GAINESVILLE — With two days of the 2015-16 school year under their belts, members of the Hall County School Board received an update at Monday's work session on E-SPLOST projects completed during the summer. In addition, board members gave the okay to spend additional SPLOST funds on classroom technology.
Aaron Turpin, the Director of Technology for the Hall County School District, told board members that Phase I of the audio/visual renovation project for the school district is now complete.
"We've completed 723 classrooms," said Turpin. "Of that, these schools are 100% done - North Hall Middle School, Johnson High School, Davis Middle School, Flowery Branch Elementary School, East Hall High School, Lanier Elementary School, Chestnut Mountain Elementary School and Friendship Elementary School."
Turpin said 457 classrooms still need audio/visual renovations done right away, while 569 classrooms will not need upgrades for another 18-24 months.
The computer labs at East Hall Middle, Davis Middle and North Hall Middle schools all got facelifts over the summer, according to Turpin.
Turpin also requested money for new Dell Chromebooks for classroom use.
"The request before you is for $2 million...it would fund just over 4,300 Chromebooks," said Turpin. "It [Chromebook] is not a full-fledged laptop...but it is the right device for most of our student work."
Turpin said the school system already has about 1,500 Chromebooks in use across the school system, many of them used in career tech classes in high schools.
Turpin said the request for SPLOST funds for the Chromebooks would also fund wall cabinets to store the devices, the part of the proposal that Superintendent Will Schofield liked. He said more students will be likely to use the technology if it's handy.
"If you have to go to the media center, check it out, bring it to your room, get it back, the bottom line is they just don't get used anywhere near as much as when they're in the classroom," said Schofield.
The storage cabinets also will serve as charging stations for the devices and they can be locked to prevent theft.
Turpin also pointed out that students will be able to use the tablets for statewide assessments.
School board members voted unanimously to grant the $2 million request.
