The Sewanhaka school board approved preliminary plans Tuesday to create what the district calls equitable access to technology for all its students.
The plan would give every Sewanhaka student a computer or tablet over the course of three years using $3.2 million in state money from the 2014 Smart Schools Bond Act, which aims to increase the use of technology in schools, and $1.2 million of district funds.
“We have to find a way to be able to replenish this, to sustain it, to put into our students’ hands the technology necessary for them to be competitive with their peers,” Sewanhaka school Superintendent Ralph Ferrie said at Tuesday’s school board meeting. “I wish the technology grew on trees, but it doesn’t.”
The total rollout would take five years, with the district spending $800,000 of state money and $300,000 of its own expected savings in the first four years, said Christopher Nelson, director of Instructional Technology & Student Achievement.
After studying how other districts use technology this fall, a Sewanhaka committee led by Nelson determined a “one-to-one” model would best enhance curriculum and provide equal access to technology, he said.
The district would distribute devices in two of its six grade levels each year for three years, Nelson said. Devices would be traded in after three years, he said, so each student would use two devices during their time in Sewanhaka high schools.
A fourth year of funding would help sustain the program, Nelson said, and the district would use the fifth year to evaluate it.
Sewanhaka would have to front the cost of the state funds, with reimbursement expected within 90 days. That could pose a challenge, Nelson said.
“In a tax-cap world, that’s extremely difficult, to find funding to lay out and be reimbursed,” he said.
Savings from district’s transition to paperless textbooks, owning its own phone system and reimbursement from a federal technology funding program are expected to cover the other $1.2 million, Nelson said.
But after the first four years, he said, the district would need another funding stream to keep the program going.
The Sewanhaka school board will hold a public hearing on the technology plan at its Feb. 23 meeting, when it will also vote whether to adopt the final plan and submit it for state approval.
The school board also unanimously passed Monday a resolution opposing Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting Corp.’s plans to build a video casino at Belmont Park in Elmont.
Joining its New Hyde Park-Garden City Park and Floral Park-Bellerose component elementary school districts, the Sewanhaka board cited the proposed casino’s location to Floral Park Memorial High School and the Floral Park-Bellerose School as cause for concern.
Patrick Nicolosi, an Elmont civic leader and ardent casino supporter, criticized the vote, saying it’s “ironic” that the district needs revenue but doesn’t want the millions of dollars a casino could produce.
Ferrie said he agreed revenue is important, but any development must not pose a risk to student safety and any revenue “can’t be promised. It has to be actual, and it has to be consistent over time, so we can plan.”
