Every two years the district participates in the Monmouth County Improvement Authority capital pooled lease-purchase program in order to finance capital items at the lowest possible rates.
The district purchasing breakdown from this year's MCIA and ARRA funding is as follows:
232 Desktop Computers, 43 Notebook computers, 20 Tablet PCs, 20 or more LCD Projectors, 5 servers, 10 or more WiFi hot-spots, a new core switch and several PoE edge switches, expanded security access control as well as camera surveillance and finally 21 classroom sound field systems.
With increasing access requirements and the expansion of the 4-5 computer classroom to improve differentiated learning and the delivery of technology infused curriculum, our inventory this year approaches 1,300 workstations. This poses a challenge moving forward as we continue to try to reach a goal of replacing computers as they complete their 6th year of service or roughly 430 computers every other year.
This summer we renovated the High School's room 142 computer lab and created an additional computer lab at William R. Satz School in room 207. Both labs have 30 student stations and ceiling mounted LCD projectors.
Many new online resources have been made available over the last couple of years including subscriptions to BrainPop, SkillsTutor, Study Island and Discovery Education's United Streaming. Some teachers have leveraged the power of web-based applications to take their classes virtually paperless and have their student collaborate electronically in real-time.
Learnia is another online resource and a formative assessment tool that was implemented last year as part of a 50-district pilot program. Learnia results can provide early guidance to teachers and administration on areas that deserve added attention and holds the potential for improved NJ ASK results.
