Will Orange BOE Welcome COWs into Classrooms?

COWs were a huge topic of conversation at the Orange Board of Education meeting, Monday night. In fact, the board spent more than an hour mulling over whether or not to accept a gift from the Turkey Hill School Father’s Club.

What could have been a wonderful, simple donation from a group of caring parents, turned into, as some of our readers stated in I chat statements, an embarrassing spectacle.

Just to clarify: The Turkey Hill Father's Club is so named because its members are all fathers of students at Turkey Hill School.

The Father's Club raised in excess of $10,000 — much more than that — with which to purchase computers on wheels (COWs)— carts with several sturdy laptop computers for students to enhance their classroom studies.  

The stick through the bicycle spokes moment came when longtime board member Kris Powell said, “I think that what we do for one school, we should do for all schools. You can’t give them all to Turkey Hill School … do you know what the odds are of other schools getting this? Nil, so I’m absolutely opposed to it.”

Chairman Jeanne Consiglio said the board could discuss accepting the gift and then putting the COWs to use in all three schools in three-month blocks. Powell seemed to accept that idea.

Vice Chairman Keith Marquis reminded Powell that it wasn’t the board that was purchasing the COWs, but the Father's Club at Turkey Hill School.

“What we’re looking at here is to take it as a pilot program and see if it is something we want to use in the future,” Marquis said. “If it works out great at Turkey Hill we can look at having the same scenario at Peck Place and Race Brook. I don’t want to get into spending for COWs at the other schools until I know that the product is going to be used, it’s going to add some value to the schools and that everybody can benefit from it.”

Once the gift is accepted it becomes the Board’s property and they can reallocate the resources if it becomes a problem with parents in the school community.

“Why can’t we just say from the get-go that they will go to all of the schools and not just Turkey Hill?” Powell asserted. “There is no chance in hell of the other schools getting the same thing in the near future.”

Consiglio said she didn’t want to discourage a gift of something so valuable to the kids and perhaps encourage other PTAs and Father's Clubs from doing the same.

Father's Club representative Phil Kraut approached the table to address the issue, as he sat, Board member Deb Marino said, “I just want to say that I do support the COWs completely and I do not support the need to use these in other schools. The parents at Turkey Hill dipped into their pockets to donate the money to the Father's Club and I look at this as a way of penalizing Turkey Hill School because they organized and raised the money.”

To which Powell retorted, “What school do your children go to Deb?”

“Why is that relevant?” Marino asked.

“Why?... What school?” Powell repeated.

“My kids go to Turkey Hill,” Marino answered.

“Thank You,” Powell said with a smile.

“My kids, go to Peck Place and I feel the same way. I think that it’s great that you guys raised the money and you should use it for your school,” said board member Scott Massey. “I will say though, that if maybe you would take it back to the Father's Club that we’re thinking of rotating the COWs around and see what they think. I think that if we put too many restraints around it or say “no, we’re not going to accept the gift” then who wins? Nobody.”

Kraut said the COWs are designed to roll through hallways and he wasn’t sure they would travel well (from school to school). “Our intent was to purchase these COWs and pilot the program to see if they are as good as they are supposed to be. They’ll work within the classrooms, help kids do research, work with SmartBoards. We would like to put them in Turkey Hill … we’re not looking for an advantage for our kids because in the end they all end up in the same bucket… (Amity Middle and High Schools). If we can start a program that will help all the kids down the road, on our dime, then I don’t understand the problem.”

He added that it was not the Father's Club’s intent to slight the other schools.

Kevin McNabola asked if it was possible to lease the computers. Kraut said that it isn’t an option within the plan.

Powell said that we teach our children to share, and there is nothing wrong with sharing this equipment.

“You can’t have a true pilot program if you only use one school,” she said. “If you share them among all the schools, then you will have a true pilot program.”

Marino interjected, “The difference here is that the money isn’t coming from the board, it’s coming from an organization within the school… I don’t believe that this places the other schools at an educational disadvantage. I think we can use it as a pilot program.”

She directed her next comment to Powell. “If the board was funding it, I would agree with you 150%”

Powell quickly shot back, “But as soon as we accept this, it becomes the property of the Board of Ed, so as a member of the Board of Ed, I have to look out for all children at all schools so therefore, they should share.”

Marino fired back, “We all have that responsibility on this board, but just because it becomes our property doesn’t mean that we have this obligation, because we aren’t the ones that are funding it. And I think there’s a distinction.”

Massey jumped in and calmly added, “Phil can bring it back to the Father's Club and ask them if they want to share it. I know that if I donated $200 and knew that it would go to benefit all of the children I would feel even better about it,” he said.

Board member Jeff Cap said he was concerned about how the COWs would be transported from one school to another.

“Would we have to hire someone to move them? If we accept the gift, it might just be easier to keep them at one school, because we might have to incur additional expenses,” Cap said. “It’s a pilot program after all.”

Kraut said he did not know of any other district that introduced new technology to its schools all at once …  the district has to choose one place to test out the new materials, which invariably leads to hard feelings, but, if they don’t start somewhere, they will miss out on some great opportunities for the students.

“We’re not looking for an advantage, we’re looking for a start,” he said. “And if they turn out to be as wonderful as the SmartBoards were, then we’ll find some money… the parents will help raise some money.”

Consiglio pointed out that as a board the Orange BOE can’t always respond to gifts given to us and then suddenly change the direction of where we’re going as a board, whether it’s for technology, or infrastructure, or curriculum.

Kraut responded with a question. “Who is going to move the COWs? Who’s going to be responsible for them?”

Supt. Tim James answered, “It would be the board’s responsibility to assure that they are moved safely and securely.”

Board member Leticia Hashem said that if the COWs can’t be shared then the board should commit itself to finding or raising the $30,000 needed to bring the technology to the other schools.

Vin Marino, speaking as a member of the Father's Club, said, “What you should do is look at the gift at exactly what it is, ‘a gift,’ and an opportunity to say, ‘can we bring this district in a different direction?’” he said. “Use the Father's Club as an opportunity, and if it works you can build it into the next few budget cycles to bring to the other schools. If it doesn’t work then discontinue it and it doesn’t cost you a dime.”

He said it would be unfair to the Father's Club to ask them to share, and if they come back saying “no” then it won’t look good to the community.”

Powell asked Marino, “Are you with this Father's Club?”

“Yes, I am,” he said.

“And do your children go to Turkey Hill?” she pressed on.

“While that’s irrelevant, of course they do, otherwise I wouldn’t be part of the Father's Club,” Marino answered.

After all of this two motions were made.

Deb Marino made a motion that the gift be accepted without any contingencies.

The motion failed.

Next Hashem made the motion that the board accepts the COWs with the contingency that if it were feasible, they would be shared and moved around.

This motion carried.

Kraut addressed the board. “So you’re asking me to go back to the guys and ask them if they will be willing to share the COWs if the board sees fit.”

Basically, ‘yes’ he was told.