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Austintown schools continue work on upgrades
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
Austintown schools continue to work on two new additions to the district — tablet computers for students in grades six through 12 and a filling station for 14 buses that run on propane.
Superintendent Vincent Colaluca said, “I don’t believe” the filling station has been installed yet, but “right now [the district] is sending transport trucks over to fill up at Youngstown Propane.”
The district still is waiting for the arrival of the 3,000 tablets the school board purchased for $1.1 million, including software and carts to hold them. Colaluca said this week the teaching staff will work on 200 tablets in preparation for using them in class with students.
“We want to get them in our kids’ hands in the next month and get our kids used to them,” Colaluca said. Juniors at Fitch High School “are really excited about them and definitely want to take them home with their parents buying the insurance program ... and very interested in buying them after graduation,” he added.
This also allows for students to use them for a few months before state testing begins in February, a major reason why the district went ahead with the tablet purchase as state tests shift online.
“Our students need this type of device to take tests. ... Taking a test with a No. 2 pencil is probably a thing of the past,” said Kathy Mock, board president.
Specifics for the tablets, such as the insurance plan and how the process of allowing students to buy them after graduation will work, are still being worked on, the superintendent said.
The idea for a $50 insurance fee for the tablets has been discussed at school meetings over the past few months since the discussion of a large tablet purchase was first talked about at a July board meeting.