Tuesday, March 25, 1997
Group voted to press on with building projects
and technology
By LESLIE STRADER
Staff Writer
The Abilene school board voted to press on with building projects
and technology at Monday night's school board meeting, but stopped
short of making any financial commitments or setting any deadlines.
In terms of facilities, the board gave the administration the
go-ahead to get more specific on classroom expansions and athletic
facility improvements.
The next step, said Superintendent Charles Hundley, will be
to talk to staff at the identified campuses about what their specific
needs are, draw detailed plans and determine a more accurate cost.
This all should take 60 to 90 days, he said. The architect's
plans will be presented for the board's review and possible approval
in July.
Vice president John Stearns said he'd like to see ways to make
the plan more cost effective; for instance instead of breaking
the renovations at the athletic facilities into phases, checking
into the cost of combining some of that construction.
"I think the general agreement is that all the facilities
are needed; my concern is the time line," he said. "If
we had better information on thecosts...maybe we could make a
better decision on it.
"I'm for going ahead, I'd just like to see some information
that would make me feel better about the cost effectiveness of
the program."
Val Brailsford said he wanted the board to be careful not to
extend its financial resources and keep teacher salaries a priority.
Hundley assured the board salaries would always come first and
that the district had adequate resources to fund the programs
without a tax increase or bond election.
The technology proposals will be the focus of the next two
months. At the April 7 meeting, trustees will hold a workshop
with volunteer and selected teachers to dialogue about their technology
needs.
Also in two weeks, the board will vote on a consultant to review
the administration's proposal and make suggestions for improvements.
The board is scheduled to conduct a workshop with a consultant
April 21.
"We want to hear about possibilities from teachers,"
board president Betty Davis said. "We want to talk to teachers
who are already using technology in their classrooms so they can
tell us, 'I can do this, but I could do this.' We want to know
what would benefit them."
Hundley said taking time with these proposals will be timely
in the end.
"If you do a thorough analysis of this instead of rush,
rush, rush," he said, "then I think all these things
will come to closure about the time you approve the 1997-98 budget,
and I think that will be good."
The board also heard a presentation on the latest changes in
AISD graduation plans and upper level course offerings.
This year, graduates had six graduation plan options to chose
from; in the next two years, that number will be whittled down
to three.
And, starting with next year's freshmen, every student must
graduate with 24 credits instead of 21. The new graduation plans
are the Regular plan, the Recommended plan, and the Distinguished
Achievement plan.
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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