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Clarksburg School Hoping for More Chromebooks
By Tammy Daniels, iBerkshires Staff
03:07AM / Monday, January 25, 2016
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CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The School Committee was presented with the need for more Chromebooks for students as the school moves to a more online system.

Graham Coterwas, IT director for the North Berkshire School Union, explained how the school has been moving to the cloud and using the Google document system for sharing projects and papers.

Each student, staff and faculty has an account to use the free Internet-based computing system; how a file or folder is shared limits access.

"It's all centrally managed by me, I work at four different schools," he said, adding no matter where he is, "I can get in and do all kinds of administrative tasks."

Principal Tara Barnes said the online activity is outpacing the use of paper documents, describing the use of Drive as a 24-hour accessible filing system.

"We're doing this all electronically, I hardly get any paper anymore," she said, and described how she and other teachers could document issues with a troubled student, for example, at the same time on a single document.

Student Delaney Babcock, who was there to tell the committee about some of the activities of the Student Council, explained how one of her classes was using a shared folder to work on poems.

The school purchased 35 Chromebooks this year, bringing the total to 70, and has 15 tablets for the primary wing. Coterwas said the preference is for the netbooks over tablets because of their keyboards and sturdiness. The Chromebooks — netbooks with Google's Chrome operating system — last a full day on a charge, are holding up under constant use, and run a very secure system. They cost about $200 depending on the brand.

"They're coveted everyone wants, everyone wants to use them," said Coterwas.

Superintendent Jonathan Lev said the Chromebooks were used for the online Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers testing.

"They really did [work] and we didn't have any problems and the future is there's going to be a lot more done online," he said.

Barnes said the students are particularly using them to create class presentations.


Delaney Babcock explains some of the events planned for spirit week.

"When you go to meetings and present ideas to groups, it's a very important 21st century skill they're going to need," she said. "Those are the kind of skills they have to develop that's really important."

The dream is to get one for every student, more than 160 at this point. The school is looking into more grants and the Parent-Teacher Group is trying to help, said Barnes.

Lev noted that the school will begin budget deliberations and "we'll see how much there is this year to buy more."

In other business, the committee approved the use of the cafeteria several times a year for the VFW's larger pancake breakfast.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars post is selling its quarters on River Road and has been seeking a place to holds its fundraising breakfasts. It is working with the Senior Center to use that kitchen for its monthly breakfasts but that venue is too small for its larger ones - a fundraiser for school class trips, for the library and for Alzheimer's.

"With the big ones, even in the hall we have now, we were overrun," said VFW member Edward Denault.

The committee approved the use, but not until it could check with the town about liability. Denault said liability insurance had become increasingly onerous for the post and could no longer afford it. Barnes said she had spoken with the cafeteria manager and only asked that the veterans meet with her first.

Lev reported that the request for proposals for a consultant on school project had not yet been posted. There had been a delay in getting the authorizations in order but it had been submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority. He also anticipated MSBA's approval of the School Building Committee.

Barnes said parents can sign up to get a text alert for school cancelations.

The committee went into executive session to discussion negotiation strategy.

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