HPHS teachers have recently received Promethean Boards for their classrooms. The boards were purchased for $3,500 each. The school wanted to make the best use of the money saved from an unfilled position.
40 boards were purchased with Title 1 money which came from a failed plan to hire an additional Pupil Services and Attendance and an instructional coach at the beginning of the school year.
The positions were not filled so the money that was planned to go into those positions was instead used into a budget modification which went to the School Site Council. Everyone at the meeting took a vote and approved of this plan because it would benefit the students and their learning.
The other boards were purchased with money the school got from COVID relief. Students and teachers believed that funding should have gone to repairing the buildings. However, in regard to the conditions of the buildings, the boards are a completely different fund. The state of construction is a different fund.
“We don’t have control over what happens with modernization,” said Mrs.Veronica Viramontes, Title 1 Coordinator.
The School Site Council (SSC) develops plans for what is purchased for the following school year. If it is not approved by SSC and placed into the budget or SPSA, then it won’t happen.
The Promethean Boards were an investment to improve learning. If they had not done the budget modification then the money would have gone to waste and we wouldn’t have an improvement in technology.
Upgrading technology, and being able to incorporate the new technology in the classroom was extremely important for everyone. It was a goal to help students.
“As a math teacher, I find it very useful. It is easier to show notes and it has many features like allowing the screen to be frozen that allow students to catch up. You can save your work and upload it to Schoology. It’s small and doesn’t take up a lot of space. I love it,” said Ms.Molina, Magnet’s math teacher.
The school was going to buy them through a different company, but because the district has contracts they had to stick with the Promethean Board company. The process involves going through the SSC and being approved. Once approved, placing the order which took a couple of months, finally getting them in, and assembling the boards which were then delivered to all classrooms.
There were discussions on how the school was going to effectively spend the money that was saved. The school usually does not have a large amount of money to make a big purchase so they decided to spend it on technology. Teachers thought it would be beneficial to have in classrooms, they are very satisfied with the Promethean Boards.
“I really appreciate the way it has enhanced my teaching. It has a cool annotation feature that allows me and the students to underline and highlight slides and sources for the whole class to see. I have also been able to use it to play whole-class games to build community such as Jeopardy or even draw charades. It’s been awesome, and I look forward to learning about more ways to use it,” said Mr. Gonzalez, “Mr. G”, Magnet Social Studies teacher.
Written By Staff: Tyra Galeana