Some 110 new Apple iPads will be available to students at Arborwood, Custer and Waterloo elementary schools for the 2015-2016 school year after recent action by the Monroe Public Schools Board of Education.

     The iPad purchases, as well as 200 more Dell Chromebooks for use throughout the district, two new servers and eight ceiling-mounted classroom projectors for Arborwood, were among the nearly $400,000 in technology-related purchases approved by the school board.

     The purchase of the additional iPads extends the number of one-to-one devices in each school.  The additional hardware purchases were made to replace aging equipment and equipment which no longer worked as efficiently as needed.  Those changes are expected to be implemented before school starts in September.

     “All of the equipment will be used to enhance the learning experience of our students as well as providing our staff with the supporting technology tools to accomplish this,” said David Payne, Director, Technology, for Monroe Public Schools.  

     The largest portion of the nearly $400,000 in expenditures is in license and maintenance renewals for existing equipment.  Among the $278,000 approved was money to support computer system security for cloud-based systems, desktops and laptops, phone system support, Microsoft Office and Windows licensing, the PowerSchool student information system and a replacement system for the Honeywell notification system.

     “Although it was not among the most costly of purchases, the switch to a new provider for parent notifications via telephone, email and text now will have a tremendous impact on our families,” Mr. Payne said.  “The new system – called School Messenger -- will be operational by the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year.  It will allow us to get important messages to our families much more quickly and allow us to more efficiently direct the messages to the people who need to hear them.”