The Warren County School Board on Wednesday, October 21 took several actions to help bring Warren County Public Schools (WCPS) further into the Digital Age.
The School Board unanimously approved a total of roughly $559,459 from its share of federally allocated pandemic-relief funds to be allocated to WCPS for advanced-technology temperature scanners and a new camera system for school system buses and cars, increased bandwidth and mobile hotspots for high-speed internet access, and new digital math and science textbooks.
WCPS Transportation Director Aaron Mitchell. During the meeting, Mitchell also requested $120,255.99 in CARES Act funds for the transportation department to purchase 45 bus camera systems and 15 car camera systems, also from Gatekeeper to replace the current WCPS video system purchased in 2013.
WCPS Transportation Director Aaron Mitchell requested $68,171.82 to purchase 50 new intelligent temperature sensing systems from Gatekeeper Systems Inc., that use infrared health monitoring panels to scan temperatures on a person’s forehead, not a wrist or arm like the competitors’ products, he said.
The cost also covers the installation of the 50 panels in bus stairwells, allowing for contactless operation using artificial intelligence for fast measurements of each rider within two feet.
The funds will come from federal dollars allocated to each state’s education department and then distributed to school districts under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, one of the economic-relief packages authorized by Congress in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
WCPS has received three different CARES Act funding allotments through the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) and each comes with varying stipulations, according to Robert Ballentine, WCPS finance director, and clerk of the School Board.
“The total amount is $1,970,364.29,” he wrote the Royal Examiner in an email today. “In addition to this amount, we have received $300,000 in CARES funding from the County for the purchase of tablets for our students. The $1,970,364.29 total includes $916,598.00, which just recently and unexpectedly was given to us by VDOE and must be spent and paid for by December 30, 2020.”
During the meeting, Mitchell also requested $120,255.99 in CARES Act funds for the transportation department to purchase 45 bus camera systems and 15 car camera systems, also from Gatekeeper to replace the current WCPS video system purchased in 2013.
“The current three-camera system is having repeated hard drive and viewing failures,” Mitchell explained to School Board members during their Wednesday meeting and work session. “The proposed system has five cameras and can be expanded to include additional technologies in the future.”
The Gatekeeper system also will allow for accurate data to be collected for contact tracing in case there’s a COVID-19 outbreak that occurs in a school system vehicle, said Mitchell, adding that the camera system will allow WCPS to determine where students are sitting and if mitigation strategies are in place.
“The viewing capabilities are far superior to our current abilities allowing for improved documentation of events that may occur on the bus,” Mitchell said. “This request also includes upgrading the camera systems in the County cars used for student transport.”
Warren County School Board Chairman Arnold Williams Jr., Vice Chairwoman Catherine Bower, and members James Wells, Kristen Pence, and Ralph Rinaldi voted to approve both requests.
School Board members also voted 5-0 to approve two requests from WCPS Technology Director Timothy Grant. The first is a $38,400 contract with Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel) that will allow WCPS to increase network bandwidth to 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps). Shentel currently provides internet access to WCPS at 1 Gbps. “Due to the current need of virtual learning for teachers and students, as well as the need to filter the internet through our network, we need to increase our bandwidth,” Grant said.
WCPS Technology Director Timothy Grant receives grant approval.
The second request from Grant that received board approval was $92,349.45 for the technology department to purchase mobile hotspots from two separate mobile carriers — AT&T and T-Mobile — that will provide high-speed internet to students homes that do not currently have it. “It is recommended students should have 15 Mbps per student in any given household in order to effectively participate in online learning,” Grant said.
Next up on its action agenda was a request from WCPS Director of Secondary Instruction Alan Fox, who proposed the School Board approved $240,282.04 for WCPS to buy digital textbooks for Math 6, 7, 8, Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Calculus, Science 6, Physical Science, Anatomy, and Physiology.
“We would like to provide digital textbook access and additional textbooks for our students,” Fox said. “Due to mitigation strategies, our former standard operating procedure of having classroom sets of textbooks is no longer an option.”
Fox said WCPS also has textbooks that do not have the digital access component, requiring the school district to buy additional textbooks. “Warren County Schools believes in equitable access to learning for all students and this will help us to ensure equity within the county,” he said.
The School Board voted 5-0 to authorize the purchase and in its final related action item, unanimously approved a request by Lisa Rudacille, WCPS director of elementary instruction, to accept a list of members to the proposed 2020 Math Textbook Review Committee.
“Because teachers’ instruction has had to change so drastically in recent months due to the impact of Covid-19, and the switch to hybrid and virtual instruction, it is the desire of our central office instructional staff and elementary administrators to review our adopted math textbook series prior to the normal adoption cycle to ensure our teachers have access to the most appropriate materials for math instruction for both in-person and virtual students,” Rudacille said. “According to our textbook adoption policy, the School Board must approve a committee to review potential textbooks.”
During the School Board’s work session portion of its meeting, members heard from WCPS elementary school students and principals, who reported on the start of the 2020-2021 school year during a pandemic. High school and middle school principals and students made their reports during the board’s October 7 meeting.
At A.S. Rhodes Elementary School, for example, Principal Lori Layman said there are two teachers who provide virtual specials four days a week for art, music, and Fun Fridays, which have included science experiments and virtual field trips. The teachers work virtually, and their classes are shown to students attending school in person and remotely, she said.
“I think our students are enjoying it,” Layman said, “because our teachers, in about a 30-minute break, are able to have the kids do something that is fun, enjoyable and adds a little bit of normalcy to their day.”
Shane Goodwin, principal at E. Wilson Morrison Elementary School, said staff has been unable to hold traditional recess or physical education classes due to the pandemic. So, Goodwin brought along 4th-grade student Brentley to explain “what we do instead,” he said.
The student explained that each day students get a 20-minute movement break. Goodwin called it a good way to get the kids outside and moving to exercise their bodies and brains since students are sitting a lot more due to COVID-19 health restrictions. He added that the teachers have been creative in incorporating PE requirements into the movement breaks.
Ressie Jeffries Elementary School Principal Nina Helmick also brought a 4th-grade student to the School Board meeting. The principal said that one of the hurdles that students have had to overcome, particularly the little ones, is to get them to social distance.
The student, who wore a green t-shirt emblazoned with a large white paw print of their school mascot, the Jaguar, said such symbols are placed around the school so students know where to go when they get off the bus or are headed to a classroom, and they’re placed six-feet apart to designate the correct amount of social distancing.
Nikki Taubenberger, principal at Hilda J. Barbour Elementary School, brought a 5th-grader with her to talk about what it’s like to spend his last year of elementary school at a middle school, which is where all WCPS 5th graders attend classes during the pandemic to allow more space at the lower-grade schools.
D.J. shared the pros and cons of his situation with the School Board members, telling them the middle school cafeteria food “is a little bit better,” but “missing out on traditional 5th-grade activities” at his elementary school is kind of a bummer.
Leslie Fox Keyser Elementary School Principal Danelle Sperling had a slide presentation showing what a typical day is like for virtual students, who account for 40 percent of this year’s student population at the school. All teachers are using the Schoology learning platform for instruction, she said, showing examples of what the online classes look like, how instruction might be presented, and how students are engaged in course instruction.
Sperling also brought along Anthony, a 3rd-grade virtual student, who ran through the timeline of attending school online, which he said he likes.
“It sounds like you have to be pretty disciplined to do each step in your day,” School Board member Wells said to Anthony. “Do you find that hard to do or is that something that has become routine for you?”
“It’s something that has become routine for me,” the student answered.
Watch this exclusive Royal Examiner video to catch the meeting in its entirety.
https://royalexaminer.com/federal-dollars-approved-to-super-digitize-warren-county-public-schools/