NL schools approve new transportation contract, 1:1 laptop expansion

By Bryce Kelly, Mt. Pleasant News

NEW LONDON ? The New London School Board approved two items of business, which mark major steps forward for the district in regard to both transportation and technology during their regular board meeting on Wednesday evening.

First on the agenda was an approval of the sharing agreement with Danville Community School District for Transportation Director services. During last month?s regular meeting, New London agreed to draw up a contract for a shared transportation director with Danville.

?We feel this is a good move for our district,? said New London Superintendent, Chad Wahls.

According to board secretary, Jessica Boyer, the agreement with Danville is almost identical to the one New London had with Mediapolis.

?It is my understanding that Danville will be approving this exact contract at their upcoming board meeting,? said Boyer. ?Once Danville approves their director?s salary and benefits, Danville will bill us for 33 percent of his salary and benefits, as the contract states we will pay.?

With regard to sharing a transportation director, Danville currently has their own bus maintenance building and director, and would be able to provide maintenance and upkeep to New London?s fleet in-house. In addition, Danville also has its own washing station for cleaning buses, and is geographically closer to New London than Mediapolis.

In addition to approving the contract with Danville, the board also took another step forward in their 1:1 laptop initiative last night, approving the initiative?s expansion to include all of Clark Elementary. With the approval of the expansion, New London will have a functioning K-12 1:1 laptop program in the upcoming school year.

?We have had lots of discussions and weighed the pros and cons with our staff, and we feel that our elementary teachers are ready and willing to take this next step,? said Wahls. ?The school board has seen reports from all the elementary teachers showing how they plan to implement the 1:1 in their individual classrooms, and as an administration, we feel this would be a positive move forward for our kids.?

Going ahead with the initiative, New London plans to use Chromebook devices as they are more cost effective, and according to teachers, are more user friendly than Macbook devices.

?We are looking at the cost to be around $196,000 for the Chromebooks, as well as doing some additional technology updating we will need to do to sustain the expansion,? said Wahls.

The board all agreed that the expansion was in the best interest of the district. They also asked that they be kept up to speed on the progress of the 1:1 expansion as it gets implemented.

Look for more information from Wednesday evening?s meeting in Friday?s issue of the Mt. Pleasant News.