Murray readies to outfit Woodlawn

Published 11:51 pm Thursday, May 4, 2006

CHATSWORTH — The Murray County Board of Education is making plans to outfit its new Woodlawn Elementary School with computers and furniture.

Dean Donehoo, director of administrative services for Murray County Schools, presented a proposal at the board’s work session for everything from three natural birch doll cradles ($207) to 420 sled-base combo desks with pencil ledges ($58,048).

The total bid from the Atlanta-area School Specialty company, the only complete bidder, was $539,438.

“In my years working for the Murray County Board of Education, the Woodlawn project has been one of the most pleasant,” Donehoo said in his written proposal. “I do not like to be on the cutting edge, but new materials and designs have now been available for enough time that I am comfortable with their durability and function ability.”

A redesign of the library at Spring Place Elementary was an add-on to the bid for Woodlawn. Donehoo gave two criteria for the renovation.

“One, it’s old — it was built in 1969; and two, for whatever reason, it was never designed for elementary school children,” he said.

Donehoo said the redesign would be child-friendly and colorful. Two bids were received: School Specialty’s bid was $75,174; Frazier Manufacturing Co. made a competitive bid of $46,285. Donehoo said both companies have good track records.

“The decision is whether we want the overall coordinated look and style provided by the bid as specified (School Specialty), or the more basic look with some colorful additions as will be the case with the Frazier bid additions,” Donehoo said.

The board also heard a proposal from Eric Pearson, technology services coordinator, to purchase 174 Dell computers — 118 desktop computers and 56 laptops for teachers. The cost to buy the computers would be $219,418, the cost almost evenly split between desktops and laptops.

“We have only 39 classrooms there. My recommendation would be to go with fewer laptops,” said board member Julius Weyman. “It’s hard for me to justify that $1,000 difference (between the price of a desktop and laptop).”

Superintendent Charlotte Pipkin and technology coordinator Ann Scott said the difference is a matter of efficiency, among other concerns, such as software compatibility with teachers’ home systems.

“Teachers take these notebooks home with them nightly. They work on lesson plans at night and on the weekends, since they don’t have time during the school day,” Scott said. “Other teachers may work in several classrooms during the day. They need to be able to work in a wireless environment.”

Scott also went through the system’s technology goals and progress toward meeting those benchmarks.

David Clark, school vocational director, presented his fiscal year 2007 budget request, which totaled $257,000 — a 9 percent increase over FY06. The biggest changes were a drop from $64,000 to $20,000 in the computer budget and an increase from $15,000 to $80,000 for books.

“This is a textbook adoption year for vocational education. It’s probably a smart thing to buy new books every five years because older ones become outdated,” Clark said. “We took the money from the computer budget because we didn’t have the enrollment to justify a new lab.”

Weyman said he’d heard teachers at some schools dip into their own pockets for general supplies, so he requested a line item listing of the supplies budget of $90,000.

The board also heard three separate proposals from Amanda Ridley, director of school nutrition, for FARS (Federal Automated Recovery System), a way to recover bad checks; use of a Web site that allows parents to pay lunch fees electronically; and a new pizza oven program for Murray High.

• Action on these and other items could be taken at the next school board meeting on Monday at 7 p.m. at Chatsworth Elementary School.