditure on infrastructure, on things that will last a long time,” Greenberg said. “We’re planning on spending $350,000 of that on items that…won’t need constant replacement.”
The largest portion of the money-approximately $204,000—will go toward improving school connectivity, including replacing 10 additional switches, updating the classroom wireless access districtwide and adding wireless access point devices. With the addition of infrastructure and wireless access in the district comes an additional need for bandwidth, a cost that Greenberg said will be offset with the district’s tech budget, not from the state money.
“That’s a repeated cost and it’ll be incremental as the demand increases,” Greenberg said.
In addition to improving school connectivity, some of the money will also go towards devices. Greenberg proposed spending $75,000 to get iPads for Cherry Lane School, and expanding the “very successful” Chromebook program in the middle/high school and Rushmore. Adding high-tech security is also a priority, and $145,000 is slated for Voice Over IP devices, which will allow for secure, discreet one-to-one communication between classrooms, a capability the district doesn’t currently have.
The board of education still has to approve the plan, at which time it will be submitted to the state for further approval. Greenberg is hoping to have the technology implemented before the end of the next summer. He noted that the improvements would help the district be better prepared as the state pushes toward moving state assessments online within the next few years.
