AKRON - During Wednesday's 2008 budget workshop, the Tippecanoe Valley School Board heard about the technology needs in the school corporation.
Brad Hagg, technology director, said the procedure they look at for budgeting is a four-year cycle. For three of the four years of the cycle, they budget a minimal amount. The fourth year they try to budget the majority amount.
The dollar amounts presented are preliminary estimates and may change for the final 2008 budget.
At Akron Elementary School, about $7,500 may be estimated for computer maintenance and repair. Maintenance and repair for computers was estimated at $4,000 at Burket, $7,500 at Mentone and $20,000 at the high school.
Hagg said they want to budget $175,000 for computer replacement at the middle school. The middle school network would be upgraded to the current speed the other Valley schools have.
Asked how many computers Valley Schools have, Hagg said there are 270 computers at the high school but adding 112 by summer's end. The middle school has 162 computers, 171 at Mentone, 53 at Burket, 180 at Akron, 17 at the Central Office and two in the bus garage. Districtwide, the school corporation has 855 computers, including networks, computers and laptops.
Some of the budget includes costs for software and software agreements. One software agreement for Plato software for Burket has a preliminary estimated cost of $15,000. Hagg said they may or may not have that expense when the final budget is approved.
With the growing technology in Valley Schools, Hagg said staffing is a concern.
"Down the road at some point, we'll probably have to talk about technology staff," he said.
One thing that Hagg would like to see is a fiber optics line run from Mentone Elementary School to the high school campus.
He said it's difficult for Mentone to push the amount of data over the wireless network the school currently has in place. The bandwidth a fiber optics line offers is needed. Also, the wireless network must send its signal first to Burket Educational Center and then to the high school because a direct line is blocked by trees.
The 2008 budget is the first year, Hagg said, the request for $25,000 for the savings plan for a fiber optic line has appeared. For 2007, Hagg said they asked for $25,000, but it didn't show up in the budget.
The board also talked about a school messenger notification system for $6,500, and bus routing software, annual support and maintenance for about $8,200.
In case of emergency, the messenger notification system could call all parents and tell them what is happening at a school. The bus routing software could help the corporation's bus garage plan routes more efficiently.
Assistant Superintendent Brett Boggs said, "There's very few districts around that don't have routing software."
With the software, however, Boggs said, "I don't think that there would be major changes to our routes."
The total amount for all requests in the capital projects fund discussed at Wednesday's meeting is estimated at slightly more than $2 million. Besides technology and software needs, the budget includes items such as parking lot repair and fencing, technology salaries, utilities and insurance and $500,000 for emergency allocation.
The bus replacement plan also was discussed. Superintendent Dr. Daniel Kramer said the school corporation has to put together a 10-year plan as part of the budget.
"We've looked at a 15-year cycle so we don't have a bus over 15 years," said Kramer.
In 2008, the school corporation has plans to replace two buses, but since one bus is also equipped for special needs with a lift, that bus may be retained. Valley would still buy two new buses, but just trade in one of the older buses.
Of the 1992 special needs bus, Boggs said, "For a '92, it really is in pretty good shape."
After Kramer asked for additional comments or questions, school board member Hal Hoffman said, "Keep the taxes low."
School board members present at the budget workshop included Hoffman, Secretary Rod Eaton and President David O'Brien. Absent were Mark Wise and Vice President Bryan Murphy.
