by Nicole Bradford
With hopes it may be reimbursed through a future bond, Pearland ISD trustees agreed to invest $6.2 million in replacement devices for students in grades 5 through 12.
The board on Jan. 23 approved the investment 5-1, with Trustee Kristopher Schoeffler against.
“I’m not a Luddite. I’m very much into technology,” Schoeffler said. “I don’t think we need computers to give kids a high-class education, especially at the lower grades.”
“This is $6.2 million,” he continued. “If we weren’t forced to have this level of technology on campus, what could we do with that? Is that playground equipment? Is that more teachers? More aides? There’s so many other places where we have need.”
Removing student devices doesn’t remove the technology that’s already part of today’s classrooms, Trustee Crystal Carbone said.
“It just puts the burden back on the families to meet that need,” she said.
With help from federal pandemic relief funds, most school districts in the U.S. now issue students individual technology devices. The issue ahead, many say, is maintaining that one-to-one technology after the relief funds run out.
Hoping to fund its most recent replacement cost through a future technology bond issue, Pearland ISD trustees discussed but delayed a needed resolution to shift the funding source if a bond came to fruition.
“It may seem like the cart before the horse because we don’t have a bond approved or ordered, but in the ideas of planning for a technology bond and having a board bond workshop on the 30th, there is a timeline to having a resolution,” Superintendent Larry Berger said.
Both the resolution to reimburse the cost for replacement devices and a possible bond are expected to be decided later in February.
