Ann Arbor school board meets Tuesday to finalize technology bond
The Ann Arbor school board will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday to take the first step in approving the language of a technology bond for the November ballot.
The meeting will take place in the conference room at the Balas Administration Building, 2555 State St.
Discussions on whether to ask voters to approve a bond to improve the district's technology began during the budget approval earlier this year and led to the school board deciding in July to ask voters for a new 0.5-mill tax.
Deputy superintendent of operations Robert Allen told the school board in July that the district finished phase one of a major technology upgrade in the district in 2009. The plan was for that upgrade to continue two years 2 years. However, the district does not have the money to continue the upgrade.
File photo
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
Allen said the district will need $30.8 million to upgrade technology during the next 10 years to pay for the new technology.
Voters last approved a bond to upgrade technology in 2004.
The new 0.5-mill tax would cost the owner of a home with a taxable value of $100,000 an additional $50 per year.
The school board has until Aug. 16 to approve the language of the bond initiative. The next regular school board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday and there are no other school board meetings scheduled before Aug. 16.
Kyle Feldscher covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
Peter Eckstein
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 5:49 p.m.
Don Bee says these would be 20-year bonds. Your reporter doesn't really say, but if Don Bee is right, how can you go into debt for 20 years to pay for technology that won't last a quarter of that time? If the board wants a five-year program of updating technology, then let them bond for five years, because they are likely to be back for more when the five years is up. I just hope we are not cascading one bond issue on top of another for things that won't be around when the bonds are finally paid off.
A2CommonCityFolk
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 2:49 p.m.
After watching 'Waiting for "Superman"' and reading several reports, I was struck how much the USA is paying for education with no or little change in test scores. The US is 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science and 25th for mathematics. (<a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5juGFSx9LiPaur6eO1KJAypB2ImVQ?docId=CNG.5337504e8f65acf16c57d5cac3cfe339.1c1)" rel='nofollow'>http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5juGFSx9LiPaur6eO1KJAypB2ImVQ?docId=CNG.5337504e8f65acf16c57d5cac3cfe339.1c1)</a> Even though the US continues to fall in test score rankings; the amount being paid per student continues to climb. This would suggest throwing more money into education is not going to work. It has not worked so far. A recent article on annarbor.com showed that for every tax dollar collected 52.2% goes to education. How much more is needed? (<a href="http://www.annarbor.com/news/ann-arbor-property-owners-can-expect-to-receive-property-tax-assessments-in-the-mail-soon/)">http://www.annarbor.com/news/ann-arbor-property-owners-can-expect-to-receive-property-tax-assessments-in-the-mail-soon/)</a> And let us not forget the latest request the special education fund millage and once it was passed and in the same month that it passed it was announced that there will be a cut in funding. (<a href="http://www.annarbor.com/news/local-school-districts-will-see-decreases-in-special-education-funds-from-the-wisd-despite-millage-r/)">http://www.annarbor.com/news/local-school-districts-will-see-decreases-in-special-education-funds-from-the-wisd-despite-millage-r/)</a> I will be voting no for sure.
cette
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 12:38 p.m.
To the AAPS BOE, this millage is an idea that likely will not fly. The success of the special ed millage should not be abused. Come back again, in the spring and present to the public what the needs are of the schools, and people can again weigh the options. Technology is antiquated the day it leaves the warehouse. Save yourselves the disappointment and plan more cautiously.
Hot Sam
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 11:15 a.m.
Kyle...Do we have access to what type of "equipment" they are considering? I am also curious about the "ten year" period... These days, most "technology" has a shorter life span...
snapshot
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 3:11 a.m.
This reflects badly on teachers and their unions who would allow and condone such fiscal irresponsible bond measure. There needs to be a legal limit and time element imposed upon these fiscally frivilous milliage requests. Long term financing of short term solutions. No wonder the kids are lousy in math.
lynel
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 7:59 p.m.
I'm not sure why you say this reflects badly on teachers and their union. The article doesn't mention that they are in support of this bond.
DonBee
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 2:28 a.m.
20 year bonds - 3 year technology, maybe 5. So we will be at least 3 generations down the road paying for this one....Real Smart. They took over $2 million dollars and put it in a varsity sport weight room this year, because they had left over bond money. If they knew they had a technology need, why did not spend it on technology. Smart boards for classrooms - right, they work for a few weeks, run out of supplies and end up in the corner of a classroom. Real Smart!
Bill
Mon, Aug 8, 2011 : 8:05 p.m.
The school board should look at matching the bond request with an equal amount of additional savings from their existing budget. Then and only then might there be a chance of passing a bond issue to raise money on tax payers tired of irresponsible management of public funds. If you use computers to display artwork, then the mayor could take some of the public art funds for this purchase.
REALtownie
Mon, Aug 8, 2011 : 7:48 p.m.
I'm sure that we'll discover that this initiative does NOT have broad teacher support. There's no way that the AAPS would be able to adequately or intelligently use the equipment the board wishes to purchase. The teachers, by and large, are painfully aware of that fact. Given the new, expanding class size head-count realities, the teachers are in survival mode.
schoolsmuse
Mon, Aug 8, 2011 : 6:40 p.m.
Please, don't blame the teachers for the technology bond. It is the School Board that makes this decision. Go to the meeting on Tuesday, and tell them that this is a bad idea.
jns131
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 1:35 p.m.
Blame the teachers and everyone else who thinks they need it to keep their salaries intact. Vote no on another bond mileage. Like the government, this board needs to spend within their means.
Basic Bob
Mon, Aug 8, 2011 : 10:21 p.m.
And the school board listens to whom? Independently wealthy Montgomery Burns Park doctors, lawyers, and professors; and the teachers union. Common people can protest all they want.
Robot Charles
Mon, Aug 8, 2011 : 6:35 p.m.
K-12 kids don't need millions in technology to learn. They need discipline and focus with good teaching. The US spends more per student than almost any other country yet our students perform well behind many counties that spend far less. I'll vote no on this. Teachers, get back to teaching and stop asking home owners for more money to by MacBooks and iPads.
ChunkyPastaSauce
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 2:53 a.m.
DonBee: "Depending on the source the US is either 1, 2 or 3. " Yes I think you are right. Maybe because of the year the data was collected; there is a over a decade spread in data.
DonBee
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 2:26 a.m.
ChunkyPastaSauce - Depending on the source the US is either 1, 2 or 3. <a href="http://mercatus.org/publication/k-12-spending-student-oecd" rel='nofollow'>http://mercatus.org/publication/k-12-spending-student-oecd</a> <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2003-09-16-education-comparison_x.htm" rel='nofollow'>http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2003-09-16-education-comparison_x.htm</a> Any way you cut it AAPS spends 150% of the top national average at $15,000 (all sources) per student. And here is the spending trend vs test scores: <a href="http://simplecomplexity.net/education-achievement-data/" rel='nofollow'>http://simplecomplexity.net/education-achievement-data/</a>
grye
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 1:11 a.m.
I don't think the teachers are behind this, however your statement that teachers don't need technology to teach shows a lack of undedrstanding of how the education process works today. In your time, you only had a pencil, paper, and a book. Much different today. If you want get back to the "good 'ol days", expect less than adequate teaching and students who will not be able to compete in today's market.
ChunkyPastaSauce
Mon, Aug 8, 2011 : 11:35 p.m.
US is about #3-#4 for spending per student: <a href="http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_spe_per_pri_sch_stu-spending-per-primary-school-student" rel='nofollow'>http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_spe_per_pri_sch_stu-spending-per-primary-school-student</a> US is #38 for education spending as % of GDP <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_spending_on_education_(%25_of_GDP)" rel='nofollow'>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_spending_on_education_(%25_of_GDP)</a>
Klayton
Mon, Aug 8, 2011 : 10:45 p.m.
There are very few jobs today where you are not required to have digital literacy skills...I would rather schools stop spending time teaching cursive (not really necessary in today's age) and memorizing information that they could look up online (if they knew the appropriate places to go) and focus more on keyboarding, internet safety and smarts, and using their digital tools for productivity. I think these skills are essential today and we need to be teaching them. With that said, I think we also need to be mindful about the tools we purchase for schools...I don't really think we need a Smartboard in every room (most use in ineffective in schools...<a href="http://www.teachscienceandmath.com/2010/07/28/why-interactive-white-boards-are-used-ineffectively-in-classrooms/)," rel='nofollow'>http://www.teachscienceandmath.com/2010/07/28/why-interactive-white-boards-are-used-ineffectively-in-classrooms/),</a> instead maybe we should focus on using digital devices that students already own so they have 24/7 digital technology use (and maybe some of it will be productive!).
sh1
Mon, Aug 8, 2011 : 9:15 p.m.
Can you cite your references for your claim that the US spends more money per student than almost any other country?
Stephen Landes
Mon, Aug 8, 2011 : 6:34 p.m.
To the fiscally irresponsible School Board: NO.