The second part of last
night’s joint MVMMS/MHS PTO meeting provided Melrose Chief Information Officer
Jorge Pazos the opportunity to talk with parents about technology in the middle
and high schools. He spoke to the need for 21st century schools
based in technology driven instruction and the fact that Melrose schools
currently employ aging technology; in fact, the newest building-wide hardware
is in MVMMS and that is seven years old. (He recognized that Chromebooks can be
found in pockets of the district, but considers them pilot programs since they
aren’t available district-wide.) He contends that Melrose has a “chicken and
egg” situation in that we need 21st century technologies but don’t
have a secure foundation on which to build it, but how do we know what
foundation to build if we don’t know what technologies will be needed? To break
this cycle, Mr. Pazos suggests that we need to employ a simultaneous bundle of
quality equipment, training, and management of technological services.
Addressing this challenge
will begin with a technology plan. The city has contracted with consultants who
have completed substantial data collection and much evaluation of that data.
They are now working on preparing an action plan (answering the question noted
above: what is needed to drive instruction?) and expect to present it in early
April. While the Melrose Public Schools can now only budget $40K/year on
hardware for the schools, Mr. Pazos expects the technology plan to recommend spending
somewhere in the neighborhood of $300K/year to update the technology and get on
an appropriate replacement cycle. (Ideally, computers have a three-year life
but he acknowledged that four to five years is more realistic. Chromebooks come
with a recommended life so owners can plan better for replacements.)
Mr. Pazos is heartened by
the fact that teachers are engaging more and more with technology, and now come
to him requesting the types of technology that will be most beneficial to students in their classrooms. He says that this is an important shift. Watch
the School Committee rolling agendas as we approach April and mark your
calendar to hear the presentation of the plan!
