District Dreams About Paperless Schools

How high-tech will our classrooms be in the coming years? Well, a representative from Apple will be at the office on Wednesday to run an iPad through some tricks.

Trustee Ross Millerick mentioned at Tuesday’s board meeting that it’s common in some cases that every student is issued an iPad.

“The tablet technology is there,” said Ben Lang, NUSD’s interim director of instructional technology, who gave trustees an update on tech progress in the district.  “ … Students should have access tin the classroom to computers, tablets, smart boards and projectors. … There are so many things you can do, the sky’s the limit.”

Lang talked briefly about improved tech infrastructure, bandwidth and classroom connections. Lang said every teacher should have a professional, up-to-date computer with a variety of software, “and that’s not the case in this district.” Lynwood, for instance, is just getting rid of some desktop models that are 13 and 14 years old.

He said he’d like for students to have access to all their documents not only on tablets or computers in classrooms but also at home.

“Right now kids can access their data, but only while they’re at school,” he said.

The district could push all its information “into the clouds” to off-site servers by contracting with a company that handles web storage just for schools, Lang said. With that arrangement, students log into a browser and have access to everything, including teachers’ inboxes where homework can be deposited.

“It’s one step closer to moving toward a paperless school,” he said. “It’s within our reach without a tremendous expense.”

The only limitation is how much money the district has to spend, Lang said. No updates were provided Tuesday on financing new purchases.

Random searches results

A scorecard of results from random drug dog searches was released Tuesday, and the stats show just a few infractions discovered on school campuses.

In the current school year, kept the dogs busiest. There were four detections of illicit drugs, five for medications, three for weapons, three for residual odors and six unknown scents, one for gunpowder and one for alcohol.

At , there were two detections of illicit drugs, four for gunpowder, one for medication, one for a weapon and one of an unknown scent.

There were no alerts at the middle schools and just one at (for unknown scent).

The dogs come from Interquest Detection Canines of the Central Valley, based in Denair, Calif. Each campus visit costs $385, and NUSD schedules 13 full-day visits throughout the school year.

Funding has come from donations for the past seven years. The trustees voted 7-0 to continue the program via donations for 2011-12.

Demonstrations of the canine program are to take place at the middle school campuses in December.

For more coverage of this issue, check out this story in the .

Facility project updates

NUSD construction manager Dave Ashe provided trustees with a rundown of facility projects in the district. Here’s his update:

Hamilton Gymnasium — A joint venture with the city of Novato on the Hamilton Meadow Park campus, this structure had its foundation poured Oct. 17 and will have more concrete work done this week. Steel columns and the gym frame will go up soon afterward.

Hamilton Meadow Park administration office — Work is continuing on the foundation; underground plumbing and electrical are complete.

Novato High career center — Staff is scheduled to move in starting Dec. 19. Work is considered 95 percent complete.

San Marin High, Novato High, San Ramon Elementary multiuse rooms/cafeteria — Projects were approved by the state education facilities board prior to the Oct. 31 deadline. The district expects to get comments back on plans by spring.

Novato High administrative building — Project approved by state education facilities board.

Hamilton Meadow Park modernization — The final campus modernization submitted to the state education facilities board with expected approval soon. It includes upgrades to the old administration office and multipurpose room.