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South Range schools cut materials and supplies budget by 20 percent
Gadgets help South Range schools save money
By ROBERT CONNELLY
NORTH LIMA
South Range School District has continued to incorporate technology to make cuts in its materials and supplies budget.
First-grade teacher Lisa Fullerton uses her room’s Elmo projector, which can show videos, interactive situations with problems, and class work, for everyday work with her students.
We “always use it for introduction [to new teachings] because technology hooks the kids,” she said.
Fullerton added that this introduction is at the kids’ “peak interest and [this] hooks them into the lesson.”
The students would shout out, “You have to press play!” if the video didn’t
start playing right away, leading Fullerton to say that the students are quick to know what’s going on with the technology.
The Elmo projector is similar to that of an overhead projector. On top of the laptop and computer tablet carts throughout the three schools, this projector has led to cuts in the district’s materials and supplies budget, such as paper and printer supplies, toner and ink and everyday use on the machines, Superintendent Dennis Dunham said.
According to the district’s yearly report, the district cut its materials budget from $444,987 during fiscal year 2014 to a projected $372,000 this year. The report said the South Range Board of Education “has reduced its materials and supplies purchases by $72,987 or 19.6 percent since last year.”
Dunham explained some district initiatives have led to this, such as “going paperless,” teachers buying textbooks online through sites such as Amazon and Smart boards — an interactive whiteboard that uses touch detection for user input.
“If we were to need maybe eight additional calculus books, we have found savings to be significant through Amazon and other companies,” Dunham said. “There are some savings out there. Nothing significant, but little by little, if you were to piece three or four of those situations together, you would have something that is more significant in terms of savings.”
The paperless initiative has teachers enter a specific code into printers and copiers before use so the district can track usage and look for ways to make cuts.
Overall, Dunham said, “I think year after year that we [have a] just more-deliberate effort to see what the ‘must-haves’ and ‘have-to-haves’ are versus ‘nice-to-haves.’ Some of that shift has gone to some of our support organizations – South Range Schools Foundation, Parent Teacher Organization. Maybe they are helping with the ‘nice-to-have’ purchases rather than the general fund.”
Fifth-grade teacher Jeff Hammond talked about using the laptop for several subjects, including math and science. He said in class recently he asked students to research “monsoon” on the laptops, and the students were able to share what they learned.
Dunham said overall that things such as the computer tablet carts and Elmo have “made a huge difference. The kids are more engaged. ... Technology has changed how teachers teach and kids learn.”