Cary School District 26 Talks Technology

Cary School District 26 is planning their budget for the next fiscal year and would like to include technology inside the budget.

"Will new computers help us? The answer is yes but its only one piece of a larger puzzle," Andy Fitzsimons, technology coordinator said at the May 16 committee of the whole meeting.

Fitzsimons provided the Board of Education and the community with a district 26 technology update.

User technology, software, infrastructure, bandwidth and the support, completes the puzzle that will take the district to the 21st century education, according to Fitzsimons.

"We've been making enormous strides despite the financial disadvantages of the district," Fitzsimons said the three year technology planned. "It was written as a three-year plan that extended from the 2008-09 to 2011-12 school year."

PTO's at Three Oaks and Deer path are in process of purchasing new computer labs and Briargate's PTO recently purchased 88 LCD monitors to replace older monitors throughout the building. 

Even though the district is facing financial issues, technology is still a part of the plan.

"Given the fact we got a limited budget to have to deal with on the board, we got to make some tough calls which as to which projects are front and foremost and which ones maybe get put to the back-burner," Board member Scott Coffey said.  

Board member Floyd Myers suggested that Fitzsimons bring forwards a plan that outlines what technology is needed and the cost, so it can compete with other budget items.

"If it can't go into the budget, lets collaboratively figure out with us, the community, stakeholders on how to get creative on money," Board vice-president Jason Larry said.

With Prairie Hill closing, the technology from the building will be dispersed to other schools during the summer.

User Technology (Aging computers)

As a whole the district currently has approximately 50 percent of its computers at 9-plus years of age.

That number jumps to 65 percent when computer that are 7-plus years of age are factored in.

Approximately 22 percent of the districts computers are the laptops on the new mobile computer labs.

                              Percent of computers 9+ years old

                        User Technology (Recently purchased) as of April 26, 2011