The school board approved the $53,717 purchase of 156 Chromebooks using 21st Century Community Learning Center grant funds. The devices will be used for after school programming at Altama, Burroughs-Molette and Goodyear elementary schools.
The 21st Century program is also currently supporting summer educational opportunities at the Boys & Girls Club’s Terrill Thomas Center and Burroughs-Molette site.
“We’re hoping to see some benefits of students having that every single day through the summer,” said Valerie Whitehead, the school system’s executive director of strategy and innovation, during the school board’s work session last week.
The policy changes approved at the meeting were on the table for 30 days to allow for public input.
The policy changes affect the district’s purchasing threshold without board approval, opportunities for home school students to take part in extracurricular activities, teacher evaluation appeals and paid parental leave options.
The purchasing policy change increased the district’s bidding threshold that requires board approval from $30,000 to $40,000.
A policy change required by Senate Bill 42, also known as the Dexter Mosely Act, allows home school students to participate in public school extracurricular sports and activities in sixth through 12th grades.
The school board also approved a policy change that provides an opportunity for tenured teachers to appeal their summative evaluations. The final change was to the district’s paid parental leave policy, which will now allow full time staff members who have worked at least 700 hours to qualify for 120 paid hours of parental leave.
In other business, the school board approved the surplus of computers and the hiring of additional special education staff.
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