By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

The Hays USD 489 Board of Education approved the purchase of new teacher laptops at a cost of $126,400 at its meeting Monday night.

The current laptops have been in use for more than six years, at least two years beyond the average usable lifespan for such devices. Superintendent John Thissen described the units as “used up.”

The district had planned to replace the laptops last year, but the board voted to use them for one additional year.

Josh Waddell, board member, asked members of the technology committee why an option to have teachers use their personal computers was not considered.

He suggested teachers could be paid $80 per year or $400 up front toward providing their own laptops or tablets. Doing so would cost $80,000, a $46,000 savings.

“The community still remembers the $100 million from the last bond election,” Waddell said. “Four out of the five conversations include why are we spending so much on technology when we have let the facilities slide by.”

Thissen asked the public to understand technology is woven together with curriculum.

Jeanie Michaelis, teacher and member of the technology committee, said she could not answer questions about such an option because the committee had not been asked to explore it.

Other districts in the state use a “bring your own device” plan, but Michaelis said the districts she knew that were using this system were all very small districts.

Scott Summers, technology director, said there could be issues with software compatibility and network use.

Board member Luke Oborny further raised concerns about the need for additional technology staff if many different computer brands and models were being used in the classroom.

Waddell suggested the district would not be responsible for maintenance under such a program.

Thissen said the “bring your own device” option could be explored in the future, but the new devices were needed urgently in order to be prepared for 2017-18 school year. A switch in policy would take time to research.

Waddell said the option had been discussed three of the four years he had been on the board. He assumed that it had been discussed by the technology committee.

Lance Bickel, board president, asked several questions about the use of iPads by teachers. Michaelis indicated teachers were using laptops for preparing lessons and the iPads for classroom instruction.

Without keyboards, the iPads are difficult to use for typing pages of lesson plans, she said.

As the meeting progressed Sarah Rankin, board member, said she was receiving angry emails from teachers who were watching the meeting live and expressing frustration about trying to use computers that did not function properly.

Marie Henderson, instruction technology specialist, told the board teachers were struggling with the current computers. She said she personally had been unable to present a project recently because her laptop crashed twice in an hour.

“The things that we did prepare we were excited to present as the need has come to a level, as Sarah pointed from the emails, that has gone from possibly light frustration to out loud anger because they are trying to get jobs done in situations with limited time and limited resource that they are currently unable to do.”

The board passed the purchase on a 5-1 vote with Bickle voting against.

In other business, the board approved a $59,700 bid from Balfour for printing the Hays High School yearbook for the next three years.

It approved a license renewal for Edgenuity software for $96,750.

It approved $11,495 for renewal of the district’s KASB membership and $1,650 for the legal assistance fund.