B
Baphomet
Guest
Footing the Bill for the Computer Lab
November 6, 2003
By JEFFREY SELINGO
New York Times
FOR Nancy Couto, the director of technology for the Armada
school district in suburban Detroit, walking into a
computer lab at the high school is like stepping back in
time. There, beat-up machines still run Windows 95 and
barely chug along on 120-megahertz processors and 16
megabytes of memory, a tiny fraction of what even the most
basic new desktop comes with these days.
It has been seven years since voters approved a bond issue
that bought many of the 750 computers that sit in nine labs
across the district today. With a bare-bones budget and
school officials unwilling to ask voters to borrow money
again, Ms. Couto has had to scavenge parts from dead
computers to repair problems with the machines that are
still hanging on.
"They're so old we can't even buy parts for them anymore,"
Ms. Couto said. "I tell teachers not to shut them down
after class. It takes five minutes just to boot them back
up, and when you're in class, you just don't have that kind
of time."
With states facing big budget deficits because of a long
period of weak economic growth, public schools have been
forced to tighten their spending, often choosing to pay
only for basic services and not for what they see as luxury
items, like new computers. One result is outmoded equipment
that makes it hard for teachers to use technology in their
lessons or to engage students who have become accustomed to
faster computers at home.
Rather than wait for the budget situation to improve, some
cash-strapped schools are asking for money from parents'
groups - including foundations established expressly to
help pay for technology purchases - to buy computers. Other
districts are looking for donations of used equipment from
local businesses and colleges.
"The bar is higher for technology in the schools," said
Peter Grunwald, president of Grunwald Associates, a
consulting firm in Burlingame, Calif., that focuses on
school technology. "They are operating in an environment of
expectations that is formed by students who get to play
with everything in their own homes."
The budget cuts, which have also reduced dollars for
support staffs and teacher training, could not have come at
a worse time, Mr. Grunwald said. "School districts were
finally turning their attention to how to use all this
stuff in the classroom."
Outdated computers are usually acceptable for the lower
grades, where they can be used for basic tasks like word
processing. But teaching advanced applications to older
students with aging machines is nearly impossible. Thomas
Watchorn, a computer teacher at the middle school in Ms.
Couto's district, said he had given up on the desktop
computers in his lab for video editing or Web design. On
most days, he is happy if the machines simply function. "I
never have 30 computers that exactly work the way they are
supposed to," he said. Screen colors change unexpectedly,
programs shut down without warning, and machines crash.
One of the labs in Armada Middle School is so riddled with
problems that the computers there are not used at all. Mr.
Watchorn said he wondered how long it would be before his
lab suffered the same fate. "If we're lucky, maybe two more
years," he said.
Given the conditions under which school computers operate -
multiple users throughout the day, some of them less than
gentle - the machines never last as long as the average
home or office desktop. Ideally, schools need to replace
equipment at least every four to five years, school
technology directors agree. But that schedule is usually
only met with an infusion of cash, typically through a bond
issue for technology or for a new school.
Nearly half the 1,100 computers in the public schools in
Fitchburg, Mass., are less than four years old, thanks to
money furnished to build a new high school that opened
there in 2000. But the warranty on the high school
computers expires in June, and "then we'll be in real
trouble," said Art Newcombe, the district's director of
technology.
Elsewhere in the district, most of the computers are five
to seven years old. Mr. Newcombe's budget has been cut by
$200,000, or 84 percent, over the last three years, and
many of the technology grants he has received are for
teacher training, not new equipment.
Like technology directors in other districts, Mr. Newcombe
is trying to get more out of what he has by relying on
networked computers. Instead of buying new desktops, some
schools have opted to buy servers, which cost about $5,000
each and provide the needed disk space for 40 or 50
outdated computers, as well as a connection to a common
printer. "Servers expand the life of our computers and give
us more versatility," Mr. Newcombe said.
Even so, with state lawmakers looking to pinch every dollar
possible, putting budgets in constant flux, some school
officials are reluctant to begin the often long process of
purchasing new equipment. In New York last year, for
instance, Gov. George E. Pataki proposed eliminating a
state program that provided as much as 50 percent of the
cost of new computers. The legislature later preserved the
program, but not before some school districts decided to
delay their technology plans.
"A lot of schools were in no man's land," said Pete Reilly,
the director of the Lower Hudson Regional Information
Center, a consortium of 62 school districts north of New
York City. "Without that state money, there was no way they
could have afforded to buy that equipment."
Faced with that uncertainty, many schools have decided to
bypass state and local lawmakers altogether to subsidize
their technology purchases. Some have turned to their own
private nonprofit foundations, a new kind of parent
organization that has gained in popularity in recent years,
particularly in wealthier districts. The foundations help
pay for items like playground equipment, music and art
classes and technology.
The Mount Laurel Public Education Fund in New Jersey, for
example, donates $30,000 annually to the Mount Laurel
school district, most of which is used for technology.
"Sure the schools could survive without our money, but you
could always have better equipment and better education,"
said Kevin Scarborough, the president of the foundation. It
was created in 1994 and raises most of its funds from an
annual golf tournament. Now its leaders are considering art
and sports-memorabilia auctions to increase their donation
to the schools. "Quite frankly, the better the education
system, the better the town, the better the property
values," Mr. Scarborough said.
Although the money from the parents foundation is a drop in
the district's $900,000 annual technology budget, "it's
something I count on every year," said Ken Ruhland, an
assistant superintendent in Mount Laurel. Because the
donation, which this year paid for interactive whiteboards,
comes in the fall, well after the district has planned its
other computer purchases, it allows officials to buy "the
latest in technology," Mr. Ruhland said.
In other districts, officials are looking for donations of
used equipment. When elected officials in the town of
Mansfield, Mass., opposed a $200,000 request for new
computers last year, Lincoln Lynch, the assistant
superintendent of the 5,000-student school district, sent
300 letters to colleges and businesses in the region asking
for their old machines. He has since received 346
computers. Students and local retirees refurbished about
250 of them and placed them in classrooms and labs, with
the rest used for spare parts.
To control the cost of overhauling the used computers - a
factor that leads many schools to refuse to accept
second-hand computers - Mr. Lynch limits his donations to
Pentium II computers in groups of 12 or more. "We need
computers, businesses and colleges need to get rid of
hazardous waste, and colleges need students to be trained
using the latest technology," said Mr. Lynch, who estimates
that he has saved at least $150,000 by using donated
machines. "To me, it's a win-win situation."
But not everyone sees it that way. Howie Schaffer of the
Public Education Network, which coordinates community
groups involved with schools, said that gifts from
foundations and donations of used equipment allow schools
to shirk their duties. "The fact of the matter is they are
taking away a very critical district responsibility, and it
will be almost impossible to give it back to them," Mr.
Schaffer said.
November 6, 2003
By JEFFREY SELINGO
New York Times
FOR Nancy Couto, the director of technology for the Armada
school district in suburban Detroit, walking into a
computer lab at the high school is like stepping back in
time. There, beat-up machines still run Windows 95 and
barely chug along on 120-megahertz processors and 16
megabytes of memory, a tiny fraction of what even the most
basic new desktop comes with these days.
It has been seven years since voters approved a bond issue
that bought many of the 750 computers that sit in nine labs
across the district today. With a bare-bones budget and
school officials unwilling to ask voters to borrow money
again, Ms. Couto has had to scavenge parts from dead
computers to repair problems with the machines that are
still hanging on.
"They're so old we can't even buy parts for them anymore,"
Ms. Couto said. "I tell teachers not to shut them down
after class. It takes five minutes just to boot them back
up, and when you're in class, you just don't have that kind
of time."
With states facing big budget deficits because of a long
period of weak economic growth, public schools have been
forced to tighten their spending, often choosing to pay
only for basic services and not for what they see as luxury
items, like new computers. One result is outmoded equipment
that makes it hard for teachers to use technology in their
lessons or to engage students who have become accustomed to
faster computers at home.
Rather than wait for the budget situation to improve, some
cash-strapped schools are asking for money from parents'
groups - including foundations established expressly to
help pay for technology purchases - to buy computers. Other
districts are looking for donations of used equipment from
local businesses and colleges.
"The bar is higher for technology in the schools," said
Peter Grunwald, president of Grunwald Associates, a
consulting firm in Burlingame, Calif., that focuses on
school technology. "They are operating in an environment of
expectations that is formed by students who get to play
with everything in their own homes."
The budget cuts, which have also reduced dollars for
support staffs and teacher training, could not have come at
a worse time, Mr. Grunwald said. "School districts were
finally turning their attention to how to use all this
stuff in the classroom."
Outdated computers are usually acceptable for the lower
grades, where they can be used for basic tasks like word
processing. But teaching advanced applications to older
students with aging machines is nearly impossible. Thomas
Watchorn, a computer teacher at the middle school in Ms.
Couto's district, said he had given up on the desktop
computers in his lab for video editing or Web design. On
most days, he is happy if the machines simply function. "I
never have 30 computers that exactly work the way they are
supposed to," he said. Screen colors change unexpectedly,
programs shut down without warning, and machines crash.
One of the labs in Armada Middle School is so riddled with
problems that the computers there are not used at all. Mr.
Watchorn said he wondered how long it would be before his
lab suffered the same fate. "If we're lucky, maybe two more
years," he said.
Given the conditions under which school computers operate -
multiple users throughout the day, some of them less than
gentle - the machines never last as long as the average
home or office desktop. Ideally, schools need to replace
equipment at least every four to five years, school
technology directors agree. But that schedule is usually
only met with an infusion of cash, typically through a bond
issue for technology or for a new school.
Nearly half the 1,100 computers in the public schools in
Fitchburg, Mass., are less than four years old, thanks to
money furnished to build a new high school that opened
there in 2000. But the warranty on the high school
computers expires in June, and "then we'll be in real
trouble," said Art Newcombe, the district's director of
technology.
Elsewhere in the district, most of the computers are five
to seven years old. Mr. Newcombe's budget has been cut by
$200,000, or 84 percent, over the last three years, and
many of the technology grants he has received are for
teacher training, not new equipment.
Like technology directors in other districts, Mr. Newcombe
is trying to get more out of what he has by relying on
networked computers. Instead of buying new desktops, some
schools have opted to buy servers, which cost about $5,000
each and provide the needed disk space for 40 or 50
outdated computers, as well as a connection to a common
printer. "Servers expand the life of our computers and give
us more versatility," Mr. Newcombe said.
Even so, with state lawmakers looking to pinch every dollar
possible, putting budgets in constant flux, some school
officials are reluctant to begin the often long process of
purchasing new equipment. In New York last year, for
instance, Gov. George E. Pataki proposed eliminating a
state program that provided as much as 50 percent of the
cost of new computers. The legislature later preserved the
program, but not before some school districts decided to
delay their technology plans.
"A lot of schools were in no man's land," said Pete Reilly,
the director of the Lower Hudson Regional Information
Center, a consortium of 62 school districts north of New
York City. "Without that state money, there was no way they
could have afforded to buy that equipment."
Faced with that uncertainty, many schools have decided to
bypass state and local lawmakers altogether to subsidize
their technology purchases. Some have turned to their own
private nonprofit foundations, a new kind of parent
organization that has gained in popularity in recent years,
particularly in wealthier districts. The foundations help
pay for items like playground equipment, music and art
classes and technology.
The Mount Laurel Public Education Fund in New Jersey, for
example, donates $30,000 annually to the Mount Laurel
school district, most of which is used for technology.
"Sure the schools could survive without our money, but you
could always have better equipment and better education,"
said Kevin Scarborough, the president of the foundation. It
was created in 1994 and raises most of its funds from an
annual golf tournament. Now its leaders are considering art
and sports-memorabilia auctions to increase their donation
to the schools. "Quite frankly, the better the education
system, the better the town, the better the property
values," Mr. Scarborough said.
Although the money from the parents foundation is a drop in
the district's $900,000 annual technology budget, "it's
something I count on every year," said Ken Ruhland, an
assistant superintendent in Mount Laurel. Because the
donation, which this year paid for interactive whiteboards,
comes in the fall, well after the district has planned its
other computer purchases, it allows officials to buy "the
latest in technology," Mr. Ruhland said.
In other districts, officials are looking for donations of
used equipment. When elected officials in the town of
Mansfield, Mass., opposed a $200,000 request for new
computers last year, Lincoln Lynch, the assistant
superintendent of the 5,000-student school district, sent
300 letters to colleges and businesses in the region asking
for their old machines. He has since received 346
computers. Students and local retirees refurbished about
250 of them and placed them in classrooms and labs, with
the rest used for spare parts.
To control the cost of overhauling the used computers - a
factor that leads many schools to refuse to accept
second-hand computers - Mr. Lynch limits his donations to
Pentium II computers in groups of 12 or more. "We need
computers, businesses and colleges need to get rid of
hazardous waste, and colleges need students to be trained
using the latest technology," said Mr. Lynch, who estimates
that he has saved at least $150,000 by using donated
machines. "To me, it's a win-win situation."
But not everyone sees it that way. Howie Schaffer of the
Public Education Network, which coordinates community
groups involved with schools, said that gifts from
foundations and donations of used equipment allow schools
to shirk their duties. "The fact of the matter is they are
taking away a very critical district responsibility, and it
will be almost impossible to give it back to them," Mr.
Schaffer said.
480)460-2350 | |