Original post from The Indiana Gazette
By: Sean Yoder
PURCHASE LINE — The Purchase Line School District now has some metrics to evaluate where its teachers and students are with technology.
At Thursday night’s school board work session, Charles Shingle presented the results of a BrightBytes survey conducted in May. Shingle is a technology coordinator and adviser for the district.
The survey calls for participants to self-report how comfortable they are with various aspects of technology, how much time they spend on average doing certain tasks and what areas they would like to learn more about.
Purchase Line’s overall scores were similar to those nationwide and Pennsylvania schools that have used the survey. It is the fourth district involved in ARIN IU 28 to take the survey.
About 300 Pennsylvania schools have done so. Scores were broken down into four main categories: classroom, access, skills and environment, which make up a “CASE score.”
The classroom and environment categories were Purchase Line’s lowest, which Shingle said is typical for most districts and are the most difficult scores to raise.
BrightBytes recommends to most districts that they pick a few areas to improve upon at a time. Purchase Line’s administration will take time to review the data, share it with faculty and identify areas of focus for the next school year. Any professional development for teachers would likely take place just before the start of school.
Shingle said ARIN IU 28 secured a discounted rate for the survey for member schools, making the cost to Purchase Line about $400.
Decision making will also be driven by the new Purchase Line Technology Advisory Council, made up of Thomas Aurandt, assistant high school principal and federal programs coordinator; Thomas Grierson, elementary principal; four high school teachers and four elementary teachers; Shingle; the district’s in-house technology person; and two senior students.
On the agenda for Monday’s voting session are:
• Approval of the final budget for the 2016-17 school year. The proposed budget calls for no tax increase.
• The hiring of a special education supervisor, physics teachers, elementary teachers, school nurse aide, six-hour custodian, National Honor Society adviser and science department chairperson.
• The hiring of two assistant volleyball coaches, head cheerleading coach, three assistant football coaches, head girls’ basketball coach, three assistant girls’ basketball coaches and a head boys’ basketball coach.
• Approval of workers’ compensation, general liability and automobile insurance.
• Purchase of softball and baseball uniforms.
