WILMINGTON, MA – Here are FIVE highlights from Wednesday night’s School Committee Meeting.
#1) The Wilmington School Committee unanimously voted to make June 18, 2015 the last day of school for Grades K-8 and June 19, 2015 as the last day for school for Grades 9-12, who got an extra day off prior to the opening of the new high school.
#2) Neal Ellis, the district’s IT Director, made a presentation to the School Committee on behalf of the district’s Technology Task Force.
Ellis provided some updates on the district’s recent technology projects: Boutwell, Wildwood, Shawsheen, & Woburn Street all have tablet carts; the North and West are getting Chromebook carts; a new thin client server has been installed; a new storage server has been installed; a new security server has been installed; and a new VoIP phone server has been installed.
Ellis also discussed the work his team did with the new high school: installed 100+ laptops and 180 docking stations; 6 Chromebook carts; printers; a switch infrastructure and a wireless network.
Superintendent Mary DeLai praised their work: “I don’t know too many school districts who have IT departments that would have taken on such a large project and done it so well.”
This summer, the IT Department will tackle several projects, including: increasing wireless functionality throughout the district, rebuilding the elementary report cards; and building curriculum map functionality in Aspen.
Moving forward, Ellis says the school district needs to look at the following technology issues: bring your own device initiatives; updating the electronic use policy; updating the social media policy; creating a long-term plan for transitioning to a digital learning environment; improving technology communication district-wide; and ensuring consistency with educators using Google Apps for Education.
#3) The School Committee unanimously accepted a $1,000 donation from IBM Corporation to the Shawsheen Elementary School. The grant was awarded in recognition of the volunteer service of IBM employee, Caitlin Weinstien, a parent at the Shawsheen.
#4) The School Committee also unanimously accepted a $4,400 donation from the Wilmington Educational Foundation as part of its Joanne Benton Educator Exploration Grant program.
- WHS English Teacher Mia Parviainen received $1,500 for a self-directed fellowship to Finland for two weeks this summer to study three significant Finnish authors.
- WMS Spanish Teacher Donna Dube received $1,5000 to attend a two-week intensive Spanish class at the Don Quijote Language Academy in Spain this summer.
- West School Psychologist Bethany Dionne received $1,400 to attend a one-week course at Cape Cody Institute this summer for advanced training In collaborative and proactive solutions for kids with social, emotional and behavioral challenges.
#5) The school district received a clean audit from the certified public accountant firm of Roselli, Clark & Associates. The only compliance issue listed in its FY14 end-of-the-year fiscal report involved formalizing (in writing) an existing agreement between the School Committee and Town Hall regarding the allocation of certain municipal expenditures.
Watch the entire meeting, courtesy of Wilmington Community Television, below:
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